The brave knight rushed up to him with his drawn sword.

‘You have slain the Red Cross Knight,’ he said; ‘come and fight and be punished for your evil deed.’

‘I never slew the Red Cross Knight,’ said Sansloy, in a great rage. ‘Your enemies have sent you to me to be killed.’

Then, like two wild beasts, they fought, only resting sometimes for a moment that they might rush at each other again with the more strength and fury.

Blood poured from their wounds, the earth was trampled by their feet, and the sound of their fierce blows rang through the air.

Una was so terrified at the dreadful sight that she ran away and left them fighting furiously.

Before she had gone far she saw a little figure running through the woods towards her. It was her own dwarf, and his woful face told her that some evil thing had happened to the Red Cross Knight.

The knight had had many adventures[Pg 14] since he left her in the magician’s hut, and at last a giant had caught him, and kept him a prisoner in a dreary dungeon. The dwarf had run away, lest the giant should kill him.

Una loved the Red Cross Knight so much that her heart almost broke when she heard the dwarf’s story. But she made up her mind to find her knight and free him. So on she went, up hill and down dale, beaten by driving rain and buffeted by bitter winds.

At last, by good chance, she met a knight and his squire. This knight was the good Prince Arthur, of all the knights of the Faerie Queen the bravest and the best. To him she told her sorrowful tale.

‘Be of good cheer and take comfort,’ said the good prince. ‘I will never leave you until I have freed the Red Cross Knight.’

And the prince kept his promise.

The story of St. George a