‘Why did you not follow on the scent of the deer?’
‘It lay so thinly, your Majesty, that the dogs could not follow, and they soon gave in.’
‘But you should have followed me, at any rate.’
‘Ah, your Majesty, we might as well have tried to prove the moon was made of green cheese. Besides, your Majesty had one cavalier; and sometimes two’s company and three’s none.’
Just at this moment the Princess remembered the Knight.
‘Good gracious!’ she said, ‘what has become of the Knight—have none of you seen him?’
But none of them had, and although the question went far and wide no news came of him, nor could he be seen anywhere.
‘He must have been caught by the Magi—if so, he will have been devoured to a certainty! Poor Knight!’
The chief huntsman seemed excited: