CHAPTER VII.
REFLECTIONS.
Left alone with Lady, his mare, Richard could not help brooding--rather than pondering--over what the old woman had said.

Not that for a moment he contemplated as a possibility the acceptance of the witch's offer.

To come himself into any such close relations with her as that would imply, was in repulsiveness second only to the idea of subjecting Dorothy to her influences.

For something to occupy his hands, that his mind might be restless at will, he gave his mare a careful currying, then an extra feed of oats, and then a gallop; after which it was time to go to bed.
I doubt if anything but the consciousness of crime will keep healthy youth awake, and as such consciousness is generally far from it, youth seldom counts the watches of the night.

Richard soon fell fast asleep, and dreamed that his patron saint--alas for his protestantism!--appeared to him, handed him a lance headed with a single flashing diamond, and told him to go and therewith kill the dragon.