Page:Irish Fairy Tales (Stephens).djvu/363

CHAP. XII "In love with you," replied Duv Laca.

"This is news," said the king, "and it is good news."

"But, by my word," said Duv Laca, "I will not go with you unless you grant me a boon."

"All that I have," cried Branduv, "and all that everybody has."

"And you must pass your word and pledge your word that you will do what I ask."

"I pass it and pledge it," cried the joyful king.

"Then," said Duv Laca, "this is what I bind on you."

"Light the yoke!" he cried.

"Until one year is up and out you are not to pass the night in any house that I am in."

"By my head and my hand!" Branduv stammered.

"And if you come into a house where I am during the time and term of that year, you are not to sit down in the chair that I am sitting in."

"Heavy is my doom!" he groaned.

"But," said Duv Laca, "if I am sitting in a chair or a seat you are to sit in a chair that is over against me and opposite to me and at a distance from me."

"Alas!" said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he beat them on his head, and then he looked at them and at everything about, and he could not tell what anything was or where anything was, for his mind was clouded and his wits had gone astray.

"Why do you bind these woes on me?" he pleaded.

"I wish to find out if you truly love me."

"But I do," said the king. "I love you madly and dearly, and with all my faculties and members."

"That is the way I love you," said Duv Laca. "We