Sir Arthur smiled:
"Very clever. That speech is on a par with your general performance since dropping into our country from nowhere. We know how you feel. You want to be fair with all of us. But at the same time you must marry. I hear that you are a worker of magic; that by your demoniacal powers you became Overlord, and later on secured the friendship of Ireland by removing the tail from the husband of Queen Broda. We are asking you to use this magic in selecting your bride. To the west of this castle, in the dark forest, centering a fairy ring is a bride well. A single man looking into that well, sees the face of his future bride. We will gather there, the Cornwall nobles and their eligible daughters. You will look into the well, compare the picture you see there with the lovely damsels, and announce your decision. It is an ancient custom, and, as we know you are honest, will provide a satisfactory answer to our dilemma. For many hundred years our Overlords have thus selected their brides. So, the next night of the full moon we will gather there, with a priest, and the selection and the marriage will all be the work of a few minutes. Are you satisfied with the plan?"
"It is perfect," I replied. "It has all of the elements of white magic of the finest sort.”
"Then,” said Arthur, "Bevidere and I will be riding on through the night. Mallory remains, I understand. He hath a wife that is a shrew and the poor lad lets no opportunity slip to remain a night away from her, especially when he hath a leman with him.” So saying he slapped Sir Mallory on the back, laughed heartily at his discomfort, and he and Sir Bevidere went out into the night.
"Tis an odd way of selecting a Queen,” I remarked.
"So it is,” agreed the grizzled old knight, "but hath no more gamble to it than any other way. Hundreds of years ago, ’tis said that the nobility gathered to see the selection of the bride, and when the Overlord looked into the well, there he saw, instead of a reflection of a woman, a real woman, named Melusina, a daughter of a French fay, called Pressina, and she, coming from the well, demanded that she become the Queen and none could gainsay her right. They married, and, her clothing off, the poor Overlord found that she was half woman and half snake. It was a great scandal, and created new styles in clothes and slippers. Many women claimed to be deformed just to be in the style.”
"Horrible! But how came she in the well?”
"No doubt placed herself there to marry the Overlord. Ha! Ha! It would be bad for that old tale to be spread over Cornwall just now. A dozen wells would not hold the lovely women who covet you.” And the old rogue poked me in my royal ribs, as he drank another horn of wine. At last I had him taken to his room, there to be cared for by his leman.
As soon as he I called for Percy. I wanted to know where my copy of Elephantis was. As I suspected, she had taken it with her when she left the library; and all the time I thought she was studying her letters. I scolded her:
"How can you ever hope to become learned when you look at such pictures instead of studying your letters?”
"I do not want to become learned,” she sulked.
"What do you want to become?” I demanded.
But she simply started to cry; so I cuffed her on the ear and bade her begone for the night. It would be one week before the night of the full moon. If I was going to have a wife, then the best place for Percy, or Ruth, or whatever his or her name was, well, anyway, the best place for her to be would be back in Wales. So, I waited till morning and had a palfrey packed with silken gowns and jewels and placed her on an- other pony in charge of two of my most trusty men-at-arms, and sent her on her way.
"Go back and marry your old Jew,” I said roughly. "And be an honest woman and the mother of children and cease your nonsense and your odd ways.”
"I don’t believe you want me any more,” she said rather seriously, and the way she looked at me and pursed her lips made me regret that I had done as I had.
"It is not that,” I said in self-defense, "but I am the Overlord of a great country and I must marry and start a dynasty; so on your way, and occasionally think kindly of me, Ruth.”
So off she went back to Wales, and I thought that I was well rid of a dangerous situation; for, now that I was to marry and settle down, there was only one way for me to live and that was as an example to my people, and a model of faithfulness and sobriety.
The next week was a busy one. I kept open house. All of the nobility called, at least for a meal. There were gruff fathers and solicitous mothers and beautiful daughters, almost without number. Any bachelor who could not pick a bride from these Cornwall beauties was indeed hard to please. Naturally, there was effort made to influence me — gifts, private interviews, little intrigues of every nature; but I was able to act so wisely that when the night of the full moon came, every one of the lovely candidates and all of their relatives were satisfied that I would act fairly and be influenced only by the most honest comparison with the image in the well and the lady whom this image most resembled.
The Priest was there. I was rather troubled when I saw that Priest, for, in spite of his sacerdotal robes, he resembled closely the man who had conquered in the Battle of the Toads, the mighty magician who had granted me my three wishes and made me Overlord of Cornwall. He saw that I suspected him and he gave me the sign of the Brethren and then I knew him to be my friend, and felt satisfied that he would so influence my choice that naught but happiness would result therefrom. Sir Bevidere was there and Arthur and fifty other loving fathers. It would be a hard choice, and I was glad that a Master Magician had a hand in the affair.
We waited rather anxiously while the full moon rose. Of course none approached the well. That right was reserved for me, and I was not to look therein till the moon was directly above it. It was a silent, serious gathering, every one hoping against hope and each of them hoping something different. They could not all be right. Only one lovely woman could become bride and Queen.
I trembled a little. That was from the chill night air. At the same time it was not an easy matter, even for a hardened adventurer, to go through the program of the night. Suppose I should be forced to select Sir Mallory’s daughter? I knew his wife, and there was no reason to think that the daughter would be different. Oh, well! If the worst came to the worst, I could go hunting gerrymanders in Ethiopia.
At last the Priest, who seemed to be acting as Master of Ceremonies, called for silence and bade me walk forward to the well. The moon was now directly over the ancient hole. Trembling, I looked in, and at once covered my dazzled eyes. Then I took a step backward.
"Did you see an image therein?” asked the Priest.
"I did.”
"Then from these lovely virgins select the one whose image you saw in the Bride Well."
"I can not! She resembleth none of these waiting ladies.” "
My people murmured when they heard me. It was a hard thing I said and one they could not understand. But I waved my hand regally as I demanded silence.
"Here is a magical happening," I cried. "There is no image in the well, but rather a real woman. Priest, bid her come forth and tell her name and station in life. Have her explain how comes she here.”
The Priest did so. In seven different languages and five distant dialects he called down the well to the one in the well to come forth. She came; slowly, almost as though floating upward she came, stepping gracefully over the stone curbing, came toward me and made a deep curtsy, and then, in clean commanding voice, she spake: