Лучшие английские легенды / The Best English Legends

The groom of the chamber then said: “Will you not send messengers to the river’s source, my lord, and tell them to follow the track of your dream?”

And thirteen messengers were sent, who followed the river up until it issued from the highest mountain they had ever seen. “Behold our emperor’s dream!” they exclaimed, and they got to the top of the mountain, and descended the other side into a most beautiful and fertile plain, as Maxen Wledig had seen in his dream. Following the greatest river of all – probably it was the Rhine – the ambassadors reached the seaport on the North Sea, and found the fleet waiting with one ship larger than all the others; and they entered the ship and were carried to the fair island of Britain.

Here they journeyed westward, and came to the mountainous land of Snowdon, where they could see the sacred isle of Mona, or Anglesey, and the fertile land of Arvon lying between the mountains and the sea. “This,” said the messengers, “is the land of our master’s dream, and in that fair castle we shall find the maiden who our emperor loves. ”

So they went to the castle of Caernarvon, and in that impressive fortress was the great hall, with the two youths playing chess, the old man carving chessmen, and the maiden in her chair of gold. When the ambassadors saw the fair Princess Helena, they fell on their knees before her and said: “Empress of Rome, all hail!”

But Helena half rose from her seat in anger as she said: “What does this mockery mean? You seem to be men of gentle breeding,[11 - of gentle breeding – знатного происхождения] and you are evidently messengers: why, then, do you mock me thus?”

But the ambassadors calmed her anger, saying: “Do not be angry, lady: this is no mockery, for the Emperor of Rome, the great lord Maxen Wledig, saw you in a dream, and he swore to marry none but you.

Which, therefore, will you choose, to accompany us to Rome, and there be made empress, or to wait here until the emperor can come to you?”

The princess thought deeply for a time, and then replied: “I would not be too credulous, or too hard of belief.

If the emperor loves me and would like to marry me, let him find me in my father’s house, and make me his bride in my own home.”

After this the messengers returned to the emperor in haste. When they reached Rome and informed Maxen Wledig of the success of their mission he at once gathered his army and marched across Europe towards Britain.