566 THE WILD SWANS.

the midst of all your magnificence, it may amuse you to look
back at those days.”

‘When Elise saw that which interested her so deeply, a
smile played round her mouth, and the blood rushed back
to her cheeks. She thought of her brothers’ delivery, and
Kissed the king’s hand, while he pressed her to his heart, and
ordered all the bells to ring to announce their marriage. And
the beautiful, dumb maid of the forest, became the queen of
the Jand.

The archbishop whispered slanderous words into the king's
ears, but they could not reach his heart, The wedding, he was
determined, should take place, and the archbishop himself was
obliged to place the crown on the new queen's head, though he
maliciously pressed down its narrow circlet on her forehead, so
that ithurt her. But a heavier circlet bound her heart, and that
was her sorrow for her brothers’ fate. She did not heed her
bodily sufferings. She remained mute, for a single word would
have cost her brothers their lives; but her eyes expressed
deep love for the kind handsome king, who did everything to
please her. Each day she loved him more and more. Oh,
how it would have relieved hero have told him her sorrows,
and to be able to complain! But dumb she must remain, and
in silence must she finish her work. She, therefore, used to
steal away from his side at night, and go into the little room
that was decorated like the cave, and there she plaited one coat
of mail after another.

On beginning the seventh, however, there was no flax left.

She knew that the nettles she required grew in the
churchyard ; only she must pluck them herself, and she knew
not how she should manage to reach the spot.

“Oh! what is the pain in my fingers, compared to the
anxiety my heart endures?” thought she. “ I must tempt the