ith his
right hand, gave Ulric a sound cuff with his left; Ulric returned it
with interest, his right hand being free; and at it they went, ding
dong, over the horse's mane, pommelling one another, and jagging the
poor beast, till he ran backward, and trode with iron heel upon a
promontory of the green lord; he, like the toad stung by Ithuriel's
spear, started up howling, with one hand clapped to the smart and the
other tugging at his hilt. The servants, amazed with terror, let the
horse go; he galloped off whinnying, the men in pursuit of him crying
out with fear, and the green noble after them, volleying curses, his
naked sword in his hand, and his body rebounding from hedge to hedge in
his headlong but zigzag career down the narrow lane.

"In which hurtling" Gerard turned his back on them all, and went calmly
south, glad to have saved the four tin farthings he had got ready for
trinkgeld, but far too heavy hearted even to smile at their drunken
extravagance.

The sun was nearly setting, and Gerard, who had now for some time been
hoping in vain to find an inn by the way, was very ill at ease. To make
matters worse, black clouds gathered over the sky.

Gerard quickened his pace almost to a run.

It was in vain; down came the rain in torrents, drenched the bewildered
traveller, and seemed to extinguish the very sun-for his rays, already
fading, could not cope with this new assailant.

Gerard trudged on, dark, and wet, and in an unknown region. "Fool! to
leave Margaret," said he.

Presently the darkness thickened.

He was entering a great wood. Huge branches shot across the narrow road,
and the benighted stranger groped his way in what seemed an interminable
and inky cave with a rugged floor, on which he stumbled and stumbled as
he went.

On, and on, and on, with shivering limbs and empty stomach, and fainting
heart, till the wolves rose from their lairs and bayed all round the
wood.

His hair bristled; but he grasped his cudgel, and prepared to sell his
life dear.

There was no wind; and his excited ear heard light feet patter at times
over the newly fallen leaves, and low branches rustle with creatures
gliding swiftly past them.

Presently in the sea of ink there was a great fiery star close to the
ground. He hailed it as he would his patron saint. "CANDLE! a CANDLE!"
he shouted, and tried to run. But the dark and rugged way soon stopped
that. The light was more distant than he had thought. But at last