"My name's Huon," said the officer, and he extended one of the huge deformed hands.

"You are very big and strong and quick, monsieur," said the officer Huon, simply.

The officer Huon spoke English, and upon his words Dorn hung spellbound.

" Huon talked on and on, with the eloquence of a Frenchman who relieves himself of a burden.

BERNERS, JOHN BOUCHIER, LORD, writer or translator of romance; was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1516, and governor of Calais from 1520; translated Froissart's "Huon of Bordeaux," &c. BERNERS, JULIANA, writer on hunting and hawking; lived in the 14th century; said to have been prioress of a nunnery.

"With evil eye, from Huon's courteous hand, Filled to the brim, the heathen takes the bowl Back from his lip th' indignant bubbles roll!

With a blasphemous exclamation the Saracen flung aside the cup, and seeing that his own steed had been slain by the lion, he sprang unceremoniously upon Huon's horse, and rode rapidly away.

As there was but one mount left for them both, Huon and Sherasmin were now obliged to proceed more slowly to Bagdad, where they found every hostelry full, as the people were all coming thither to witness the approaching nuptials of the princess, Rezia (Esclamonde), and Babican, King of Hyrcania.

Huon and Sherasmin, after a long search, finally found entertainment in a little hut, where an old woman, the mother of the princess's attendant, entertained them by relating that the princess was very reluctant to marry.

Huon listened in breathless rapture, for he now felt assured that the princess Rezia was the radiant creature he had seen in his dream, and that Oberon intended them for each other.

That selfsame night, Huon and Rezia were again visited by sweet dreams, in which Oberon, their guardian spirit, promised them his aid.

[Sidenote: Huon's success.]

The sudden movement caused Huon's turban to fall off, however, and the princess, seated at the caliph's right, gazed spellbound upon the knight, whose golden locks fell in rich curls about his shoulders.

The most popular, however, states that Huon, taking advantage of the first moments of surprise, kissed Rezia thrice, slipping on her finger, in sign of betrothal, the magic ring which he had taken from Angoulaffre.

While they were thus occupied, Huon conducted the willing Rezia to the door, where Sherasmin was waiting for them with fleet steeds, and with Fatima, the princess's favorite attendant.

While Sherasmin helped the ladies to mount, Huon hastened back to the palace hall, and found that the exhausted caliph had sunk upon a divan.

Huon was now forced to defend himself with a curtain pole and a golden bowl, until, needing aid, he suddenly blew a resounding peal upon his magic horn.

Then he placed his silver car at Huon's disposal, to bear him and his bride and attendants to Ascalon, where a ship was waiting to take them back to France.

When Huon and Rezia were about to embark at Ascalon, Oberon appeared.

One last test of Huon's loyalty was required, however; for Oberon, at parting, warned him to make no attempt to claim Rezia as his wife until their union had been blessed at Rome by the Pope.

"'And deep, O Huon! grave it in your brain!

He was propitiated by the gift, and as the sight of Huon and Amanda's fidelity had convinced him that wives could be true, he took Titania back into favor, and reinstated her as queen of his realm.

There Huon arrived just in time to win, at the point of his lance, his patrimony of Guienne, which Charlemagne had offered as prize at a tournament.

Oberon then produced the missing casket, revealed Girard's treachery, and, after seeing him punished, bore Huon and Esclarmonde off to fairyland.

Huon eventually became ruler of this realm in Oberon's stead; and his daughter, Claretie, whose equally marvelous adventures are told at great length in another, but far less celebrated, chanson de geste, is represented as the ancestress of all the Capetian kings of France.