and the princess were married there, and proceeded on the way to the Holy Land. When they arrived at Acre, a port on the coast of Palestine, they found the Christian army, which was already there, still besieging the city, as it had been doing for two long years. The troops were delighted to see the newcomers, knowing Richard's great valor: so, he joining with them, they were soon enabled to capture the city.

Richard was more than a year in the Holy Land; but his army came only in sight of Jerusalem: for the French princes and others did not conduct well in their counsels; and the army, to Richard's great disappointment, was forced to turn back to another · place.

After a while, bad news from home made it necessary for him to return. The two queens, his wife and sister, had already sailed; and he set out in another vessel. But terrible storms arose on the voyage, and at last his vessel was shipwrecked. Then he was obliged to make the rest of his way by

land: so he disguised himself as a pilgrim to travel

through Germany and Austria; but he was discovered, and put in prison by the command of the Emperor of Austria, who had a great enmity towards him. There, for fifteen long months, he lay in prison, and his own people and subjects knew not where he was. Now, Richard had a warm-hearted friend, a minstrel, with whom he had often composed songs, and sung them; for Richard was a poet too, and wrote some of the troubadour songs which were famous in those days. This minstrel, or troubadour, his friend, whose name was Blondel, determined, if possible, to find out where his master, King Richard, was imprisoned. So he began to go the rounds of the great castles and prisons scattered over the country, and would stand outside the walls, and sing or play some familiar tune, hoping, if Richard were within, to attract his attention. It happened at one of these places, as he sang one verse of a song, a voice from within took it up, and sang a second verse. Blondel recognized the voice, and his heart beat with joy that the long-lost king had been found; for it was Richard indeed, who

had also recognized the voice of his faithful friend outside! The king was at length ransomed by his English subjects for a very large sum of money. When the Germans who accompanied him home saw the great rejoicings of the people, which were shown, too, by a great display of wealth, they said, "If their master, the emperor, had known of the great wealth of England, he would have asked a much larger sum for the king's ransom! "

Richard lived but a few years after this, and died by a shot from an arrow, in the prime of his life (being but forty-one years of age), in the very last year of the century, 1199, having been king but ten years.

CHAPTER XIX.

66 THE FAIRY QUEEN."

ABOUT three hundred and fifty years ago, when Elizabeth was queen in our mother-land, there was a long poem written, called "The Fairy Queen," which was thought to be very beautiful and splendid in those days. There were several different stories in the poem; but, not being well adapted to the present times, I suppose they are seldom, if ever, read, excepting one, which is interesting, and we often hear of it still; and almost every one knows something about it. This is the story of St. George and the Dragon, and the lovely Lady Una. Before we come back to our own fairies, we will relate a little of this story from "The Fairy Queen," as pictures of it are frequently seen, or little sculptures in

marble, Lion."

as the pretty one of "Una and the

The Lady Una was the daughter of a king and queen who lived in a great castle of brass, which was surrounded, also, by a high brazen wall. There they had been shut up for some years, not able to go out, as before the wall of the castle lay an enormous serpent or dragon, which no one could pass by, it was so gigantic and fierce. It must have been, I think, like the terrible serpent Python, which had been a terror to all the country around, and which was shot by the arrow of Apollo.

The gentle Una was distressed that her parents were so besieged by the cruel and enormous serpent; and she went to the Queen of Fairyland to beseech her that she would send some knight to conquer the dragon, and release her parents. It happened, that, just before Una came into the presence of the queen, a rough, rustic-looking man had entered, and requested that she would not refuse him the first adventure that should occur. So, when the Lady Una made her request, he immediately came