ent off all his
men to scour the woods, and, mounting his horse, himself set off with
them, showing great zeal in the king's service, but still thinking the
king's story a very strange one. Thus the king was left alone with his
two guards and with the officer who had smiled.

"Will you not go also, sir?" asked the king.

But at this moment a man galloped up at furious speed, crying:

"We have found them, sire, we have found them!"

"Then he hasn't five minutes to live!" cried the king in fierce joy;
and he lugged out his sword, adding: "The moment I set my eyes on him,
I will kill him. There is no need for words between me and him."

At this speech the face of the officer grew suddenly grave and
alarmed; and he put spurs to his horse, and hastened after the king,
who had at once dashed away in the direction in which the man had
pointed. But the king had got a start and kept it; so that the officer
seemed terribly frightened, and muttered to himself:

"Heaven send that he does not kill him before he knows!" And he added
some very impatient words concerning the follies of princes, and,
above all, of princes in love.

Thus, while the ambassador and his men searched high and low for
the noted robber, and the king's men hunted for the student of the
University, the king, followed by two of his guard at a distance
of about fifty yards (for his horse was better than theirs), came
straight to where Osra and her lover stood together. And a few yards
behind the guards came the officer; and he also had by now drawn his
sword. But he rode so eagerly that he overtook and passed the king's
guards, and got within thirty yards of the king by the time that the
king was within twenty of the lovers. But the king let him get no
nearer, for he dug his spurs again into his horse's side, and the
horse bounded forward, while the king cried furiously to his sister,
"Stand away from him!" The princess did not heed, but stood in front
of her lover (for the student was wholly unarmed), holding up the
little dagger in her hand. The king laughed scornfully and angrily,
thinking that Osra menaced him with the weapon, and not supposing that
it was herself for whom she destined it. And, having reached them, the
king leaped from his horse and ran at them, with his sword raised to
strike. Osra gave a cry of terror. "Mercy!" she cried. "Mercy!" But
the king had no thought of mercy, and he would certainly then and
there have killed her lover had no