the same time secured a large quantity of baggage, and the troop immediately hastened their return towards the city, where their appearance excited no small consternation.  The king, having mounted a watch-tower, had descried his small garrison of knights engaged in a distant action with very superior numbers; after which, seeing a large body in full march for the city, he concluded Eliduc had betrayed him; caused the gates to be shut, the alarm to be sounded, and commanded the citizens to defend the walls.  But being quickly undeceived, he welcomed his deliverer with transports of joy and gratitude; and, after receiving his oath of allegiance for a year, invested him with the supreme military command, and assigned ample pensions to himself and all his attendants.  The king’s daughter, the beautiful Guilliadun, became anxious in her turn to behold the extraordinary stranger, who had confirmed her father in his throne, by means of a troop of knights, who scarcely appeared competent to the defence of the walls.  She invited him to an audience, to which he was formally introduced by one of her chamberlains; seated him near her on a bed; and entered into conversation on a variety of indifferent topics.  But during the discourse, she could not help remarking that this consummate warrior and statesman was young and handsome; and found her heart completely engaged.  After sighing and turning pale, and making many reflections on the indelicacy of avowing her passion, she would probably have done it, if the knight had not, by respectfully taking leave, put an end to the interview.  He, in the mean time, had not been blind to her perfections, her youth, beauty, simplicity and frankness of character, and, above all, those artless sighs which assured him of her affection, had made an indelible impression on his heart.  At length the image of his wife, and his solemn assurances of fidelity, interrupted the dream of happiness in which he had involuntarily indulged; but the interruption became painful; and while he mentally repeated the promise of adhering to duty, he felt that promise disavowed by his inclination.  Guilliadun, after a sleepless night, found it impossible to keep her secret, and having summoned a trusty chamberlain, confided to him her sudden, and, as she thought, inexplicable passion.  After a long discussion, she at length, at his suggestion, dispatched him to the knight with the usual salutations of courtesy, and with the present of her ring and a rich girdle.  Eliduc immediately replied by an equally courteous message; put the ring on his finger; bound the girdle round his loins; offered a rich present to the chamberlain, who declined it; but avoided all discussion on the subject of his message.  The impatient princess was almost driven to despair by the report of her chamberlain, who, though convinced that Eliduc could not be insensible to the kindness of his mistress, was unable to satisfy her mind, or even his own, concerning the cause of such extreme