“There was once, as old stories tell, a certain Duke Theseus, lord and governor of Athens.  The same was a great warrior and conqueror of realms.  He defeated the Amazons, and wedded the queen of that country, Hypolita.  After his marriage, the duke, his wife, and his sister Emily, with all their host, were riding towards Athens, when they were aware that a company of ladies, clad in black, were kneeling two by two on the highway, wringing their hands and filling the air with lamentations.  The duke, beholding this piteous sight, reined in his steed and inquired the reason of their grief.  Whereat one of the ladies, queen to the slain King Capeneus, told him that at the siege of Thebes (of which town they were), Creon, the conqueror, had thrown the bodies of their husbands in a heap, and would on no account allow them to be buried, so that their limbs were mangled by vultures and wild beasts.  At the hearing of this great wrong, the duke started down from his horse, took the ladies one by one in his arms and comforted them, sent Hypolita and Emily home, displayed his great white banner, and immediately rode towards Thebes with his host.  Arriving at the city, he attacked boldly, slew the tyrant Creon with his own hand, tore down the houses,—­wall, roof, and rafter,—­and then gave the bodies to the weeping ladies that they might be honourably interred.  While searching amongst the slain Thebans, two young knights were found grievously wounded, and by the richness of their armour they were known to be of the blood royal.  These young knights, Palamon and Arcite by name, the duke carried to Athens and flung into perpetual prison.  Here they lived year by year in mourning and woe.  It happened one May morning that Palamon, who by the clemency of his keeper was roaming about in an upper chamber, looked out and beheld Emily singing in the garden and gathering flowers.  At the sight of the beautiful apparition he started and cried, ‘Ha!’ Arcite rose up, crying, ’Dear cousin, what is the matter?’ when he too was stricken to the heart by the shaft of her beauty.  Then the prisoners began to dispute as to which had the better right to love her.  Palamon said he had seen her first; Arcite said that in love each man fought for himself; and so they disputed day by day.  Now, it so happened that at this time the Duke Perotheus came to visit his old playfellow and friend Theseus, and at his intercession Arcite was liberated, on the condition that on pain of death he should never again be found in the Athenian dominions.  Then the two knights grieved in their hearts.  ‘What matters liberty?’ said Arcite,—­’I am a banished man!  Palamon in his dungeon is happier than I. He can see Emily and be gladdened by her beauty!’ ‘Woe is me!’ said Palamon; ’here must I remain in durance.  Arcite is abroad; he may make sharp war on the Athenian border, and win Emily by the sword.’  When Arcite returned to his native city he became so thin and pale with sorrow that his friends scarcely knew