"Let me pass," I said.
"When I will," he replied.
Something within me said: "Spear in rest, and ride at him! else thou art
for ever a slave."
I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my lance.
To tell the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook like a coward
before this knight. He gave a scornful laugh, that echoed through the
wood, turned his horse, and said, without looking round, "Follow me."
I obeyed, abashed and stupefied. How long he led, and how long I
followed, I cannot tell. "I never knew misery before," I said to myself.
"Would that I had at least struck him, and had had my death-blow in
return! Why, then, do I not call to him to wheel and defend himself?
Alas! I know not why, but I cannot. One look from him would cow me like
a beaten hound." I followed, and was silent.
At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a dense
forest. It looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to make room for
it. Across the very door, diagonally, grew the stem of a tree, so large
that there was just room to squeeze past it in order to enter. One
miserable square hole in the roof was the only visible suggestion of a
window. Turret or battlement, or projecting masonry of any kind, it had
none. Clear and smooth and massy, it rose from its base, and ended with
a line straight and unbroken. The roof, carried to a centre from each of
the four walls, rose slightly to the point where the rafters met. Round
the base lay several little heaps of either bits of broken branches,
withered and peeled, or half-whitened bones; I could not distinguish
which. As I approached, the ground sounded hollow beneath my horse's
hoofs. The knight took a great key from his pocket, and reaching past
the stem of the tree, with some difficulty opened the door. "Dismount,"
he commanded. I obeyed. He turned my horse's head away from the tower,
gave him a terrible blow with the flat side of his sword, and sent him
madly tearing through the forest.
"Now," said he, "enter, and take your companion with you."
I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay the
horrible shadow. I entered, for I could not help myself; and the shadow
followed me. I had a terrible conviction that the knight and he were
one. The door closed behind me.