"Take him away, that I may mount on his horse."

So he drew the dead man's feet out of the stirrups, and dragged
him away to where the bracken grew deep, and laid him down there,
so to say hidden. Then he turned back to the lady, who was pacing up
and down near the horse as the beast fed quietly on the cool grass.
When Ralph came back she took the reins in her hand and put one
foot in the stirrup as if she would mount at once; but suddenly
lighted down again, and turning to Ralph, cast her arms about him,
and kissed his face many times, blushing red as a rose meantime.
Then lightly she gat her up into the saddle, and bestrode the beast,
and smote his flanks with her heels, and went her ways riding speedily
toward the south-east, so that she was soon out of sight.

But Ralph stood still looking the way she had gone and wondering at
the adventure; and he pondered her words and held debate with himself
whether he should take the road she bade him. And he said within himself:
"Hitherto have I been safe and have got no scratch of a weapon upon me,
and this is a place by seeming for all adventures; and little way moreover
shall I make in the night if I must needs go to Hampton under Scaur,
where dwell those peaceable people; and it is now growing dusk already.
So I will abide the morning hereby; but I will be wary and let the wood
cover me if I may."

Therewith he went and drew the body of the slain man down into a little
hollow where the bracken was high and the brambles grew strong, so that it
might not be lightly seen. Then he called to him Falcon, his horse,
and looked about for cover anigh the want-way, and found a little thin
coppice of hazel and sweet chestnut, just where two great oaks had been
felled a half score years ago; and looking through the leaves thence,