rt a knight bringing a young squire with him. It was Sir
Aglovale, King Pellinore's son, and the squire was his brother,
Percivale, that he wished King Arthur to make knight. The boy was the
youngest of five sons, and for love of the father and the brothers,
good knights all, the King made him a knight the next day in Camelot;
yet the King and all the knights thought it would be long ere he proved
a man of prowess, and Sir Kay and Sir Mordred made sport of his rude
manner.
At the dinner, when every knight was set after his honour, the King
commanded Sir Percivale to be placed among mean knights. But there was
a maiden in the Queen's court that was come of high blood, yet she was
dumb, and never spake a word. Right so she came straight into the
hall, went unto Sir Percivale, took him by the hand, and said aloud,
that the King and all the knights might hear it, "Arise, Sir Percivale,
the noble knight and God's knight, and go with me."
So he did, and she brought him to the right side of the Siege Perilous,
and said, "Fair knight, take here thy siege, for that siege
appertaineth to thee, and to none other." Right so she departed, and
soon afterward she died. Then the King and all the court made great
joy of Sir Percivale.
Then Sir Percivale rode forth upon adventures, and came unto Cornwall
to seek Sir Tristram. And he delivered him from a prison where King
Mark had placed him, and then rode straight unto King Mark and told him
he had done himself great shame to treat so falsely Sir Tristram, the
knight of most renown in all the world. Then Sir Percivale departed,
but anon King Mark bethought him of more treason, notwithstanding his
promise never by any manner of means to hurt Sir Tristram, and he let
take him and put him again in prison. How he then escaped with Isoud
into England we have already read in the tale of Sir Tristram.
Now it chanced that Sir Launcelot of the Lake had sore offended the
Queen Guenever, and she rebuked him harshly, called him false traitor
knight, and sent him from her court. Therewith he took such an hearty
sorrow at her words that he went clean out of his mind, and leaped out
at a bay window into a garden, and there with thorns he was all
scratched up in his visage. So he ran forth he wist not whither, and
for a long while none of his kin wist what was become of him.
Soon Queen Guenever was right sorry that she had been so angry with her
faithful knight, and on her knees bes
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