A year to the day, the goat-king returned, and summoned King Herla to his wedding. And remembering the abiding compact he had made, Herla assembled his court and they followed him, until they came to a frowning cliff, and beneath it a cave, and a chamber within lit with many lamps and torches. There Herla’s court waited upon the wedding of the goat-king. And as they made ready to leave, the goat-king gave them presents, and last of all set in Herla’s arms a bloodhound puppy,* saying: “Go now, but be warned! do not dismount until this dog leaps from your arms.”*
And they left the chamber of light, and returned to the upper world. And as they went, they met an old shepherd, and Herla asked for news of his queen. “Sir” the shepherd replied (and his speech was strange to them), “I know of no such queen save the wife of King Herla, but he has been dead these two hundred years, and we Saxons now rule this land.”*
* See a photo at Wikimedia Commons.
* This admonition recalls the dove sent out by Noah after the Great Flood, to see if the waters had sunk far enough for him to unload his cargo of animals. See Genesis 8:8-11. The dove eventually brings back a small twig to show that Noah may disembark.
* Peoples from what is now Denmark and northern Germany, such as Angles, Frisians, Jutes and Saxons, began crossing over to Roman Britain in the later fourth century, and gradually came to dominate England sometime after the Romans withdrew in 410. If Saxons were unknown to Herla, this would imply that he ruled a little earlier than that other legendary Romano-British king, Arthur, who is supposed to have vainly but courageously resisted the influx.