"Sir," said the shepherd again, "we were sitting here by the spring, just as we are now. It was between the first hour and the third hour. We were eating our bread here, when there came up a girl who was the most beautiful creature in the world, so that we thought she was a fairy; for the whole wood was lighted up by her. "She gave us so much of her money that we promised her that, if you passed by here, we would tell you that you must go and hunt in the forest; and that there was such a creature, that, if you caught her, you would not sell one of her joints,--no, not for five hundred marks of silver,--and also that you would be cured of your disease. She also said that, if you did not catch this creature before three days had passed, you would never see her. Go to the hunt, then, if you please, or do not go to the hunt, if you do not please: as to that, I have nothing to do. I have told my message." "You have said quite enough, my boys," replied Aucassin. "God grant that I may meet her!" [_Now they sing it._] Aucassin most gladly heard Every sweet and loving word Of his darling of the charming face: In his heart they pierced him so, That he left the shepherds good, And plunged into the deepest wood, Where'er his horse might choose to go. "O Nicolette, my sweet!" He sighed as sadly as before, "It is you I hope to meet: I do not hunt nor deer or boar. In this forest black It is you I track, That I this blessed day Your pretty smile may greet, May see your pretty eyes of gray; See you, my darling sweet! For oh! the Almighty I implore That I may see your face once more, My dear!" [_Now they tell it, and speak it, and talk it._] Aucassin wandered here and there in the forest, just as his horse might carry him. Do not think that the brambles and briers spared him. I can tell you that they tore his clothes so that he had hardly a rag left upon him. And the blood ran down his arms, his sides, and his legs, in thirty or forty different places; so that you might have tracked him in the wood by the red drops which he left on the grass wherever he went. But Aucassin was all the time thinking of his darling sweetheart Nicolette, so that he did not once feel any pain. So he travelled through the forest all day long, without gaining any news of his beautiful sweetheart; and, when he saw the night coming on, he began to weep bitterly. As he was riding along through an old path, where the bushes had grown up thick and high, he saw before him, right in the middle of the road, a man whom I will describe to you.