Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/85

Rh all the protection and aid that the human will can command.

Prince Udo and his suite directly hastened to the shore to snatch if possible the shipwrecked men from the enraged flood, and give them all the assistance they needed. He offered to the most daring of the fishermen large rewards to save those who were yet struggling in the water, but all labour was lost—the sea had already swallowed its prey ere the succouring bark had cleft the raging surge.

Nought was left of the ill-fated vessel, all had disappeared save one man who was seen riding upon a cask, as if it were a well-trained horse, which obeys the slightest sign of its master. An advancing wave threw him high on the strand, at the feet of the sympathising prince, who kindly received the sufferer and ordered him a change of dress and necessary food. Udo himese!fhimself [sic] presented the stranger with his own goblet as a token that he would keep him as a guest, and not as a slave, as he could by right of shorage. The stranger received the goblet thankfully, and drank its contents to the health of the owner of the shore. He was gay and in high spirits, and seemed to forget his late misfortune. This stoical equanimity of the seafarer pleased the prince, and made