moment still, and then turning his horse, rode back to where I
stood looking after him.

"I am ashamed," he said, "to appear a knight, and in such a
guise; but it behoves me to tell you to take warning from me,
lest the same evil, in his kind, overtake the singer that has
befallen the knight. Hast thou ever read the story of Sir
Percival and the"--(here he shuddered, that his armour rang)--
"Maiden of the Alder-tree?"

"In part, I have," said I; "for yesterday, at the entrance of
this forest, I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is
recorded."
"Then take heed," he rejoined; "for, see my armour--I put it off;
and as it befell to him, so has it befallen to me. I that was
proud am humble now. Yet is she terribly beautiful--beware.
Never," he added, raising his head, "shall this armour be
furbished, but by the blows of knightly encounter, until the last
speck has disappeared from every spot where the battle-axe and
sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall; when I shall
again lift my head, and say to my squire, `Do thy duty once more,
and make this armour shine.'"

Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his
horse and galloped away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of
his armour. For I called after him, anxious to know more about
this fearful enchantress; but in vain--he heard me not. "Yet," I
said to myself, "I have now been often warned; surely I shall be
well on my guard; and I am fully resolved I shall not be ensnared
by any beauty, however beautiful. Doubtless, some one man may