_IV.--Love in the Forest_


Furiously did his horse bear him on through the thorns and briars that
tore his clothes and scratched his body, so that you could have followed
the track of his blood on the grass. But neither hurt nor pain did he
feel, for he thought only of Nicolette. All day he sought for her in the
forest, and when evening drew on, he began to weep because he had not
found her. Night fell, but still he rode on; and he came at last to the
place where the seven roads met, and there he saw the lodge of green
boughs and lily-flowers which Nicolette had made.

"Ah, heaven," said Aucassin, "here Nicolette has been, and she has made
this lodge with her own fair hands! For the sweetness of it, and for
love of her, I will sleep here to-night."

As he sat in the lodge, Aucassin saw the evening star shining through a
gap in the boughs, and he sang:

Star of eve! Oh, star of love,
Gleaming in the sky above!
Nicolette, the bright of brow,
Dwells with thee in heaven now.
God has set her in the skies
To delight my longing eyes;
And her clear and yellow hair
Shines upon the darkness there.
Oh! my lady, would that I
Swiftly up to thee could fly.