lieve, said the one, you are afraid you should lose your horse. Why should I lose him?-Because he would be won by the man who dismounted you a likelier chance than that you should win his. Since that is the case, said Beltenebros, I will ride on and secure him while I can; and he continued his course. The Knights cried after him, your arms, Sir Cavalier, are protected better by a smooth tongue than by a stout heart: they will last to be hung over your monument, tho' you should live these hundred years! Think of me as you please, quoth he, your words will not destroy my worth such as it is. I would to heaven you would break one lance with me! cried the Knight; I would not mount horse again for a whole year, if you rode to your lodging this night upon that bay steed! Good Sir, said Beltenebros, that is the very thing I am afraid of, and have therefore got out of the way. Holy Mary, they all exclaimed, what a cowardly Knight! He nothing heeding them, rode on to a ford, at which he meant to cross, when he heard a cry from behind, Stop, Knight! and looking round saw a Damsel following him, upon a palfrey richly trappinged. Sir Knight, said she, Leonoreta, daughter to King Lisuarte, is in yonder tent, and she and all her Damsels request that for their sake you will joust with her

Knights, a thing you will be more bound to do by this request than by their defiance.-What! quoth he, is the daughter of the Queen there ?Aye, truly! I should rather do her service myself, than commit enmity against her Knights, but at her command I will consent, on condition that they require from me nothing farther than the joust. With this answer the Damsel returned; and Beltenebros took his arms, and rode to an open part of the field to wait for the encounter. The first who came was the one who had such an inclination to win his horse. Beltenebros was pleased that this was the first: he unhorsed him, and bade Enil take his horse, and said, Sir Knight, if you keep your word, you will not have another fall for a whole year, for so you promised unless you won my bay; but he lay groaning, for he had three Abs and a hip broken. Three others shared the same fortune with less hurt; on the last, Beltenebros broke his lance. Enil took their horses one by one, and tied them to the trees, and then Beltenebros would have departed; but he saw another Knight making ready, and a Squire brought him four lances, and said, Sir, Leenoreta sends you these lances, and bids you do your duty with them against the other Knights, since you have overthrown their companions. For her sake, said he, who is

daughter to so good a King, I will do what she requires; but for her Knights I would do nothing, for they are discourteous to make Knights who are travelling joust against their will. So he took a lance, and one after the other dismounted all the rest; only the last endured two encounters, and fell not till the third, for he was Nicoran of the Perilous Bridge, and was one of the good jousters in Great Britain. When Beltenebros had finished, he sent all the horses that he had won to Leonoreta, and bade her tell her Knights to be more courteous to strangers, or else to joust better, for they might find a Knight who would make them go afoot. The Knights remained greatly abashed: if Amadis were alive and well, quoth Nicoran, verily I should say this were he, for I know no other who would. have left us thus. It is not he, said Galiseo, some of us should have known him, and he would not have jousted with us, being his friends. Giontes, the nephew of King Lisuarte, who was one of them, replied, Would it were Amadis, our dishonour would be well gained! but be he who he may, God prosper him wherever he goes! for he won our horses like a good Knight, and like a good Knight restored them. Curse him, quoth Lasamor, he has broken my hip and my ribs, but it was my own fault.

Beltenebros went on satisfied with his success, and admiring the lance which he held, for it was a good' one. About a quarter of a league on, he saw a chapel overbowered with trees, and there he determined to alight for the sake of prayer, and because the great heat and the exercise of jousting had made him athirst. At the chapel-door were three palfreys equipped for women, and two for Squires. He went in, but there was no one there, and commended himself from his heart to God and the Virgin. As he was coming out, he saw the three Damsels and their Squires sitting under the trees beside a fountain, and made up to them that he might drink: but neither of them did he know. Knight, said they, are you of King Lisuarte's household? I would, quoth he, I were so good a Knight as to be approved in such a company: but whither go ye?-To Miraflores, to see our Aunt who is Abbess there, and to see Oriana the Princess; but we are waiting here till the heat of the day be over. In God's name, quoth he, and I will keep you company till it be time to travel ́: how is this fountain called?-We know not, but there is one in yonder valley, by those great trees there, which is called the Fountain of the Three Channels. He knew it better than they, for he had often passed it when hunting, and there he

determined to fix a meeting-place with Enil, whom he wished to send away while he went to his Lady.

Presently, while they were thus talking, there came along the road which Beltenebros had passed, a waggon drawn by twelve palfreys, and on it were two Dwarfs who drove. There were many Knights in chains in the waggon, and their shields were hanging at the side, and many damsels and girls, among them weeping and lamenting loudly. Before it went a Giant, so great that he was fearful to behold; he rode a huge black horse, and he was. armed with plates of steel, and his helmet shone bright, and in his hand he had a boar spear, whose point was a full arm's length long. Behind the waggon was another Giant, who appeared more huge and terrible than the first. The Damsels seeing them were greatly terrified, and hid themselves among the trees. Presently the Giant who rode foremost turned to the Dwarfs, and cried, I will cut you into a thousand pieces if you suffer these girls to shed their own blood, for I mean to do sacrifice with it to my god, whom I adore. When Beltenebros heard this, he knew it was Famongomadan, for he had a custom to sacrifice damsels to an Idol in the Boiling Lake, by whose