a time there was a king who had been at war for a long time
with his neighbours. After many battles had been fought his capital was
besieged by the enemy. Fearing for the safety of the queen, the king
implored her to take refuge in a stronghold to which he himself had
never been but once. The queen besought him with tears to let her remain
at his side, and share his fate, and lamented loudly when the king
placed her in the carriage which was to take her away under escort.

The king promised to slip away whenever possible and pay her a visit,
seeking thus to comfort her, although he knew that there was small
chance of the hope being fulfilled. For the castle was a long way off,
in the midst of a dense forest, and only those with a thorough knowledge
of the roads could possibly reach it.

The queen was broken-hearted at having to leave her husband exposed to
the perils of war, and though she made her journey by easy stages, lest
the fatigue of so much travelling should make her ill, she was downcast
and miserable when at length she reached the castle. She made excursions
into the country round about, when sufficiently recovered, but found
nothing to amuse or distract her. On all sides wide barren spaces met
her eye, melancholy rather than pleasant to look upon.

'How different from my old home!' she exclaimed, as she gloomily
surveyed the scene; 'if I stay here long I shall die. To whom can I talk
in this solitude? To whom can I unburden my grief? What have I done that
the king should exile me? He must wish me, I suppose, to feel the
bitterness of separation to the utmost, since he banishes me to this
hateful castle.'

She grieved long and deeply, and though the king wrote every day to her
with good news of the way the siege was going, she became more and more
unhappy. At last she determined that she would go back to him, but
knowing that her attendants had been forbidden to let her return, except
under special orders from the king, she kept her intention to herself.
On the pretext of wishing sometimes to join the hunt, she ordered a
small chariot, capable of accommodating one person only, to be built for
her. This she drove herself, and used to keep up with the hounds so
closely that she would leave the rest of the hunt behind. The chariot
being in her sole control, this gave her the opportunity to escape
whenever she liked, and the only obstacle was her lack of familiarity
with the roads through the forest. She trust