rove this man to ride away while yet
the rope hung loose. 'O sir,' he added when the sad tale was told--'O
sir, be warned by me, and never let yourself stray into his presence!
His subtle tongue, like dropping honey, melts into the heart, and ere
one be aware, his power is gone and weakness doth remain.'

But the Red Cross Knight made answer that he would never rest till he
had seen with his own eyes that baleful being, and begged the stranger,
whose name was Trevisan, to guide him hither.

'I will ride back with you, as you ask it of me,' said Sir Trevisan
unwillingly, 'but not for all the gold in the world will I stay with you
when you reach his cave, for sooner would I die than see his deadly
face!'

'Ride on, then, and I will follow,' answered the Red Cross Knight.

The cave lay in the side of a cliff, and was dark and gloomy as a tomb.
The only sounds they heard were the hooting of an owl and the wails and
howls of wandering ghosts; the only sights were the corpses of men
hanging on trees or lying stark upon the ground. Sir Trevisan turned
his horse's head and would fain have fled, but the Red Cross Knight
stopped him.

'You are safe with me,' he said confidently, and the other, who was ever
weak of will, waited.

They entered the cave, and found the doer of all that evil seated on the
floor, his eyes as the eyes of a dead man, and his body well nigh as
much a skeleton as any of his victims. On the grass beneath him lay a
body that was still warm, and in its bleeding wound a rusty knife still
stood. The sight stirred the blood in the knight's veins, and he
challenged the murderer to fight where he stood.

'Are you distraught, you foolish man,' was all his answer, 'that you
should talk in this wild way? It was his own guilt which drove him to
his end. He loathed his life, why should he then prolong it? Is it not
the part of a friend to free his feet when they stick fast in the mud,
and to point to the door that leads to rest, even if some little pain
must be suffered in the passage? Is not short pain well borne that
brings long ease--sleep after toil, port after stormy seas?'

The Red Cross Knight listened wonderingly. Then he answered:

'The soldier may not cease to watch nor leave his stand until his
captain bid.'

But the cursed wight replied boldly, 'The longer life, I wot, the
greater sin. The greater sin, the greater punishment. Therefore, I pray
you go no further, but lie down and betake you to yo