en of a plain sharp visage, who made her
way to the step of the dais, and there kneeling, cried:

'Succour and help I crave of you, O king!'

'For whom?' said the king, 'and for what reason?'

'Sir,' said the maiden, 'my lady sister is of great beauty and renown,
and is besieged in her castle by a tyrant-knight, who will not let her
go forth from her castle; and because it is said that here in your
court are the noblest knights in all the world, I come to you praying
for aid.'

'What is your lady sister's name?' asked the king, 'and where doth she
dwell, and tell me who is he that doth besiege her?'

'Sir king,' said the lady, 'I may not tell you my sister's name, but
she is of great beauty and of wide lands. And the tyrant-knight who
besieges her is the Red Knight of Reedlands.'

'I know him not,' replied the king.

'Sir,' cried Sir Gawaine from his seat, 'I know him well. He is one of
the perilous knights of the world, for he hath the strength of seven
men, and from him I once escaped barely with my life.'

'Fair lady,' said the king, 'I would help you willingly, but as ye will
not tell me your lady's name, none of my knights here shall go with you
with my consent.'

The damsel looked about the hall with a quick angry glance, and the
knights that sat there liked not her sour looks. Then from the crowd of
scullions and kitchen lads that hung about the serving-tables at the
side of the hall came Beaumains, his dress smirched, but his handsome
face lit up and his eyes burning with eagerness.

'Sir king!' he cried, holding up his hand, 'a boon I crave!'

As he came to the step of the dais the damsel shrank from him as if he
had been something foul.

'Say on,' replied the king to the young man.

'God thank you, my king,' went on Beaumains. 'I have been these twelve
months in your kitchen, and have had my full living, as ye did
graciously order, and now I ask for the two further gifts ye promised.'

'Ye have but to ask,' replied the king.

'Sir, they are these,' said Beaumains. 'First, that you will grant me
this adventure of the damsel.'

'I grant it you,' said King Arthur.

'Then, sir, this is the other,--that ye shall bid Sir Lancelot du Lake
to follow me, and to make me a knight when I shall desire him.'

'All this shall be done if Sir Lancelot think it well,' said the king.

But the lady was exceedingly wroth, and her eyes flashed with scorn as
she turned to the king:

'Shame on thee!' she crie