o him: "Denneys, if thou canst
find a chance of escape, do so, and take news of our plight to some one
who may rescue us." So it befel that just as they came out thus into
that stony place, and in the confusion that arose when they reached the
steep road that led up to the castle, Denneys drew rein a little to one
side. Then, seeing that he was unobserved, he suddenly set spurs to his
horse and rode away with might and main down the stony path and into the
forest whence they had all come, and so was gone before anybody had
gathered thought to stay him.

Then Sir Mellegrans was very angry, and he rode up to the Queen and he
said: "Lady, thou hast sought to betray me! But it matters not, for thy
page shall not escape from these parts with his life, for I shall send a
party after him with command to slay him with arrows."

So Sir Mellegrans did as he said; he sent several parties of armed men
to hunt the forest for the page Denneys; but Denneys escaped them all
and got safe away into the cover of the night.

And after that he wandered through the dark and gloomy woodland, not
knowing whither he went, for there was no ray of light. Moreover, the
gloom was full of strange terrors, for on every side of him he heard the
movement of night creatures stirring in the darkness, and he wist not
whether they were great or little or whether they were of a sort to harm
him or not to harm him.

[Sidenote: _How Denneys rideth through the forest._]

Yet ever he went onward until, at last, the dawn of the day came shining
very faint and dim through the tops of the trees. And then, by and by,
and after a little, he began to see the things about him, very faint, as
though they were ghosts growing out of the darkness. Then the small fowl
awoke, and first one began to chirp and then another, until a multitude
of the little feathered creatures fell to singing upon all sides so that
the silence of the forest was filled full of their multitudinous
chanting. And all the while the light grew stronger and stronger and
more clear and sharp until, by and by, the great and splendid sun leaped
up into the sky and shot his shafts of gold aslant through the trembling
leaves of the trees; and so all the joyous world was awake once more to
the fresh and dewy miracle of a new-born day.

So cometh the breaking of the day in the woodlands as I have told you,
and all this Denneys saw, albeit he thought but little of what he
beheld. For all he cared for at