and take the hounds and come with me; for not
far off is a little thicket which mostly harbours foison of deer, great
and small. Let us come our ways."

CHAPTER XV: THE SLAYING OF THE QUARRY

So they walked on quietly thence some half a mile, and ever the Lady
would have Walter to walk by her side, and not follow a little behind
her, as was meet for a servant to do; and she touched his hand at whiles
as she showed him beast and fowl and tree, and the sweetness of her body
overcame him, so that for a while he thought of nothing save her.

Now when they were come to the thicket-side, she turned to him and said:
"Squire, I am no ill woodman, so that thou mayst trust me that we shall
not be brought to shame the second time; and I shall do sagely; so nock
an arrow to thy bow, and abide me here, and stir not hence; for I shall
enter this thicket without the hounds, and arouse the quarry for thee;
and see that thou be brisk and clean-shooting, and then shalt thou have a
reward of me."

Therewith she drew up her skirts through her girdle again, took her bent
bow in her hand, and drew an arrow out of the quiver, and stepped lightly
into the thicket, leaving him longing for the sight of her, as he
hearkened to the tread of her feet on the dry leaves, and the rustling of
the brake as she thrust through it.

Thus he stood for a few minutes, and then he heard a kind of gibbering
cry without words, yet as of a woman, coming from the thicket, and while
his heart was yet gathering the thought that something had gone amiss, he
glided swiftly, but with little stir, into the brake.

He had gone but a little way ere he saw the Lady standing there in a
narrow clearing, her face pale as death, her knees cleaving together, her
body swaying and tottering, her hands hanging down, and the bow and arrow
fallen to the ground; and ten yards before her a great-headed yellow
creature crouching flat to the earth and slowly drawing nigher.

He stopped short; one arrow was already notched to the string, and
another hung loose to the lesser fingers of his string-hand. He raised
his right hand, and drew and loosed in a twinkling; the shaft flew close
to the Lady's side, and straightway all the wood rung with a huge roar,
as the yellow lion turned about to bite at the shaft which had sunk deep
into him behind the shoulder, as if a bolt out of the heavens had smitten
him. But straightway had Walter loosed again, and then, throwing down
hi