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"7 E'EN MUST WALKr
145
and their evening songs filled the whole air but
; except
eights and sounds like these, Sir Lancelot saw and heard
nothing. Tonnerre with his double burden was already
far away, and Sir Guy du Fontaine had mounted his own
horse and ridden as fast as he could from the scene of
his defeat, so that the Knight of the Lake found himself
as much alone in the wood as if he had been a
hermit.
I e'en must walk if I would go at all then," said he,
smiling grimly, as he gathered up sword and dagger
and replaced them in their sheaths.
" Lucky
it is that
Master Boar has left me mine own legs, since Tonnerre
no longer lends me his."
With these words, Sir Lancelot set forward at a good
pace, and was soon lost in the depths of the forest. But
rapidly though he might walk, how could a man hope
to overtake a horse, especially Tonnerre, who. rejoicing
in his unusual freedom, made the most of it
by trotting,
galloping, pacing, or walking at his own pleasure. His
poor frightened riders made no attempt to control him,
contenting themselves with clinging tight to the saddle
and to each other, screaming for help at intervals.
Rhoda was the first to recover from her terror and look
about her.
She found that the road along which they
travelled was no longer a mere wood-path, that the
forest was changing to scattered trees, between which she
caught glimpses of a river running through green meadows
and fields yellow with grain, and beside villages
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