ied out as he rode: "On, friends, on! for the road
shortens towards my Fathers' House." Then were they ashamed, and shook
their reins to hasten after him.

But in that very nick of time there came forth one from amidst the
bushes that edged the pool of the stream and strode dripping on to the
shallow; a man brown and hairy, and naked, save for a green wreath
about his middle. Tall he was above the stature of most men; awful of
aspect, and his eyes glittered from his dark brown face amidst of his
shockhead of the colour of rain-spoilt hay. He stood and looked while
one might count five, and then without a word or cry rushed up from the
water, straight on Ursula, who was riding first of the three lingerers,
and in the twinkling of an eye tore her from off her horse; and she was
in his grasp as the cushat in the claws of the kite. Then he cast her
to earth, and stood over her, shaking a great club, but or ever he
brought it down he turned his head over his shoulder toward the cliff
and the cave therein, and in that same moment first one blade and then
another flashed about him, and he fell crashing down upon his back,
smitten in the breast and the side by Richard and Ralph; and the wounds
were deep and deadly.

Ralph heeded him no more, but drew Ursula away from him, and raised her
up and laid her head upon his knee; and she had not quite swooned away,
and forsooth had taken but little hurt; only she was dizzy with terror
and the heaving up and casting down.

She looked up into Ralph's face, and smiled on him and said: "What hath
been done to me, and why did he do it?"

His eyes were still wild with fear and wrath, as he answered: "O
Beloved, Death and the foeman of old came forth from the cavern of the
cliff. What did they there, Lord God? and he caught thee to slay thee;
but him have I slain. Nevertheless, it is a terrible and evil place:
let us go hence."

"Yea," she said, "let us go speedily!" Then she stood up, weak and
tottering still, and Ralph arose and put his left arm about her to stay
her; and lo, there before them was Richard kneeling over the wild-man,
and the Sage was coming back from the river with his headpiece full of
water; so Ralph cried out: "To horse, Richard, to horse! Hast thou
not done slaying the woodman?"

But therewith came a weak and hoarse voice from the earth, and the
wild-man spake. "Child of Upmeads, drive not on so hard: it will not
be long. For thou and Richard the Red ar