“To this King Richard could not make any reply; and I was obliged to leave the court once more deprived of my ring, and in deep melancholy. Yet I lingered for some time in that country, hoping that, as Sir Folko had been always so fortunate in arms, I might yet get the better of him by stratagem and artifice. Accordingly I learned that he intended making a journey into Wales, in order to behold with his own eyes the fortresses and ruined castles where, in old times, King Arthur, and his knights of the round table, had fought and banquetted. Determined to brave all dangers, I ventured before him among the Welsh mountains, and, disguising myself in an old rusty coat of mail and helmet, with the visor down, I waited for him in a retired valley, through which I knew that he must of necessity pass. He came up in due time, and in a deep rough voice, which my closed visor helped me to disguise, I challenged him to an immediate and mortal combat. He demanded to know my name, and the cause of my challenge, but I declined giving that information, and affected to think that he only sought a pretext to evade our engagement. Furiously incensed, he then leaped from his horse, (as I was on foot), with his armour and weapons rattling and glancing, so that I had almost fainted from terror. I recovered myself, however, and said to him, that I would not fight with him till he had taken his enchanted ring from his finger, as it was well known that this alone made him invincible, and that without such aid he was weak and cowardly as a child. With an exclamation of anger and contempt, he then pulled off his iron glove, threw the ring down on the grass, which I directly seized upon, at the same moment throwing off my visor’d helmet, and saying,--‘Now, perhaps, Sir Folko de Montfaucon will recognize Gabrielle de Portamour, and he will doubtless have too much generosity to take the ring from a young damsel who has here no protector, or even to delay her intended journey.’ He bowed, and was silent. After a pause, however, he said, ‘I shall have the honour, lady, to meet you again in inhabited places, where you will doubtless find a choice of defenders.’ Thereupon I directly made my escape, and having my attendants in waiting with my horses, I rode away as fast as possible to the sea-shore, where I was lucky enough to find a ship that brought me over in safety, and with favourable winds, to Germany, which country I now preferred to France, because I had heard that it was the very temple and chief resort of brave and generous knights.