the King's Son, and all privily bade him
come to me and not thee. And thereafter, by dint of waiting and
watching, and taking the only chance that there was, I met thee as thou
camest back from fetching the skin of the lion that never was, and gave
thee that warning, or else had we been undone indeed."

Said Walter: "Was the lion of her making or of thine then?"

She said: "Of hers: why should I deal with such a matter?"

"Yea," said Walter, "but she verily swooned, and she was verily wroth
with the Enemy."

The Maid smiled, and said: "If her lie was not like very sooth, then had
she not been the crafts-master that I knew her: one may lie otherwise
than with the tongue alone: yet indeed her wrath against the Enemy was
nought feigned; for the Enemy was even I, and in these latter days never
did her wrath leave me. But to go on with my tale."

"Now doubt thou not, that, when thou camest into the hall yester eve, the
Mistress knew of thy counterfeit tryst with me, and meant nought but
death for thee; yet first would she have thee in her arms again,
therefore did she make much of thee at table (and that was partly for my
torment also), and therefore did she make that tryst with thee, and
deemed doubtless that thou wouldst not dare to forgo it, even if thou
shouldst go to me thereafter."

"Now I had trained that dastard to me as I have told thee, but I gave him
a sleepy draught, so that when I came to the bed he might not move toward
me nor open his eyes: but I lay down beside him, so that the Lady might
know that my body had been there; for well had she wotted if it had not.
Then as there I lay I cast over him thy shape, so that none might have
known but that thou wert lying by my side, and there, trembling, I abode
what should befall. Thus I passed through the hour whenas thou shouldest
have been at her chamber, and the time of my tryst with thee was come as
the Mistress would be deeming; so that I looked for her speedily, and my
heart wellnigh failed me for fear of her cruelty."

"Presently then I heard a stirring in her chamber, and I slipped from out
the bed, and hid me behind the hangings, and was like to die for fear of
her; and lo, presently she came stealing in softly, holding a lamp in one
hand and a knife in the other. And I tell thee of a sooth that I also
had a sharp knife in my hand to defend my life if need were. She held
the lamp up above her head before she drew near to the bed-side, and I
heard