hem, as did the faithful donkey, when, a stupor
coming over them, they couched down on the green-sward.

Presently extraordinary sensations came over them both, and the horns
and hoofs began to loosen, and the skin to roll up in folds, and a
refreshing shower falling, both Knight and Squire, on opening their
eyes, discovered, to their infinite satisfaction, that they were no
longer brute beasts, but that they had recovered their former comely
shapes, and that their hairy hides lay vacant on the ground. Near them
were their arms, now sadly in want of polishing, while their trusty
steeds, long roaming the rich pastures around, no sooner beheld than
recognising them, trotted up to bear them once more to the field of
battle or of fame.

Their first care was to burnish up their armour and their weapons. For
many a weary hour they rubbed.

"We might have saved ourselves all this trouble, and spent the last
seven years more pleasantly and profitably, had we not idled away our
time in the magnificent castle of that beautiful lady down there,"
observed Saint Denis, as he scrubbed away.

"Certes, Master dear, it's a failing I for one have when I get into the
society of the fair sex, I feel little inclination to leave them; but we
have had a pretty sharp lesson, and I hope to amend for the future."

The task was performed at last. Then the Champion, recollecting what
the mulberry-tree had said, drew his sword, and with one blow cut the
stout trunk quite asunder.

Instantly there issued forth a bright flame, from the midst of which
appeared a lovely damsel, clothed in a robe of yellow silk, made from
the cocoons of the innumerable silk-worms, which fed on the tree.

"Oh, most sweet and singular ornament of nature!" exclaimed the Knight,
bowing low before her, as did his Squire; "fairer than the feathers of
the graceful swan, and far more beautiful than Aurora's morning
countenance, to thee, the fairest of all fair ones, most humbly and only
to thy beauty do I here submit my affections. Tell me, therefore, to
whom my heart must pay its true devotions, thy birth, parentage, and
name."

The maiden, to whom it was long since such words had been addressed, was
highly delighted with them, and informed the Knight that her name was
Eglantine, that she was the daughter of the King of the neighbouring
country, Armenia, and assured him that he would be welcomed at her
father's court.

It is not recounted how many ferocious gian