d in a kind voice: "What is amiss, fair
damsel, that thou art in such a plight; and what may I for thine avail?
Doth any pursue thee, that thou fleest thus?"

She stood sobbing awhile, and then took hold of his two hands and said:
"O fair lord, come now and help my lady! for as for me, since I am with
thee, I am safe."

"Yea," said he, "Shall I get to horse at once?" And therewith he made
as if he would move away from her; but she still held his hands, and
seemed to think it good so to do, and she spake not for a while but
gazed earnestly into his face. She was a fair woman, dark and sleek
and lithe...for in good sooth she was none other than Agatha, who is
afore told of.

Now Ralph is somewhat abashed by her eagerness, and lets his eyes fall
before hers; and he cannot but note that despite the brambles and
briars of the wood that she had run through, there were no scratches on
her bare legs, and that her arm was unbruised where the sleeve had been
rent off.

At last she spake, but somewhat slowly, as if she were thinking of what
she had to say: "O knight, by thy knightly oath I charge thee come to
my lady and help and rescue her: she and I have been taken by evil men,
and I fear that they will put her to shame, and torment her, ere they
carry her off; for they were about tying her to a tree when I escaped:
for they heeded not me who am but the maid, when they had the mistress
in their hands." "Yea," said he, "and who is thy mistress?" Said the
damsel: "She is the Lady of the Burnt Rock; and I fear me that these
men are of the Riders of Utterbol; and then will it go hard with her;
for there is naught but hatred betwixt my lord her husband and the
tyrant of Utterbol." Said Ralph: "And how many were they?" "O but
three, fair sir, but three," she said; "and thou so fair and strong,
like the war-god himself."

Ralph laughed: "Three to one is long odds," quoth he, "but I will come
with thee when thou hast let go my hands so that I may mount my horse.
But wilt thou not ride behind me, fair damsel; so wearied and spent as
thou wilt be by thy night."

She looked on him curiously, and laid a hand on his breast, and the
hauberk rings tinkled beneath the broidered surcoat; then she said:
"Nay, I had best go afoot before thee, so disarrayed as I am."

Then she let him go, but followed him still with her eyes as he gat him
into the saddle. She walked on beside his horse's head; and Ralph
marvelled of her that for al