The damsel goeth her way all alone and all forlorn toward the
grave-yard and the deep of the forest, all dark and shadowy. She hath
ridden until the sun was set and the night draweth nigh. She looketh
before her and seeth a cross, high and wide and thick. And on this
cross was the figure of Our Lord graven, whereof is she greatly
comforted. She draweth nigh the cross, and so kisseth and adoreth it,
and prayeth the Saviour of the world that was nailed on Holy Rood that
He would bring her forth of the burial-ground with honour. The cross
was at the entrance of the grave-yard, that was right spacious, for,
from such time as the land was first peopled of folk, and that knights
began to seek adventure by the forest, not a knight had died in the
forest, that was full great of breadth and length, but his body was
borne thither, nor might never knight there be buried that had not
received baptism and had repented him not of his sins at his death.