The King of Duntrine had a daughter when he was old, and she was the
fairest King's daughter between two seas; her hair was like spun gold,
and her eyes like pools in a river; and the King gave her a castle upon
the sea beach, with a terrace, and a court of the hewn stone, and four
towers at the four corners. Here she dwelt and grew up, and had no care
for the morrow, and no power upon the hour, after the manner of simple
men.
It befell that she walked one day by the beach of the sea, when it was
autumn, and the wind blew from the place of rains; and upon the one hand
of her the sea beat, and upon the other the dead leaves ran. This was
the loneliest beach between two seas, and strange things had been done
there in the ancient ages. Now the King's daughter was aware of a crone
that sat upon the beach. The sea foam ran to her feet, and the dead
leaves swarmed about her back, and the rags blew about her face in the
blowing of the wind.
"Now," said the King's daughter, and she named a holy name, "this is the
most unhappy old crone between two seas."
"Daughter of a King," said the crone, "you dwell in a stone house, and
your hair is like the gold: but what is your profit? Life is not long,
nor lives strong; and you live after the way of simple men, and have no
thought for the morrow and no power upon the hour."
"Thought for the morrow, that I have," said the King's daughter; "but
power upon the hour, that have I not." And she mused with herself.
Then the crone smote her lean hands one within the other, and laughed
like a sea-gull. "Home!" cried she. "O daughter of a King, home to your
stone house; for the longing is come upon you now, nor can you live any
more after the manner of simple men. Home, and toil and suffer, till the
gift come that will make you bare, and till the man come that will bring
you care."
The King's daughter made no more ado, but she turned about and went home
to her house in silence. And when she was come into her chamber she
called for her nurse.
"Nurse," said the King's daughter, "thought is come upon me for the
morrow, so that I can live no more after the manner of simple men. Tell
me what I must do that I may have power upon the hour."
Then the nurse moaned like a snow wind. "Alas!" said she, "that this
thing should be; but the thought is gone into your marrow, nor is there
any cure against the thought. Be it so, then, even as you will; though
power is less than weakness, power shall you have; and though the thought
is colder than winter, yet shall you think it to an end."
So the King's daughter sat in her vaulted chamber in the masoned house,
and she thought upon the thought. Nine years she sat; and the sea beat
upon the terrace, and the gulls cried about the turrets, and wind crooned
in the chimneys of the house. Nine years she came not abroad, nor tasted
the clean air, neither saw God's sky. Nine years she sat and looked
neither to the right nor to the left, nor heard speech of any one, but
thought upon the thought of the morrow. And her nurse fed her in
silence, and she took of the food with her left hand, and ate it without
grace.
Now when the nine years were out, it fell dusk in the autumn, and there
came a sound in the wind like a sound of piping. At that the nurse
lifted up her finger in the vaulted house.
"I hear a sound in the wind," said she, "that is like the sound of
piping."
"It is but a little sound," said the King's daughter, "but yet is it
sound enough for me."
So they went down in the dusk to the doors of the house, and along the
beach of the sea. And the waves beat upon the one hand, and upon the
other the dead leaves ran; and the clouds raced in the sky, and the gulls
flew widdershins. And when they came to that part of the beach where
strange things had been done in the ancient ages, lo, there was the
crone, and she was dancing widdershins.
"What makes you dance widdershins, old crone?" said the King's daughter;
"here upon the bleak beach, between the waves and the dead leaves?"
"I hear a sound in the wind that is like a sound of piping," quoth she.
"And it is for that that I dance widdershins. For the gift comes that
will make you bare, and the man comes that must bring you care. But for
me the morrow is come that I have thought upon, and the hour of my
power."
"How comes it, crone," said the King's daughter, "that you waver like a
rag, and pale like a dead leaf before my eyes?"
"Because the morrow has come that I have thought upon, and the hour of my
power," said the crone; and she fell on the beach, and, lo! she was but
stalks of the sea tangle, and dust of the sea sand, and the sand lice
hopped upon the place of her.
"This is the strangest thing that befell between two seas," said the
King's daughter of Duntrine.
But the nurse broke out and moaned like an autumn gale. "I am weary of
the wind," quoth she; and she bewailed her day.
The King's daughter was aware of a man upon the beach; he went hooded so
that none might perceive his face, and a pipe was underneath his arm. The
sound of his pipe was like singing wasps, and like the wind that sings in
windlestraw; and it took hold upon men's ears like the crying of gulls.
"Are you the comer?" quoth the King's daughter of Duntrine.
"I am the corner," said he, "and these are the pipes that a man may hear,
and I have power upon the hour, and this is the song of the morrow." And
he piped the song of the morrow, and it was as long as years; and the
nurse wept out aloud at the hearing of it.
"This is true," said the King's daughter, "that you pipe the song of the
morrow; but that ye have power upon the hour, how may I know that? Show
me a marvel here upon the beach, between the waves and the dead leaves."