"Well," said he, "then those nights we must sleep in the forest. How
will that suit you, child?"

"Ah, my lord," breathed the girl, "I have very often slept there."

"And what shall we do for food, Isoult?"

"I will provide for that, my lord."




CHAPTER IX

THE BLOOD-CHASE AND THE LOVE-CHASE


It was by this time high noon, hot and still. Having climbed the
ridge, they found themselves at the edge of a dense beech-wood, to
which there appeared no end. From their vantage-ground they could see
that the land sloped very gradually away into the distance; upon it
the giant trees stood like pillars of a church, whose floor was brown
with the waste and litter of a hundred years. Long alleys of shade
stretched out on all sides of them into the dark unknown of Mid-
Morgraunt; there seemed either no way or countless ways before them,
and one as good as the other. They rested themselves in sheer
bewilderment, ate of the bread and apples which Isoult had brought
with her; then Prosper found out how tired he was.

"Wife," said he, "if all the devils in Christendom were after me it