bishops. Was there no knight nor any swain, nor good
man that were thane, from the ports of Spain to the towns of Alemaine,
that thither would not have come, if he were (had been) invited; all
for Arthur's dread, of noble race. When all this folk was come; each
king with his people, there men might behold, who were there beside,
many a strange man, who was come to the burgh, and many kind of
tidings (novelties) with Arthur the king There was many a marvellous
cloth (garment); there was many a wrath knight; there were lodgings
nobly prepared; there were the inns, built with strength; there were
on the fields many thousand tents; there came lard and wheat, and oats
without measure; may no man say it in his tale, of the wine and of the
ale; there came hay, there came grass; there came all that was good!

When all this folk was assembled by the good king, when the Whitsunday
came, as the Lord it sent, then came all the bishops before their
king, and the archbishops three, before Arthur; and took the crown,
that was to him by right, and set upon his head with great bliss; so
they gan him lead, all with God's counsel. Saint Dubrich went before--
he was to Christ chosen;--the Archbishop of London walked on his right
hand, and by his left side the same of York. Fifteen bishops went
before, of many lands chosen; they were all clothed with garments most
rich, that were all embroidered with burning gold. There walked four
kings before the kaiser; they bare in their hands four swords of gold.
Thus hight the one, who was a most doughty man, that was Cador the
king, Arthur's darling; the second of Scotland, he bare sword in hand;
and the King of North Wales and the King of South Wales.

And thus they gan lead the king to church; the bishops gan sing before
the monarch, trumpets there blew; bells there rung; knights gan ride,
women forth glide. In certainty it is said, and sooth it is found,
that no man ever ere saw here with earthly men half so great pomp, in
ever any assembly, as was with Arthur, of noble race.

Into church came Arthur the rich man; Dubrich the archbishop--the Lord
was to him full good; of Rome he was legate, and prelate of the
people--he sang the holy mass before the monarch. Came with the queen
women fair; all wives of the rich men that dwelt in the land, and
daughters of the noble men the queen had sought (or selected), all as
the queen had ordered, on pain of their paying full penalty. In the
church, in the so