Far in a wild, unknown to public view,

From youth to age a reverend hermit grew;

The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,

His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well

Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,

Prayer all his business--all his pleasure praise.

--Parnell

The reader cannot have forgotten that the event of the tournament was

decided by the exertions of an unknown knight, whom, on account of the

passive and indifferent conduct which he had manifested on the former

part of the day, the spectators had entitled, "Le Noir Faineant". This

knight had left the field abruptly when the victory was achieved; and

when he was called upon to receive the reward of his valour, he was

nowhere to be found. In the meantime, while summoned by heralds and

by trumpets, the knight was holding his course northward, avoiding all

frequented paths, and taking the shortest road through the woodlands.

He paused for the night at a small hostelry lying out of the ordinary

route, where, however, he obtained from a wandering minstrel news of the

event of the tourney.

On the next morning the knight departed early, with the intention

of making a long journey; the condition of his horse, which he had

carefully spared during the preceding morning, being such as enabled him

to travel far without the necessity of much repose. Yet his purpose was

baffled by the devious paths through which he rode, so that when evening

closed upon him, he only found himself on the frontiers of the

West Riding of Yorkshire. By this time both horse and man required

refreshment, and it became necessary, moreover, to look out for

some place in which they might spend the night, which was now fast

approaching.

The place where the traveller found himself seemed unpropitious for

obtaining either shelter or refreshment, and he was likely to be reduced

to the usual expedient of knights-errant, who, on such occasions, turned

their horses to graze, and laid themselves down to meditate on their

lady-mistress, with an oak-tree for a canopy. But the Black Knight

either had no mistress to meditate upon, or, being as indifferent

in love as he seemed to be in war, was not sufficiently occupied by

passionate reflections upon her beauty and cruelty, to be able to

parry the effects of fatigue and hunger, and suffer love to act as

a substitute for the solid comforts of a bed and supper. He felt

dissatisfied, therefore, when, looking around, he found himself deeply

involved in woods, through which indeed there were many open glades,

and some paths, but such as seemed only formed by the numerous herds of

cattle which grazed in the forest, or by the animals of chase, and the

hunters who made prey of them.




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