There then she stayed the horse, and, flushed and panting,
got lightly into the saddle and bestrode it, and, leaning
over on the beast's neck, smote his flanks with her heels;
the horse was fresh, though his master had been weary,
whereas the said messenger had gotten him from a forester
some six miles away in the wood that morning, so the nag
answered to her call for speed, and she went a great gallop
into the wood, and was hidden in a twinkling from any eyes
that might be looking out of the Castle.

Without checking the nag she sped along, half mad with joy
at the freedom of this happy morn. Nigh aimless she was,
but had an inkling that it were well with her if she could
hold northward ever; for the old man aforesaid had told her
of Oakenrealm, and how it lay northward of them; so that way
she drifted as the thicket would suffer her. When she had
gone as much of a gallop as she might for some half hour,
she drew rein to breathe her nag, and hearkened; she turned
in the saddle, but heard nought to affright her, so she went
on again, but some what more soberly; and thuswise she rode
for some two hours, and the day waxed hot, and she was come
to a clear pool amidst of a little clearing, covered with
fine greensward right down to the water's edge.

There she made stay, and got off her horse, and stood awhile
by him as he cropped the sweet grass; and the birds sang at
the edge of the thicket, and the rabbits crept and gambolled
on the other side of the water; and from the pool's edge the