So,
upon a certain day, in the late autumn season he was minded to go forth
a-hunting, although the day was very cold and bleak.
About the prime of the day the hounds started, of a sudden, a very
wonderful stag. For it was white and its horns were gilded very bright,
shining like pure gold, so that the creature itself appeared like a living
miracle in the forest. When this stag broke cover, the hounds immediately
set chase to it with a great outcry of yelling, as though they were
suddenly gone frantic, and when the King beheld the creature, he also was
immediately seized as with a great fury for chasing it. For, beholding it,
he shouted aloud and drove spurs into his horse, and rushed away at such a
pass that his court was, in a little while, left altogether behind him, and
he and the chase were entirely alone in the forest.
[Sidenote: King Meliadus chases the stag] The stag, with the hounds close
behind it, ran at a great rate through the passes of the woodlands, and
King Meliadus pursued it with might and main until the chase burst out of
the forest into an open plain beyond the woodland.
Pages:
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184