o other happy
days in the open air, when he could again shield the lady from the
roughness of the road.

But when the Lady Ettarde saw that Sir Pelleas was following her
into her own country, she was angry.

'I will not have the knight near me,' she said proudly to her
ladies. 'I will have an older warrior for my love.' And they knew
their lady's cruel ways, and in pity kept the knight away.

As they rode along the days seemed long to Pelleas, for he neither
saw nor spoke to the Lady Ettarde.

When she got near her own castle, she rode on more swiftly, telling
her lords and ladies to follow her closely. The drawbridge was
down, and the Lady Ettarde rode across it, and waiting only till
her lords and ladies crossed it, ordered the bridge to be drawn up,
while Pelleas was still on the other side.

The knight was puzzled. Was this a test of his love too, or did the
lady for whom he had won the golden circlet indeed not care for
him? But that he would not believe. 'She will grow kinder if I am
faithful,' he thought, and he lived in a tent beneath the castle
walls for many days.

The Lady Ettarde heard that Pelleas still lingered near the castle,
and in her anger she said, 'I will send ten of my lords to fight
this knight, and then I shall never see his face again.'

But when Pelleas saw the ten lords coming towards him, he armed
himself, and fought so bravely that he overthrew each of them.

But after he had overthrown them, he allowed them to get up and to
bind him hand and foot, and carry him into the castle. 'For they
will carry me into the presence of the Lady Ettarde,' he thought.

But when she saw Pelleas, the Lady Ettarde mocked him, and told her
lords to tie him to the tail of a horse and turn him out of the
castle.

'She does it to find out if I love her truly,' thought Sir Pelleas
again, as he struggled back to his tent below the castle.

Another ten lords were sent to fight the faithful knight, and again
Pelleas overthrew them, and again he let himself be bound and
carried before the Lady Ettarde.

But when she spoke to him even more unkindly than before, and
mocked at his love for her, Sir Pelleas turned away. 'If she were
good as she is beautiful, she could not be so cruel,' he thought
sadly.

And he told her that though he would always love her, he would not
try to see her any more.

Now one of King Arthur's knights, called Sir Gawaine, had been
riding past the castle when the ten lords att