Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/36

24 turned his back upon his native town, when he left the high road, and with knightly ardour gallopped towards the hunting castle. There he demanded the hospitality of his vassal, who received and treated him with proper courtesy and respect. At the first rays of the sun, the inhabitants of the castle being yet under the all-conquering power of Morpheus, he saddled his horse, left his suite behind, and hurried, full of spirits and courage, towards the enchanted forest. The farther he entered, the thicker grew the copse. All around him was solitary and desolate, and the densely grown trees seemed to bar the young adventurer’s steps. He dismounted, left his horse to graze, and, sword in hand, hewed his way through the thicket, climbed steep rocks, and glided down precipices. After much trouble he arrived in a sinuous vale, through which a clear brook wound its way. Following its serpentine course, he perceived in the distance a grotto in a rock opening its subterranean throat, and before it something moving in the shape of a human being. The audacious youth quickened his pace, forced his way through the trees, and stopping opposite the grotto, peeped from behind the large oaks, and lo! he discovered a lady sitting on the grass, caressing a young mis-shapen bear in her lap