"Sir," said the dwarf, "it seems best to me, now that you are free from danger of spying, that you send my lady, Dame Lioness, her ring. It is too precious a thing to keep from her."
"That is well advised," said Gareth. "Take it to her, and say that I recommend myself to her good grace, and will come when I may; and pray her to be true and faithful to me, as I will be to her."
"It shall be done as you command," said the dwarf, and, receiving the ring, he rode on his errand.
The Lady Lioness received him graciously, and listened with beaming eyes to Gareth's message.
"He bade me say that he would not be long from you," answered the dwarf.
Then, bearing a tender reply from the lady, the dwarf sought his master again, and found him impatiently waiting, for he was weary and needed repose.
As they rode forward through the forest a storm of thunder and lightning came up suddenly, and it rained as if heaven and earth were coming together. On through this conflict of the elements rode the weary knight and the disconsolate dwarf, under the drenching leaves of the forest, until night was near at hand. And still it thundered and lightened as if all the spirits of the air had gone mad.
At last, through an opening in the trees, Gareth to his delight beheld the towers of a castle, and heard the watchman's call upon its walls.
"Good luck follows bad, my worthy dwarf," he cried. "Here is shelter; let us to it."
He rode to the barbican of the castle and called to the porter, praying him in courteous language to let him in from the storm.
"Go thy way," cried the porter, surlily; "thou gettest no lodging here."
"Say not so, fair sir. I am a knight of King Arthur's, and pray the lord or lady of this castle to give me harbor for love of the king."
Then the porter went to the duchess, and told her that a knight of King Arthur's sought shelter.
"I will see him," said the duchess; "for King Arthur's sake he shall not go harborless."
Then she went up into a tower over the gate, with great torch-light, that she might behold the storm-stayed wayfarer. When Gareth saw the light, he cried loudly,--
"Whether thou be lord or lady, giant or champion, I pray for harbor this night. If it be that I must fight for my lodging, spare me that till morning, when I have rested, for I and my horse are both weary."