nd cushions of red
satin were under his head.

Kay ordered a page to bring meat and bread and mead, and when the four
had eaten, Sir Conan was called upon to tell how he became possessed of
a dark bay palfrey, as to which all envied him for its beauty, but
concerning which he always put off telling the tale of how he had
obtained it.

'You must know,' began Sir Conan, 'that I was the only son of my
parents, and the confines of my father's barony in Lothian were too
small for my aspiring and my daring. I thought there was no adventure
in the world too great for my doing, and when I had fought all the
knights who would meet me in my own country, and had slain all the
trolls that wrought evil there, I equipped myself in my best armour and
set forth to seek greater adventures in deserts and wild regions. And I
fared south for many weeks, over desolate mountains and wild and
terrible fastnesses of rock and moor, where only the robber seemed to
live, and the wild, magic people of the green mounds, and where there
was no sound but the song of the lark, the plunge of the beaver and
otter in the river, the growl of the brown bear from the rock, and the
howl of the wolf at night.

'And I fared through all these terrors unscathed, and one day I came to
a high ridge, and saw stretching below me the fairest valley I had ever
seen. The grass was green and smooth, the trees were soft and of an
equal growth; and a river ran gently through the dale, with a path
beside it.

'I followed the path all day until the evening, but met no one, until,
as the afternoon was waning, I came suddenly upon a large and massive
castle, which shone in the westering sun. And I approached the green
before the gateway, and saw two youths with curling auburn hair, clad
richly in garments of yellow satin, with frontlets of gold upon their
forehead. And they had daggers with jewelled hilts, and these they were
shooting at a mark.

'And on a bench a little way from them was a handsome man in the prime
of life, of a proud look, clad in a rich mantle.

'I went forward and saluted him, and he returned my greeting with great
courtesy. And, rising, he led me into the hall, which, however, was but
poorly furnished. And I wondered that the knight and the youths should
be so richly clothed, while the hall was scanty.

'Six maidens came forward, and while three took my horse, the others
unarmed me, and gave me water wherein to wash, and a dining-robe to put
on