doors and enjoy these things; wherefore I ordain that we shall go
a-hunting this day and that ye and I shall start before any others of the
lords and the ladies that dwell herein are awake. So let us take our horses
and our hounds and let us take certain foresters and huntsmen, and let us
go forth a-hunting into the green forest; for this day shall be holiday for
me and for you and we shall leave care behind us, and for a while we shall
disport ourselves in pleasant places."

So they all did as King Arthur bade; they made them each man ready with his
own hands, and they bade the huntsmen and the foresters to attend thereupon
as the King had ordained. Then they rode forth from the castle and out into
the wide world that lay beyond, and it was yet so early in the morning that
none of the castle folk were astir to know of their departure.

All that day they hunted in the forest with much joy and with great sport,
nor did they turn their faces toward home again until the day was so far
spent that the sun had sunk behind the tops of the tall leafy trees. Then,
at that time, King Arthur gave command that they should bend their ways
toward Camelot once more.

[Sidenote: King Arthur and his companions find a strange damsel and a
dwarf] Now this time, being the Eve of Saint John, fairies and those folk
who are fay come forth, as is very well known, into the world from which
they dwell apart at other times. So when King Arthur and those two knights
and their several foresters and huntsmen came to a certain outlying part of
the forest, they were suddenly aware of a damsel and a dwarf waiting where
the road upon which they were travelling crossed another road, and they
perceived, from her very remarkable appearance, that the damsel was very
likely Fay. For both she and her dwarf sat each upon a milk-white horse,
very strangely still, close to where was a shrine by a hedge of hawthorne;