The Italian champion and Rosalinde remained behind in the royal castle. But one day the Knight said to her, "My most devoted lady and mistress, for thy sake I'll stand as champion against all comers, but live as a carpet Knight I will not. Though I can tune a lute in a Princess's chamber, I can sound a fierce alarm in the field. Honour calls me forth, dear Rosalinde, and Fame intends to buckle on my armour, which now lies rusting in the idle courts of Thrace. But I protest, wheresoever I come, there will I maintain, to the loss of my life, that both thy love, constancy and beauty surpass those of all dames alive ; and with this promise, my most divine Rosalinde, I bid thee farewell."

"Sir Knight," answered she, "by whom my liberty hath been obtained, the name of lady and mistress is too proud for me. Rather call me handmaid, for on thy noble person will I evermore attend. It is not Thrace that can harbour me when thou art absent ; and before I would forsake thy company and kind fellowship, heaven shall be no heaven, the sea no sea, the earth no earth!" Thus saying, she caught him fast about the neck, from which she would not unloose her hands till he had vowed to make her the companion and partner of his travels.

This being agreed to, she was trimly attired like a page in green sarcenet, her hair bound up most cunningly with a silk list. Her rapier was a Turkish blade, and her poniard of the finest fashion, which she wore at her back, tied with an orange-tawny-coloured scarf, with tassels of silk ; her buskins of the smoothest kid-skin, her spurs of the purest Lydian steel.

All things being in readiness for their departure, the Knight mounted on his eager steed, and Eosalinde on her gentle palfrey, and both bade adieu to the country of Thracia. Therefore smile heavens, and guide them with a most happy star, until they arrive where their souls do most desire, the bravest and boldest Knight that ever wandered by the way, and the loveliest lady that ever eye beheld.

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And the six sisters of Rosalinde turned into milk-white swans? Did they ever get back their human shape?

Yes, they did ; but the tale of it belongs to another champion, St. Andrew of Scotland, who was their deliverer, and must be sought for in the chronicle of his mighty deeds.

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