Stories from the Faerie Queen, Told to the Children

by Edmund Spenser; Jean Lang

But the wild people of the woods were more gentle than the cowardly knight. When they saw Una, so beautiful and so frightened and so sad, they smiled at her to show her that they meant to be kind. Then they knelt before her to show her that they would obey her, and gently kissed her feet.

So Una was no longer afraid, and when the wild people saw that she trusted them, they were so glad that they jumped and danced and sang for joy. They broke off green branches and strewed them before her as she walked, and they crowned her with leaves to show that she was their queen. And so they led her home to their chief, and he and the beautiful nymphs of the wood all welcomed her with gladness.

For a long time Una lived with them and was their queen, but at last a brave knight came that way. His father had been a wild man of the woods, but his mother was a gentle lady. He was brave and bold as his father had been. When he was a little boy and lived with the wild people, he used to steal the baby lions from their mothers just for fun, and drive panthers, and antelopes, and wild boars, and tigers and wolves with bits and bridles, as if they were playing at horses. But he was gentle like his mother, although he was so fearless. And when Una told him the story of the Red Cross Knight and the lion, and of all her adventures, his heart was filled with pity. He vowed to help her to escape, and to try to find the Red Cross Knight. So one day he and she ran away, and by night had got far out of reach of the wild men of the woods.

When the wicked magician knew of Una’s escape, he dressed himself up like a pilgrim and came to meet her and the brave knight of the forest.

‘Have you seen, or have you heard anything about my true knight, who bears a red cross on his breast?’ asked Una of the old man.

‘Ah yes,’ said the magician, ‘I have seen him both living and dead. To-day I saw a terrible fight between him and another knight, and the other knight killed him.’

When Una heard this cruel lie she fell down in a faint. The brave young knight lifted her up and gently tried to comfort her.

‘Where is this man who has slain the Red Cross Knight, and taken from us all our joy?’ he asked of the false pilgrim.

‘He is near here now,’ said the magician. ‘I left him at a fountain, washing his wounds.’

Off hurried the knight, so fast that Una could not keep up with him, and sure enough, at a fountain they found a knight sitting. It was the wicked Sansloy who had killed Una’s lion and carried her away.