y head. I will go back, and question her now."

"Your majesty forgets that your absence from the castle will occasion
surprise, if not alarm," said Suffolk. "The mystery will keep till
to-morrow."

"Tut, tut!--I will return," said the king perversely. And Suffolk,
knowing his wilfulness, and that all remonstrance would prove fruitless,
retraced his steps with him. They had not proceeded far when they
perceived a female figure at the bottom of the ascent, just where the
path turned off on the margin of the lake.

"As I live, there she is!" exclaimed the king joyfully. "She has divined
my wishes, and is come herself to tell me her history."

And he sprang forward, while Mabel advanced rapidly towards him.

They met half-way, and Henry would have caught her in his arms, but
she avoided him, exclaiming, in a tone of confusion and alarm, "Thank
Heaven, I have found you, sire!"

"Thank Heaven, too, sweetheart!" rejoined Henry. "I would not hide when
you are the seeker. So you know me--ha?

"I knew you at first," replied Mabel confusedly. "I saw you at the great
hunting party; and, once beheld, your majesty is not easily forgotten."

"Ha! by Saint George! you turn a compliment as soothly as the most
practised dame at court," cried Henry, catching her hand.

"Beseech your majesty, release me!" returned Mabel, struggling to get
free. "I did not follow you on the light errand you suppose, but to warn
you of danger. Before you quitted my grandsire's cottage I told you
this part of the forest was haunted by plunderers and evil beings, and
apprehensive lest some mischance might befall you, I opened the window
softly to look after you--"

"And you overheard me tell the Duke of Suffolk how much smitten I was
with your beauty, ha?" interrupted the king, squeezing her hand--"and
how resolved I was to make you mine--ha! sweetheart?"

"The words I heard were of very different import, my liege," rejoined
Mabel. "You were menaced by miscreants, who purposed to waylay you
before you could reach your steed."

"Let them come," replied Henry carelessly; "they shall pay for their
villainy. How many were there?"

"Two, sire," answered Mabel; "but one of them was Herne, the weird
hunter of the forest. He said he would summon his band to make you
captive. What can your strong arm, even aided by that of the Duke of
Suffolk, avail against numbers?"

"Captive! ha!" exclaimed the king. "Said the knave so?"

"He did, sire," replied Mab