“But presently I saw weapons glitter on the other side of the square place, and men with bended bows.  The yellow king saw them also, and rose up again and stood growling; then I strove to quiet him, and said, ‘These shall not harm thee.’

“Therewith the men cried out to me to come away, for they would shoot:  But I called out; ‘Shoot not yet! but tell me, does any man own this beast?’ ‘Yea,’ said one, ‘I own him, and happy am I that he doth not own me.’  Said I, ‘Wilt thou sell him?’ ‘Yea’ said he, ’if thou livest another hour to tell down the money.’  Said I, ’I am a tamer of wild beasts, and if thou wilt sell this one at such a price, I will rid thee of him.’  The man yeasaid this, but kept well aloof with his fellows, who looked on, handling their weapons.

“Then I turned to my new-bought thrall and bade him come with me, and he followed me like a dog to his cage, which was hard by; and I shut him in there, and laid down the money to his owner; and folk came round about, and wondered, and praised me.  But I said:  ’My masters, have ye naught of gifts for the tamer of beasts, and the deliverer of men?’ Thereat they laughed:  but they brought me money and other goods, till I had gotten far more than I had given for the lion.

“Howbeit the next day the officers of the Porte came and bade me avoid the town of Goldburg, but gave me more money withal.  I was not loth thereto, but departed, riding a little horse that I had, and leading my lion by a chain, though when I was by he needed little chaining.

“So that without more ado I took the road to Utterbol, and wheresoever I came, I had what was to be had that I would; neither did any man fall on me, or on my lion.  For though they might have shot him or slain him with many spear-thrusts, yet besides that they feared him sorely, they feared me still more; deeming me some mighty sending from their Gods.

“Thus came I to Utterness, and found it poor and wretched, (as forsooth, it yet is, but shall not be so for long).  But the House of Utterbol is exceeding fair and stately (as thou mightest have learned from others, my master,) and its gardens, and orchards, and acres, and meadows as goodly as may be.  Yea, a very paradise; yet the dwellers therein as if it were hell, as I saw openly with mine own eyes.

“To be short, the fame of me and my beast had somehow gone before me, and when I came to the House, I was dealt with fairly, and had good entertainment:  and this all the more, as the Lord was away for a while, and the life of folk not so hard by a great way as it had been if he had been there:  but the Lady was there in the house, and on the morrow of my coming by her command, I brought my lion before her window and made him come and go, and fetch and carry at my bidding, and when I had done my play she bade me up into her bower, and bade me sit and had me served with wine, while she asked me many questions as to my country and friends, and whence and whither I was; and I answered her with the very sooth, so far as the sooth was handy; and there was with her but one of her women, even thy friend Agatha, fair sir.