liena and Ganymede went and folded their
flocks, and taking up their hooks, their bags, and their bottles,
hied homeward. By the way Aliena, to make the time seem short, began
to prattle with Ganymede thus:

"I have heard them say, that what the fates forepoint, that fortune
pricketh down with a period; that the stars are sticklers in Venus'
court, and desire hangs at the heel of destiny: if it be so, then by
all probable conjectures, this match will be a marriage: for if
augurism be authentical, or the divines' dooms principles, it cannot
be but such a shadow portends the issue of a substance, for to that
end did the gods force the conceit of this eclogue, that they might
discover the ensuing consent of your affections: so that ere it be
long, I hope, in earnest, to dance at your wedding."

"Tush," quoth Ganymede, "all is not malt that is cast on the kiln:
there goes more words to a bargain than one: Love feels no footing in
the air, and fancy holds it slippery harbor to nestle in the tongue:
the match is not yet so surely made, but he may miss of his market;
but if fortune be his friend, I will not be his foe: and so I pray
you, gentle mistress Aliena, take it."

"I take all things well," quoth she, "that is your content, and am
glad Rosader is yours; for now I hope your thoughts will be at quiet;
your eye that ever looked at love, will now lend a glance on your
lambs, and then they will prove more buxom and you more blithe, for
the eyes of the master feeds the cattle."

As thus they were in chat, they spied old Corydon where he came
plodding to meet them, who told them supper was ready, which news made
them speed them home. Where we will leave them to the next morrow, and
return to Saladyne.

All this while did poor Saladyne, banished from Bordeaux and the court
of France by Torismond, wander up and down in the forest of Arden,
thinking to get to Lyons, and so travel through Germany into Italy:
but the forest being full of by-paths, and he unskilful of the country
coast, slipped out of the way, and chanced up into the desert, not far
from the place where Gerismond was, and his brother Rosader.
Saladyne, weary with wandering up and down and hungry with long
fasting, finding a little cave by the side of a thicket, eating such
fruit as the forest did afford and contenting himself with such drink
as nature had provided and thirst made delicate, after his repast he
fell in a dead sleep. As thus he lay, a hungry lion