“126 PRINCE RICARDO.

 

steeped in a strange silver light. Now the
whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and
trembling; and as it trembled it sounded and
rang with a low silver music, as if it were filled
with the waves of the sea.
_ Then the princess took a great silver basin,
covered with strange black signs and figures
raised in the silver. She poured water into the
basin, and as she poured it she sang the magic
spell from the Latin book. It was something
like this, in English:

“Oh Lady Moon, on the waters riding,
_ On shining waters, in silver sheen,
Show me the secret the heart is hiding,
Show me the-truth of the thought, oh Queen !

“Oh waters white, where the moon is riding,
That knows what shall be and what has been,
Tell me the secret the heart is hiding,
Wash me the truth of it, clear and clean!”’

As she sang the water in the silver basin foamed
and bubbled, and then fell still again; and the
princess knelt in the middle of the room, and
the moon and the white light from the mirror
of the moon fell in the water.

. Then the princess raised the basin, and
stooped her mouth to it and drank the water;
spilling a few drops, and so she drank the moon
and the knowledge of the moon. Then the moon
was darkened without a cloud, and there was
darkness in the sky for a time, and all the dogs