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GUY DU FONTAINE.
139
his head. He had hardly done so when out from
a narrow side-path rushed a lady, her clothes torn and
soiled, her hair streaming, and her face pale and bloodstreaked.
Seeing Lancelot, she uttered a sobbing cry of
delight and sprang toward him.
" Sir Lancelot du Lac ! oh, save me, noble knight,
save me from the wretch who has just murdered my
husband, and would now murder me, who never did
him harm, or wished him "
ill !
"Rest you easy, lady stand there behind me, and
guard this child I will do the rest!" hastily replied
the knight, placing Rhoda upon the ground, laying his
lance in rest, and wheeling Tonnerre's head toward the
opening in the trees, through which now rushed a man
with drawn sword in hand, and blood upon his rusty
armor. His helmet was upon his head, and the lowered
visor hid his face but ; by the bearings upon the little
shield he carried on his left arm, Sir Lancelot recognized
and addressed him :
old work !
What, Guy du Fontaine,
it is thou ! and at thine
What knight but thon would pursue a lady
with a naked sword in his hand, and her lord's blood
upon his armor? Stand and answer to me."
" And thou in saddle and with lance in rest, and I
on foot with only sword and shield !
Such is the bravery
of the Round Table
"
! exclaimed the stranger knight
in a harsh, forbidding
voice, and with a scornful laugh.
Sir Lancelot replied by leaping to the ground and placing