It was a sound as of women and boys shouting and screaming in a panic.
Cambell and Triamond stopped their fight for an instant to listen and to look at the place from whence the noise came.
They saw a golden chariot, decked with wonderful ornaments, whirling towards them with the force of a storm. Two fierce lions drew the chariot, and in it sat a lady, whose face shone with beauty and goodness.
It was Triamond’s sister, Cambina, who knew more about magic than almost any one else in all Fairyland.
When the crowds who watched saw her and her growling lions, they huddled together like frightened sheep. Some laughed, most of them screamed, and all of them ran till the dust flew up in clouds.
In one hand Cambina carried a magic wand with two serpents twisted round it. In the other she held a golden cup filled with a magic drink, that made those who drank of it forget all anger and bitterness, and filled their hearts with happiness and friendship and peace.
When Cambina came to the wooden barrier that shut off the watchers from the field where the knights had fought, she softly struck the rail with her wand.
It flew open, and the lions dashed in with Cambina’s glittering chariot.
She got out of her chariot and ran up to the two knights, and begged them to fight no more. But they would not listen, and began to fight again.
Then she knelt on the bloodstained ground, and besought them with tears to lay down their swords. When they still went fiercely on, she smote them lightly with her magic wand.