Then Enid waited pale and sorrowful,
  And down upon him bare the bandit three. 
  And at the midmost charging, Prince Geraint
  Drave the long spear a cubit thro’ his breast
  And out beyond; and then against his brace
  Of comrades, each of whom had broken on him
  A lance that splinter’d like an icicle,
  Swung from his brand a windy buffet out
  Once, twice, to right, to left, and stunn’d the twain
  Or slew them, and dismounting like a man
  That skins the wild beast after slaying him,
  Stript from the three dead wolves of woman born
  The three gay suits of armor which they wore,
  And let the bodies lie, but bound the suits
  Of armor on their horses, each on each,
  And tied the bridle-reins of all the three
  Together, and said to her, “Drive them on
  Before you;” and she drove them thro’ the waste. 
  He follow’d nearer:  ruth began to work
  Against his anger in him, while he watch’d
  The being he loved best in all the world,
  With difficulty in mild obedience
  Driving them on:  he fain had spoken to her,
  And loosed in words of sudden fire the wrath
  And smoulder’d wrong that burnt him all within;
  But evermore it seem’d an easier thing
  At once without remorse to strike her dead,
  Than to cry “Halt,” and to her own bright face
  Accuse her of the least immodesty: 
  And thus tongue-tied, it made him wroth the more
  That she could speak whom his own ear had heard
  Call herself false:  and suffering thus he made
  Minutes an age:  but in scarce longer time
  Than at Caerleon the full-tided Usk,
  Before he turn to fall seaward again,
  Pauses, did Enid, keeping watch, behold
  In the first shallow shade of a deep wood,
  Before a gloom of stubborn-shafted oaks,
  Three other horsemen waiting, wholly arm’d,
  Whereof one seem’d far larger than her lord,
  And shook her pulses, crying, “Look, a prize! 
  Three horses and three goodly suits of arms,
  And all in charge of whom? a girl:  set on.” 
  “Nay,” said the second, “yonder comes a knight.” 
  The third, “A craven; how he hangs his head.” 
  The giant answer’d merrily, “Yea, but one? 
  Wait here, and when he passes fall upon him.”

    And Enid ponder’d in her heart and said,
  “I will abide the coming of my lord,
  And I will tell him all their villany. 
  My lord is weary with the fight before,
  And they will fall upon him unawares. 
  I needs must disobey him for his good;
  How should I dare obey him to his harm? 
  Needs must I speak, and tho’ he kill me for it,
  I save a life dearer to me than mine.”

    And she abode his coming, and said to him
  With timid firmness, “Have I leave to speak?”
  He said, “Ye take it, speaking,” and she spoke.

    “There lurk three villains yonder in the wood,
  And each of them is wholly arm’d, and one
  Is larger-limb’d than you are, and they say
  That they will fall upon you while ye pass.”