t
he did not stop at that castle but went on by it.

Now after Sir Launcelot had passed by that castle it seemed to him that he
heard very delicate silver bells ringing sweetly in the air above him, and
when he looked up he beheld that a falcon was flying over his head toward a
high elm tree that stood at a little distance, and he wist that it was the
bells upon the cap of the falcon that rang so sweetly. And Sir Launcelot
beheld that long lunes hung from the feet of the falcon as she flew,
wherefore he was aware that the falcon had slipped her lunes and had flown
from her owner.

[Sidenote: Sir Launcelot beholdeth a falcon entangled] So Sir Launcelot
watched the falcon, and he beheld that she lit in a tall elm tree, where
she took her perch and rested, balancing with her wings part spread. Then
by and by she would have taken her flight again, but the lunes about her
feet had become entangled around the bough on which she sat, so that when
she would have flown she could not do so. Now Sir Launcelot was very sorry
to see the falcon beating herself in that wise, straining to escape from
where she was prisoner, but he knew not what to do to aid her, for the tree
was very high, and he was no good climber of trees.

While he stood there watching that falcon he heard the portcullis of the
castle lifted, with a great noise, and the drawbridge let fall, and
therewith there came a lady riding out of the castle very rapidly upon a
white mule, and she rode toward where Sir Launcelot watched the falcon upon
the tree. When that lady had come nigh to Sir Launcelot, she cried out to
him: "Sir Knight, didst thou see a falcon fly this way?" Sir Launcelot
said: "Yea, Lady, and there she hangs, caught by her lunes in yonder
elm-tree."

Then when that lady beheld how that her falcon hung there she smote her
hands together, crying out: "Alas, alas! what shall I do? That falcon is my
lord's favorite hawk! While I was playing with her a while since, she
slipped from me and took flight, and has sped as thou dost see. Now when my
lord findeth that I have lost his hawk in that wise he will be very angry
with me, and will haply do me some grievous hurt."

[Sidenote: The Lady beseeches Sir Launcelot to get her the falcon again]
Quoth Sir Launcelot: "Lady, I am very sorry for you." "Sir," she said, "it
boots nothing for you to be sorry for me unless you can aid me." "How may I
aid you in this?" said Sir Launcelot. "Messire," quoth she, "how oth