in murdering his guest before his face."

"Then must I fight with you," said Balin. "Yet I warn you your quarrel
is a weak one. The lady that is dead richly deserved her fate, or I
should have been as loath as any knight living to kill a woman."

"Make ready," said Lanceor. "Fight we must, and one of us shall remain
dead upon this field. Our combat is to the utterance."

Then they put their spears in rest, and rode together at the full speed
of their horses, meeting with a shock in mid career. Lanceor struck
Balin a blow upon the shield that shivered the spear in his hand. But
Balin smote him with such force that the spear-point went through shield
and hauberk, and pierced his body, so that he fell dead to the earth.

As the victorious knight stood looking on the corpse of his slain foe,
there came from Camelot a damsel, who rode up at full speed upon a fair
palfrey. When she saw that Lanceor was dead she fell into a passion of
sorrow, and cried out in tones of deep lamentation,--

"Oh, Balin, thou hast slain two bodies and one heart! Yes, two hearts
in one body, and two souls thou hast murdered with thy fatal spear."

Then she took the sword from her love, and as she took it fell to the
ground in a swoon. When she arose again her sorrow was so great that
Balin was grieved to the heart, and he sought to take the sword from her
hands, but she held it so firmly that he could not wrest it from her
without hurting her. Suddenly, before he could move to hinder, she set
the pommel of the sword to the ground and threw her body upon the naked
blade. Pierced through the heart, she fell dead upon the body of her
slain love.

"Alas!" said Balin, "that this should have happened. I deeply regret the
death of this knight for the love of this damsel; for such true love as
this I never saw before. Yet his death was forced on me, and hers I
could not hinder."

Full of sorrow, he turned his horse, and as he looked towards a great
forest near by he saw a knight riding towards him, whom he knew, by his
arms, to be his brother Balan.

When they were met they took off their helmets and kissed each other,
and wept for joy and pity.

"I little expected to meet you thus," said Balan. "A man in the Castle
of Four Stones told me that you were freed from prison, and therefore I
came hither in hope to find you at the court."

Then Balin told his brother of all that had happened at Camelot, and of
the displeasure of the king, and that h