as the first light of the midsummer day came over the world the two who were fleeing before him were speaking of zabulun the enchanter. “that we may baffle him,” one said.

“and what if we cannot baffle him this time?” said the other.

“then he will take me and make me do terrible services for him”—it was eean who said this—“and, worse than all the services he will make me do, he will separate us.”

[pg 148]

“no, no,” said bird-of-gold. “if he takes us this time, i shall do everything to make myself useful to the enchanter. i have thought out ways in which i can serve him. he will not separate us and we will be together still.”

“o, bird-of-gold,” said eean, “i am fearful lest he should slay you for taking the magic mirror off the tower of babylon. but i have a sword and he shall not harm you.”

“i shall escape him,” bird-of-gold said, “and as he followed you and me across the world, so i shall follow him and you, and we shall never be apart.”

they had learnt in their wanderings all ways of guiding themselves, and as they galloped on they were heading for the western ocean. darkness was around them at first. but the sky was wide and clear, and bird-of-gold, when she raised her head, could see and name the bright planets. there was mars with his red pulse. bird-of-gold likened this planet to the steed that she bestrode, and as she rode on she sang to herself the song that the shepherd boys in her own country used to sing about another star:

[pg 149]

that star, i know, is betelguise;

yet, as i walk the hills by day,

i hardly know his splendid name—

that star is far away.

but when at night i travel on,

or watch across an empty land,

then betelguise, my star of stars,

no thing is nearer hand.

then send a ray that i may own

the fortune that is mine:

o betelguise, my star of stars,

my forehead’s for your sign!

and after all the countries he had wandered through, eean was now back on the ground of his own country. he heard the cry of the curlews overhead. he saw the lakes that looked as if even the birds had forgotten them, so lonely they were, lonely, but with deep memories. he saw the cairns of stones above the long dead heroes. once he saw a fox upon a cairn, and it seemed to him that this was the very fox he had chased away from his mother’s coop the day before the enchanter had taken him away from the western island.

[pg 150]

with strong hearts king manus’s horses galloped on. but the heart of eean was strained with the thought of the distance that was still before them. first, a great mountain that had to be crossed. then a wide plain. then that other mountain from the top of which one could see the western ocean in the daylight. and zabulun the enchanter might come upon them in the hills or on the plain and say a word that might stop their horses’ gallop.

but they came to the last mountain top, and they saw the waters of the western ocean with gleams of gold coming upon them. adown the heather-covered hillside their horses hurried. and as the broad sun rose over the broad ocean the feet of the white and the red horse were scattering the foam along the shore.

and as they watched they saw merlin’s island grow out of the dimness of the sea. then the sun became fuller and it lighted up the white tower, and eean and bird-of-gold knew they had come to their journey’s end indeed. they sprang off their horses, and they dipped their hands in the sea, and they kissed each other.

[pg 151]

“now we must cast over on the island the tokens that the atlantes gave us,” eean said, “the cocks’ combs and the peacocks’ feathers. if they come to merlin, he will let us cross to his island, and we can swim our horses over. but how shall we know if the tokens come to him?”

he raised the bag in which were the cocks’ combs and the four peacocks’ feathers. he cast the bag toward the island. through the air it went like a flying bird.

they mounted their horses again, ready to swim them across when they got some signal from the island. and the signal came. it was the howl of the wolf that was merlin’s servant.

now they were to swim their horses across. as they went into the water, bird-of-gold looked back. down through the heather of the hillside a rider was coming. he was on a black horse. they knew him for zabulun, the enchanter from whom they were fleeing.