laudits of the spectators
were changed to groans of rage when they saw the carcasses of their
favourite lions, who had already swallowed so many thousand slaves,
strewing the wide arena. They shouted loudly to have an end put to the
pleasant pastime.

"Fair play!" cried De Fistycuff, in return brandishing his sword. "In
the name of my noble master, I demand fair play!"

And Saint George went on riding round and round, and slashing away with
Ascalon, till he had slain every one of the hundred lions.

The treacherous King, fearing what might occur should so brave a
champion wander freely through his dominions, had, in the meantime,
summoned five thousand chosen warriors, and charged them to bring the
Knight, dead or alive, bound before him. Scarcely was the last lion
killed than they rushed into the arena, and before he and his squire had
time to offer any effectual resistance, they had borne him to the
ground. Then, throwing chains of steel around him, they carried him,
helpless as an infant, before the King. Thence, without form of trial,
he was cast into a dungeon, so massive that no strength could break
through it. There, guarded night and day by lynx-eyed warders, he
languished for many long years, his only companion being the faithful De
Fistycuff; their chief subject of conversation being the deeds that they
had done, and the wonders they had seen, and the deeds they would do,
and the wonders they hoped to see.

There we must leave them, to tell what became of the Princess Sabra. In
vain she waited and pined for the return of her gallant and true knight,
Saint George. He came not, because, as has been seen, he could not,
while the black King of Morocco, with every art he could devise,
prosecuted his hateful suit. Whether or not he might have succeeded is
doubtful, when one night, as the Princess slept on her couch she dreamed
that Saint George appeared, not, as she had seen him, in shining armour,
with his burgonet of glittering steel, and crimson plume of spangled
feathers, but in overworn and simple attire, with pale countenance and
emaciated form; and thus he spoke:--

"Sabra, I am betray'd for love of thee,
And lodged in cave as dark as night,
From whence in vain I seek--ah! woe is me!
To fly and revel in thy beauteous sight.
Remain thou true and constant for my sake,
That of my absence none may vantage take.

"Let tyrants know, if ever I obtain
The freedom lost by treason's wi