Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/96

74 When Arthur and Guyon beheld this sight, without waiting for debate or parley they each set spurs to their horses, and followed with all speed upon the forester’s track.

The path which the pursuer and pursued had taken, led into a thick wood full of all dangerous winding paths and hidden recesses, and hither the knights followed quickly, hoping to overtake the lady before she was helplessly lost in the intricacies of the forest. While they thus spurred onward, Britomart, feeling sure that the cause of injured beauty would not suffer while intrusted to such worthy lances, turned her course in another direction, and sought a castie where dwelt in chains the unfortunate Lady Amoret.

In the mean time the lady entered the forest, followed close by her pursuers. It was not long before Sir Guyon, overtaking the forester, dealt with him according to his deserts. Prince Arthur still rode on, hoping yet to recover trace of the maiden, whose track he had lost among the branching ways of the forest. But it soon began to grow dark; he could not hear or see aught of her, and at last, following a path which appeared to him to be the right one, he presently found himself at the opening of the forest in nearly the spot where he had first entered it.

Just at the wood’s verge he met a dwarf, fantastically dressed in rich garments, who was