se
the pleasantest and most frequented road, but that which was the wildest
and most beset by thieves, and robbers, and venomous animals. And they
came to a high road, which they followed till they saw a vast forest, and
they went towards it, and they saw four armed horsemen come forth from
the forest. When they had beheld them, one of them said to the other,
"Behold, here is a good occasion for us to capture two horses and armour,
and a lady likewise; for this we shall have no difficulty in doing
against yonder single knight, who hangs his head so pensively and
heavily." And Enid heard this discourse, and she knew not what she
should do through fear of Geraint, who had told her to be silent. "The
vengeance of Heaven be upon me," she said, "if I would not rather receive
my death from his hand than from the hand of any other; and though he
should slay me, yet will I speak to him, lest I should have the misery to
witness his death." {36a} So she waited for Geraint until he came near
to her. "Lord," said she, "didst thou hear the words of those men
concerning thee?" Then he lifted up his eyes, and looked at her angrily.
"Thou hadst only," said he, "to hold thy peace as I bade thee. I wish
but for silence and not for warning. {36b} And though thou shouldst
desire to see my defeat and my death by the hands of those men, yet do I
feel no dread." Then the foremost of them couched his lance, and rushed
upon Geraint. And he received him, and that not feebly. But he let the
thrust go by him, while he struck the horseman upon the centre of his
shield in such a manner, that his shield was split, and his armour
broken, and so that a cubit's length of the shaft of Geraint's lance
passed through his body, and sent him to the earth the length of the
lance over his horse's crupper. Then the second horseman attacked him
furiously, being wroth at the death of his companion. But with one
thrust Geraint overthrew him also, and killed him as he had done the
other. Then the third set upon him, and he killed him in like manner.
And thus also he slew the fourth. Sad and sorrowful was the maiden as
she saw all this. Geraint dismounted his horse, and took the arms of the
men he had slain, and placed them upon their saddles, and tied together
the reins of their horses, and he mounted his horse again. "Behold what
thou must do," said he, "take the four horses, and drive them before
thee, and proceed forward, as I bade thee just now.