dark forest rides, baffled and wearied, heartsick and full of dread.

Thus he wandered, for ever seeking the way, and trying this one and
that, until all his apparel was worn out, and his body was wasted away
and his hair was grown long. And at length, from misery and
hopelessness, he grew so weak that he thought that he must die.

Then he descended slowly from the mountains, and thought to find a
hermit, to whom he might tell all his misery before he died. But he
could not find any harbourage, and so he crawled to a brook in a park,
and sat there wondering why this evil fate had been visited upon him,
and grieving that now his beloved countess must be in wretchedness and
sorrow by reason of his forgetting, and that never more could he hope
to see her and tell her how grieved he had been to cause her such pain.

Then in a little while he swooned under the heat of the sun, from
hunger and weakness, and lay half in and half out of the brook.

It befell that a widowed lady, to whom the brook and the land belonged,
came walking in the fields with her maids. And one of them saw the
figure of Sir Owen and, half fearful, she went up to him and found him
faintly breathing.

The widow lady had him taken into the farmstead of one of her tenants,
and there he was tended carefully until he came again to his senses.
And with the good care, meat, drink, and medicaments, he soon began to
thrive again.

He asked the man of the house who it was that had brought him there.

'It was our Lady of the Moors,' said the man sadly. 'And though she is
herself in sore straits and narrowly bestead by a cruel and oppressive
earl, who would rob her of these last few acres, yet she hath ever a
tender heart for those in greater distress than herself.'

'It grieves me,' said Sir Owen, 'that the lady is oppressed by that
felon earl. He should be hindered, and that sternly.'

'Ay,' said the man, 'he would cease his wrongful dealing if she would
wed him, but she cannot abide the evil face of him.'

Ever and anon the Lady of the Moors sent one of her maidens to learn
how the stranger was progressing, and the maiden came one day when Sir
Owen was quite recovered, and she was greatly astounded to see how
comely a man he was, and how straight and tall and knightly was his
mien.

As they sat talking, there came the jingle and clatter of arms, and,
looking forth, Sir Owen saw a large company of knights and men-at-arms
pass down the road. And he inqu