"Now when I heard this story I said to myself that I should hear
that other one of the slaying of my brother, and even so it befell.
For I came across a man who told me when and how the Lord came
by the said damsel (whom I knew at once could be none other
than thou, Lady,) and how he had slain my brother to get her,
even as doubtless thou knowest, Lord Ralph.
"But the second thing which I learned was that all folk at Utterbol,
men and women, dreaded the home-coming of this tyrant;
and that there was no man but would have deemed it a good deed
to slay him. But, dastard as he was, use and wont, and the fear
that withholdeth rebels, and the doubt that draweth back slaves,
saved him; and they dreaded him moreover as a devil rather than a man.
Forsooth one of the men there, who looked upon me friendly, who had
had tidings of this evil beast drawing near, spake to me a word
of warning, and said: 'Friend lion-master, take heed to thyself!
For I fear for thee when the Lord cometh home and findeth thee here;
lest he let poison thy lion and slay thee miserably afterward.'
"Well, in three days from that word home cometh the Lord with a rout
of his spearmen, and some dozen of captives, whom he had taken.
And the morrow of his coming, he, having heard of me, sent and bade me
showing the wonder of the Man and the Lion; therefore in the bright morning
I played with the lion under his window as I had done by the Queen.
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