"
"I will dine," said the knight; "for with lady I never fought before,
and with friar I never fought yet, and with neither will I ever
fight knowingly: and if this be the queen of the forest, I will not,
being in her own dominions, be backward to do her homage."
So saying, he kissed the hand of Marian, who was pleased most graciously
to express her approbation.
"Gramercy, sir knight," said the friar, "I laud thee for
thy courtesy, which I deem to be no less than thy valour.
Now do thou follow me, while I follow my nose, which scents
the pleasant odour of roast from the depth of the forest recesses.
I will lead thy horse, and do thou lead my lady."
The knight took Marian's hand, and followed the friar, who walked
before them, singing:
When the wind blows, when the wind blows
From where under buck the dry log glows,
What guide can you follow,
O'er brake and o'er hollow,
So true as a ghostly, ghostly nose?
CHAPTER XVIII
Robin and Richard were two pretty men. Mother Goose's Melody.
They proceeded, following their infallible guide, first along a light
elastic greensward under the shade of lofty and wide-spreading trees
that skirted a sunny opening of the forest, then along labyrinthine paths,
which the deer, the outlaw, or the woodman had made, through the close shoots
of the young coppices, through the thick undergrowth of the ancient woods,
through beds of gigantic fern that filled the narrow glades and waved their
green feathery heads above the plume of the knight.
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