Earl having spread a report that the great Champion of England,
whom no other foe could conquer, had yielded to the inevitable hand of
death.

The brave Knight hastened back with the speed of lightning, when sad was
the sight which met his eyes. His castle was burnt to the ground, and
his lady had been carried off by the wicked Earl, and, as she had
refused all his offers of marriage, had been accused of witchcraft, and
lay in prison, condemned to be burned alive. What had become of his
three blooming boys he could not tell.

Putting spurs to his horse, the Knight and De Fistycuff galloped into
Coventry. There he met the Earl going out hunting; and there, in mortal
combat, he laid him low.

Scarcely had the Earl breathed his last, acknowledging with his dying
breath the lady's innocence, than the Princess Sabra was led forth to
execution. Quickly her guards were put to flight, and mounting her on
his horse, he bore her off to a neighbouring forest, where he might defy
pursuit.

There, as they wandered up and down, one day they espied three beauteous
boys, sleeping on a bed of roses, beneath a shady bower. The parents'
hearts told them that the children were their own. They flew towards
them, when they saw, seated at the further end of the bower a beautiful
lady. Instantly Saint George knew her as the kind Fairy who so often
before befriended him, and who had now saved his children from the
burning castle. Again and again he thanked the Fairy, who, smiling
sweetly, vanished from his sight.

Leaving his children under the care of those wise tutors, named
Industry, Attention, and Teachableness, taking his wife, he once more
set out to rejoin the army engaged in the war with the Pagans.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

SAINT GEORGE KILLS THE ENCHANTER OSMOND.

Saint George and his virtuous Lady, having arrived in Africa, were
travelling to Egypt from the west, when they chanced to arrive at a
magnificent country, inhabited only by Amazonians.

Journeying along, great was their surprise to find every town and
village desolate of people; the fields untilled; and fields overgrown
with weeds: nor man, nor woman, nor child was to be seen.

Scarcely food even from the berries in the woods could they procure to
satisfy their hunger.

In this extremity, after many days, they arrived before a rich
pavilion--all of green and crimson, bordered with gold and azure--the
hooks of ivory, the cords of silk, while at the top st