to carry to the Tartarian Court, according to his promise, whilst he himself travelled towards Barbary, where our muse will now attend him.
CHAP. VII.
How St. George arrived at Tripoli in Barbary, from
whence he stole away Sabrine the King of Egypt's
Daughter from the black-a-moor King, and how she was
known to be a pure virgin by the means of two lions
THE noble St. George having, after many weary steps got to the kingdom of Barbary, he thought it vain to attempt upon Almidor by force of arms, feeing he was attended by so many worthy knights and yet desiring above all things, to have a fight of his beloved Sabrine, for whose sake he had endured so long imprisonment; therefore he resolved to patch out the lion’s skin with the fox’s tail, and gain by policy what he could not gain by force; to this end he exchanged his horse, armour and furniture with a palmer for his gown, staff and scrip, and so accoutred, went directly to the court, where he beheld a number of palmers, waiting in the gate for alms, which the queen herself in person daily bellowed, in remembrance of the English Champion; in distributing of which, when she espied this strange palmar, remembering how he resembled the princely countenance of St. George, He took him by the hand and led him aside from all the company, where he soon made himself known to her, who wept for joy of finding him whom she never expected to see again; and after some short discourse of her health and walfare, she related to him, how her father had forced her to marry Almidor against her will, but tho' outwardly she was linked to him, yet none but St. George enjoyed her heart, for whose love she had hitherto continued a pure virgin, by virtue of a golden chain steeped in tyger’s blood, which she wore seven times doubled about her neck. Then delivered she to
