hat it was for
his sake that I sent my damsel to meet you at the cross-roads awhile ago.
But of that, more anon; for see! the feast is now spread which we have
prepared for your entertainment. So let us first eat and drink and make
merry together, and then we shall speak further of this matter."

[Sidenote: The Lady of the Lake prepareth a feast for King Arthur] So they
all six went and sat down to the table that had been spread for them in the
open meadow-land. For the night was very pleasant and warm and a wonderful
full moon shone down upon them with a marvellous lustre, and there was a
pleasant air, soft and warm, from the forest, and, what with the scores of
bright waxen tapers that stood in silver candlesticks upon the table (each
taper sparkling as bright as any star), the night was made all illuminate
like to some singular mid-day. There was set before them a plenty of divers
savory meats and of several excellent wines, some as yellow as gold, and
some as red as carbuncle, and they ate and they drank and they made merry
in the soft moonlight with talk and laughter. Somewhiles they told Sir
Pellias and the lady of all that was toward at court at Camelot;
otherwhiles Sir Pellias and the lady told them such marvellous things
concerning the land in which they two dwelt that it would be hard to
believe that the courts of Heaven could be fairer than the courts of
Fairyland whence they had come.

Then, after the feast was ended, the Lady of the Lake said to King Arthur,
"Sir, an I have won your favor in any way, there is a certain thing I would
ask of you." To the which King Arthur made reply: "Ask it, Lady, and it
shall be granted thee, no matter what it may be." "Sir," said the Lady of
the Lake, "this is what I would ask of you. I would ask you to look upon
this youth who sits beside me. He is so dear to me that I cannot very well
make you know how dear he is. I have brought him hither from our
dwelling-place for one certain reason; to wit, that you should make him
knight. That is the great favor I would ask of you. To this intent I have
brought armor and all the appurtenances of knighthood; for he is of such
noble lineage that no armor in the world could be too good for him."

"Lady," quoth King Arthur, "I will do what you ask with much pleasure and
gladness. But, touching that armor of which you speak, it is my custom to
provide anyone whom I make a knight with armor of mine own choosing."

To this the Lady of th