Eean and Bird-of-Gold went within the White Tower, and conversed from noon to dusk with Merlin and the lady Vivien. Before that Midsummer’s Day had passed into darkness, they mounted the white steed and the red steed and had them swim across the waters. When they came to the farther shore they let the horses stand for a while. Then mounting them again they rode over the mountains and across the plains and came again to the castle of King Manus. V. THE RETURN OF KING MANUS’S HORSES Again Manus, King of the Western Island, sat in his supper hall. The torches were in their sconces, the candles were lighted on the table, the hearth fire was blazing on the hearth, and his lords once again sat to the right and the left of him. But this time they sat without laughter and without high words. The harper and the story-teller were at the table too, but they neither made music nor told stories. They had tried, both, that evening, but no one had listened to them. Outside, the iron door of the stable gaped wide, and the grooms and horse boys and watchers stood idly around or went quarreling amongst themselves. It was very difficult, as you may imagine, for the harper to play upon his harp when he would hear the King say into his wine cup, “O, Raven, my black horse, where art thou now?” And it was equally difficult for the story-teller to get on with his tale when he would see the King looking at him with unseeing eyes and hear him say, “O, my white and my red horses, what would I not give if I saw you back in my courtyard again?” So you can imagine the silence that was upon the supper board that was wont to resound with conversation and story-telling, with music and pledges of the wine cup. “O, Raven, my black horse, where art thou now?” said the King once again; and then, “What would I not give to have my white and my red horse in the courtyard again?” And these were all the words that King Manus could be got to say. And then, suddenly, a loud neigh was heard outside. Straightway King Manus ran out of the supper hall. The lords, the minstrel, and the story-teller, the stewards, servers, and attendants, ran with him. And when they came as far as the wide door of the castle they ran into the grooms and the horse boys who were running from the stable. All ran together. And there, in the middle of the courtyard, without a rider upon his back, was Raven, the King’s black horse. They brought him into his stall in the stable, and they combed him and they groomed him; they gave him the red wheat and the white barley to eat and the clear spring water to drink. King Manus could hardly be prevailed upon to leave Raven’s stall and come back into the supper hall. But at length they got him back into his seat, and then the supper board resounded with pledges of the wine cup as the King and his lords drank to each other merrily.