himself nor own his love to Emelie, lest he should instantly be put to death.
And now it happened that, after many trials, Palamon escaped from prison. He determined to go at once to Thebes, and, if possible, stir up his friends to war against Theseus, that in this way he might force him to bestow Emelie on him as his wife. Just outside the city of Athens was a wood where Arcite was wont to walk and lament the cruel fate which placed him so near Emelie as her serving-man, while it forbade him to speak to her as a true knight who loved her. On the very eve that Palamon had escaped, he walked by himself in this wood and recounted aloud the sighs he had breathed, the pangs he had suffered, and all that had befallen him since his return to Athens. Now in this very spot Palamon was hiding to wait for the next day’s dawn to go on his journey, and from a leafy covert he heard all Arcite’s complaints. At the close of his speech he suddenly burst out upon him.
“ False traitor!” he cried. “ Stain on fair knighthood! Perjured Arcite! Darest still to love my lady, for whose sweet sake I have burst through stone walls and iron bars? If I had a weapon I could slay thee, but weaponless as I am, I defy thee here. Choose, then, if thou wilt give up Emelie or die.”
