t was likely to end badly for his
master. The knight's knees were trembling under him, and as the monster,
in the form of a unicorn, charged against his shield he fell to the
ground.

The creature shrank suddenly together and in the guise of a black, agile
rat shot towards him.

Sir Wendelin felt that he was losing consciousness, he heard faintly a
voice from the grotto where the lady was imprisoned calling to him: "The
ring, remember the ring!"

He was just able to turn with his thumb the ring on his little finger.
Immediately he felt himself lighter and freer than he had ever felt
before, and his heart seemed to harden to a steel spring, while a gay
and reckless mood came over him. A wild desire to fly took possession
of him at the same time, and it seemed as if he were only fourteen years
old once more. Some strange force impelled him aloft into the air, to
which he yielded, spreading the two large wings, that he suddenly found
himself in possession of, as naturally as if he had used them all his
life. He soon felt the feathers on his back stroked by the clouds, and
yet he saw everything below him on the earth more distinctly than
ever before. Even the smallest things appeared perfectly clear to his
sharpened eyes, and yet he seemed to see them as if reflected in a
brilliant mirror. He could distinguish even the hairs on the rat and
suddenly another impulse came over him--the impulse to stoop down and
catch the long-tailed vermin in his beak and claws. Wendelin had been
changed into a falcon, and the rat struggled in vain to escape his
powerful attack.

The prisoner had followed the combat first with anxiety, then with joy.
While the falcon held the rat in his claws and struck him with his beak
again and again, she called the squire to her, and bade him free her
from her chains. This was no distasteful task for George, indeed it gave
him so much pleasure that he was in no hurry to finish.

When at last all her bonds were loosened, she stood very erect, and
lifted her arms, and each moment seemed to make her more lovely and
more beautiful. Then she grasped the circle of emeralds, about which
the enchanter had wound her golden hair, and waving it high in the air,
cried: "Falcon, return to the shape you were before. Misdral, hear thy
sentence!"

Wendelin assumed immediately his knightly guise, which seemed very
clumsy to him after having been a falcon. The rat lengthened itself and
expanded until it was once mor