Page:The Russian story book, containing tales from the song-cycles of Kiev and Novgorod and other early sources.djvu/169



THE STORY OF KASYAN AND THE

DREAM MAIDEN

all the mighty heroes of Holy Russia one of the mightiest was young Kasyan, the leader of a band of forty. Brave he was, without equal, who had fought against the accursed Tatars, and had won great renown in battle against infidel hordes; but he had never taken the golden crowns nor loved any lady except the Dream Maiden, whose image he kept ever in his golden heart. For she had come to him in a vision; and whether she were a lily for whiteness, a rose for redness, or a violet for darkness he could not tell. He knew only that he would know her when he met her among the warrior-maids or gentle hearthdwellers of Holy Russia, and that she would know him also. But in all his wanderings and among all the fair maidens of palace and plain, he had seen no living lady who could compare with the Dream Maiden; though many a Princess and noble-woman of high descent had favoured him secretly or openly, and had longed to be hailed as the beauty of his vision.

On the broad and open plain he assembled his 151