Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/144

cxviii save only the emperor's brother, who seeing that no man was there but they two, thus he said unto the empress; Lo, lady, here is beside a private forest, and long it is ago that I spake to thee of love.

"Then said the empress, Ah fool, what may this be? Yesterday I delivered thee out of prison upon thy promise, in hope of amendment, and now thou art returned to thy folly again; wherefore I say unto thee, as I have said before. Then said he, if thou wilt not consent unto me, I shall hang thee here upon a tree in this forest, where no man shall find thee, and so shalt thou die an evil death. The empress answered meekly, and said, Though thou smite off my head, or put me to death with all manner of torments, thou shalt never have my consent to such a sin.

"When he heard this, he unclothed her all save her smock, and hanged her up by the hair upon a tree, and tied her steed before her, and so rode to his fellows, and told them that a great host of men met him, and took the empress away from him, and when he had told them this, they made all great sorrow.

"It befell on the third day after, there came an earl to hunt in that forest, and as he rode beating the bushes, he unkennelled a fox, whom his hounds