48 THE ELFIN EXILE. 



from the web which the wood-spider weaves beneath the 

 moonlight, was her usual garb ; but the sinless purity of her 

 nature was her chief ornament, while she was always 

 decked with the ever-changing but ever-precious gems of 

 good and kindly thoughts. Though one of the most sensitive 

 of the fairy tribe, she had yet guarded her heart from elfin 

 love. A vague terror took possession of her when she looked 

 upon the affection of others ; and, with trembling haste, she 

 closed her sympathies, even as a flower shuts its petals from 

 the fervid sunbeam. 



Now the fairies, though a gentle, are also a most freakish 

 race, and Titania, their queen, the loveliest and the noblest, is 

 also the chiefest in elvish whim. Long before the time when she 

 quarrelled with her petulant lord for the little Indian changeling, 

 (the story is told in the veritable pages of one William Shaks- 

 peare,) she had troubled his repose by a jealousy, which, sooth 

 to say, was not always causeless. King Oberon, like most 

 other monarchs, loved sometimes to lay aside his dew-gemmed 

 crown, and rest his head upon a lowly pillow. The stately 

 beauty of his regal bride did not always suffice for the happi- 

 ness of a spirit which shared some of the weaknesses of that 

 humanity to which it was linked by invisible bonds. 



One midsummer night, the fairies had met to celebrate an 

 elfin marriage, and gaily was the dance kept up in the charmed 

 ring, while sweetly did the harebells chime their soft music to 

 the tiny feet of the merry troop. Oberon, wearied with the 

 gayety, withdrew from the midst of the joyous fays, and as he 



