As he was ready to go forward in his passion, he looked earnestly on Rosader, and seeing him change color, he rise up and went to him, and holding his temples, said: 

“What cheer, master? though all fail, let not the heart faint:  the courage of a man is showed in the resolution of his death.”

At these words Rosader lifted up his eye, and looking on Adam Spencer, began to weep.

“Ah, Adam,” quoth he, “I sorrow not to die, but I grieve at the manner of my death.  Might I with my lance encounter the enemy, and so die in the field, it were honor and content:  might I, Adam, combate with some wild beast and perish as his prey, I were satisfied; but to die with hunger, O Adam, it is the extremest of all extremes!”

“Master,” quoth he, “you see we are both in one predicament, and long I cannot live without meat; seeing therefore we can find no food, let the death of the one preserve the life of the other.  I am old, and overworn with age, you are young, and are the hope of many honors:  let me then die, I will presently cut my veins, and, master, with the warm blood relieve your fainting spirits:  suck on that till I end, and you be comforted.”

With that Adam Spencer was ready to pull out his knife, when Rosader full of courage (though very faint) rose up, and wished Adam Spencer to sit there till his return; “for my mind gives me,” quoth he, “I shall bring thee meat.”  With that, like a madman, he rose up, and ranged up and down the woods, seeking to encounter some wild beast with his rapier, that either he might carry his friend Adam food, or else pledge his life in pawn for his loyalty.

It chanced that day, that Gerismond, the lawful king of France banished by Torismond, who with a lusty crew of outlaws lived in that forest, that day in honor of his birth made a feast to all his bold yeomen, and frolicked it with store of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table under the shadow of limon trees.  To that place by chance fortune conducted Rosader, who seeing such a crew of brave men, having store of that for want of which he and Adam perished, he stepped boldly to the board’s end, and saluted the company thus: 

“Whatsoever thou be that art master of these lusty squires, I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreme distress may:  know that I and a fellow-friend of mine are here famished in the forest for want of food:  perish we must, unless relieved by thy favors.  Therefore, if thou be a gentleman, give meat to men, and to such men as are every way worthy of life.  Let the proudest squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me in any honorable point of activity whatsoever, and if he and thou prove me not a man, send me away comfortless.  If thou refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will have amongst you with my sword; for rather will I die valiantly, than perish with so cowardly an extreme.”

Gerismond, looking him earnestly in the face, and seeing so proper a gentleman in so bitter a passion, was moved with so great pity, that rising from the table, he took him by the hand and bad him welcome, willing him to sit down in his place, and in his room not only to eat his fill, but be lord of the feast.