I sing for you, if I do not
want to? There is no man in this country--save Count Garin--that dare
drive my cattle from his fields and corn-lands, if I put them there. He
would lose his eyes for it, no matter how rich he were. So, now, why
should I sing for you, if I do not want to?"

"In the name of God," said Aucassin, "take these ten sous, and sing it!"

"Sir, I will take your money," said Aubrey, "but I will not sing you
anything. Still, if you like, I will tell you something."

"By God," said Aucassin, "something is better than nothing!"

"Sir," said Aubrey, then, "we were eating our bread by this fountain,
between prime and tierce, and a maid came by--the loveliest thing in all
the world. She lighted up the forest with her beauty; so we thought she
was a fairy woman. But she gave us some money; and we promised that if
you came by we would tell you to go hunting in the forest. In there is a
beast of marvellous value. If you took it you would not sell one of its
limbs for many marks of gold, for it has a medicine that will cure your
sickness. Now I have told you all."

"And you have told me enough, sweet boy," said Aucassin. "Farewell! God
give me good hunting!"

And, as he spurred his horse into the forest, Aucassin sang right
joyously:

Track of boar and slot of deer,
Neither do I follow here.
Nicolette I hotly chase
Down the winding, woodland ways--
Thy white body, thy blue eyes,
Thy sweet smiles and low replies
God in heaven give me grace,
Once to meet thee face to face;
Once to meet as we have met,
Nicolette--oh, Nicolette!

_IV.--Love in the Forest_

Furiously did his horse bear him on through the thorns and briars that
tore his clothes and scratched his body, so that you could have followed
the track of his blood on the grass. But neither hurt nor pain did he
feel, for he thought only of Nicolette. All day he sought for her in the
forest, and when evening drew on, he began to weep because he had not
found her. Night fell, but still he rode on; and he came at last to the
place where the seven roads met, and there he saw the lodge of green
boughs and lily-flowers which Nicolette had made.

"Ah, heaven," said Aucassin, "here Nicolette has been, and she has made
this lodge with her own fair hands! For the sweetness of it, and for
love of her, I will sleep here to-night."

As he sat in the lodge, Aucassin saw the evening star shining through a
gap in the