time with a bow. And later he came to give
little presents, small treasures of the forest, to Rodriguez'
daughters; who treated him always, not as sole lord of that forest that
travellers dreaded, but as a friend of their very own that they had
found for themselves. He had his favourites among them and none quite
knew which they were.

And one day he came in his old age to give Rodriguez a message. And he
spoke long and tenderly of the forest as though all its glades were
sacred.

And soon after that day he died, and was buried with the mourning of
all his men in the deeps of Shadow Valley, where only Rodriguez and the
bowmen knew. And Rodriguez became, as the old king had commanded, the
ruler of Shadow Valley and all its faithful men. With them he hunted
and defended the forest, holding all its ways to be sacred, as the old
king had taught. It is told how Rodriguez ruled the forest well.

And later he made a treaty with the Spanish King acknowledging him sole
Lord of Spain, including Shadow Valley, saving that certain right
should pertain to the foresters and should be theirs for ever. And
these rights are written on parchment and sealed with the seal of
Spain; and none may harm the forest without the bowmen's leave.

Rodriguez was made Duke of Shadow Valley and a Magnifico of the first
degree; though little he went with other hidalgos to Court, but lived
with his family in Shadow Valley, travelling seldom beyond the
splendour of the forest farther than Lowlight.

Thus he saw the glory of autumn turning the woods to fairyland: and
when the stags were roaring and winter coming on he would take a
boar-spear down from the wall and go hunting through the forest, whose
twigs were black and slender and still against the bright menace of
winter. Spring found him viewing the fields that his men had sown,
along the forest's edge, and finding in the chaunt of the myriad birds
a stirring of memories, a beckoning towards past days. In summer he
would see his boys and girls at play, running through shafts of
sunlight that made leaves and grass like pale emeralds. He gave his
days to the forest and the four seasons. Thus he dwelt amidst
splendours such as History has never seen in any visit of hers to the
courts of men.

Of him and Serafina it has been written and sung that they lived
happily ever after; and though they are now so many centuries dead, may
they have in the memories of such of my readers as will let them linge