In the upper chamber of a small cottage, covered with ivy and vines, lay the lord of Mountfidget, hurt unto death. For one of the arrows had touched him on the nape of the neck, and the point had been dipped in the oil of strychnine. And there leaned over his couch a widow, watching him from moment to moment, touching his lips ever and anon with orange juice mixed with brandy, and wiping the clammy dew from his cold brow. “Lord of Mountfidget,” she said, “when my dear husband was torn from my widowed arms, thy father gave unto the poor widow this cottage. Would I could repay the debt with my heart’s blood.” + 

“Aha! alas! alack! and well-a-day,” said the young lord. “Nought can repay me now⁠—either interest or principal. All my money at all the banks cannot prolong my life one hour. No, nor my beeves and swine, though they outnumber the stars of heaven, and are fatter than a butter-tub. It is all up with poor Mountfidget.” + 

“Nay; say not so, my lord. If only I could reach the wise man that liveth in the mullioned chamber of the north tower, he hath a medicine that might yet be of avail.” + 

Then Mountfidget demanded who was the wise man, and where was the mullioned chamber of the north tower; and when he learned that aid could be had only from the Castle of Grandnostrel, he sighed amain, and sighed again, and then thus he addressed the widow; “Ay, help from Grandnostrel;⁠—yes; but not such aid as that. I want no greybearded senior to rack my dying brains with wise saws; but, if it might be given me to let my eyes rest but once on the form of the gentle Euphemia, methinks I could die contented.” + 

Then the door of the chamber was opened, and there entered a young page, whose slashed doublet and silken hose were foul with the mud of many lanes, and the dirt of the forest clung to his short cloak, and his hair was wet with the dropping of the leaves, and his cap was crushed and his jacket was torn. “He is here! he is here!” said the page. “I have followed him by his blood through the forest.” Then the page fell at the bed-foot, and there he fainted. + 