ed, however, to the favour
of Providence to bring her safely through it.

She now gave orders for a great hunt to be held, and intimated her wish
that every one should attend. She herself was to be present in her
chariot, and she proposed that every follower of the chase should choose
a different line, and so close every avenue of escape to the quarry. The
arrangements were carried out according to the queen's plan. Confident
that she would soon see her husband again, she donned her most becoming
attire. Her hat was trimmed with feathers of different colours, the
front of her dress with a number of precious stones. Thus adorned, she
looked in her beauty (which was of no ordinary stamp) like a second
Diana.

When the excitement of the chase was at its height she gave rein to her
horses, urging them on with voice and whip, until their pace quickened
to a gallop. But then, getting their bits between their teeth, the team
sped onwards so fast that presently the chariot seemed to be borne upon
the wind, and to be travelling faster than the eye could follow. Too
late the poor queen repented of her rashness. 'What possessed me,' she
cried, 'to think that I could manage such wild and fiery steeds? Alack!
What will become of me! What would the king do if he knew of my great
peril? He only sent me away because he loves me dearly, and wished me to
be in greater safety--and this is the way I repay his tender care!'

Her piteous cries rang out upon the air, but though she called on Heaven
and invoked the fairies to her aid, it seemed that all the unseen powers
had forsaken her.

Over went the chariot. She lacked the strength to jump clear quickly
enough, and her foot was caught between the wheel and the axle-tree. It
was only by a miracle that she was not killed, and she lay stretched on
the ground at the foot of a tree, with her heart scarcely beating and
her face covered with blood, unable to speak.

For a long time she lay thus. At last she opened her eyes and saw,
standing beside her, a woman of gigantic stature. The latter wore nought
but a lion's skin; her arms and legs were bare, and her hair was tied up
with a dried snake's skin, the head of which dangled over her shoulder.
In her hand she carried, for walking-stick, a stone club, and a quiver
full of arrows hung at her side.

This extraordinary apparition convinced the queen that she was dead, and
indeed it seemed impossible that she could have survived so terrible a