Every time
my eye falls on it I shall think of your gracious Majesty, and
when I marry I shall present it to my bride.'
So the King took the ring from his finger and gave it to Martin,
saying: 'Take it, good youth; but with it I make one condition--
you are never to confide to anyone that this is a magic ring. If
you do, you will straightway bring misfortune on yourself.'
Martin took the ring, and, having thanked the King, he set out on
the same road by which he had come down into the Under-world.
When he had regained the upper air he started for his old home,
and having found his mother still living in the old house where
he had left her, they settled down together very happily. So
uneventful was their life that it almost seemed as if it would go
on in this way always, without let or hindrance. But one day it
suddenly came into his mind that he would like to get married,
and, moreover, that he would choose a very grand wife--a King's
daughter, in short. But as he did not trust himself as a wooer,
he determined to send his old mother on the mission.
'You must go to the King,' he said to her, 'and demand the hand
of his lovely daughter in marriage for me.
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