Joanna made much of her, and said to her: "Here is to do, whereastwo men have broken into a lady's chamber; come, sister, let us to thethicket, and I will be thy tiring- maid, and while these others tell their taleswe shall tell ours." And she took her hand and they went into the hazels; but the two new-come men seemed to find it hard to keep their eyes offGoldilind, till the hazels had hidden her.
Then turned David to Christopher, and said: "Thy pardon, little King,that we have waked thee so early; but we wotted not that thou hadst beenamongst the wood-women; and, sooth to say, my lad, we had little ease tillwe found thee, after we came home and saw all those hoof-marks yonder."
"Yea," said Gilbert, "if we had lost thee we had been finely holpen up,for we could neither have gone back to the Tofts nor into the kingdom:for I think my father would have hanged us if we had come back with a'By the way, Christopher is slain.' But tell us, lad, what hath befallen theewith yonder sweetling?"