idsummer the host was ready, and took the road to the north.
The quarrel had been noised abroad throughout Britain, and many kings,
dukes and barons came to the help of Arthur, so that his army was a
great multitude. Yet many others had gone to Lancelot, where he lay in
his castle of Joyous Gard, not far from Carlisle.

Thither, in the month of July, when the husbandmen were looking to
their ripening fields and thinking of harvest, King Arthur and Sir
Gawaine drew with their army and laid a siege against the castle of
Joyous Gard, and against the walled town which it protected. But for
all their engines of war, catapults which threw great stones, and
ramming irons which battered the walls, they could not make a way into
the place, and so lay about it until harvest time.

One day, as Queen Gwenevere stood at a window of the castle, she looked
down at the tents of the besieging host, and her gaze lingered on the
purple tent of King Arthur, with the banner of the red dragon on the
pole above it. As she looked, she saw her husband issue from the tent
and begin to walk up and down alone in a place apart. Very moody did he
seem, as he strode to and fro with bent head. Sometimes he looked
towards Joyous Gard, and then his face had a sad expression upon it
which went to the queen's heart.

She went to Sir Lancelot, and said:

'Sir Lancelot, I would that this dreadful war were done, and that thou
wert again friends and in peace with my dear lord. Something tells me
that he sorrows to be at enmity with thee. Thou wert his most famous
knight and brought most worship to the fellowship of the Round Table.
Wilt thou not try to speak to my lord? Tell him how evil were the false
reports of the conspiracy against him, and that we are innocent of any
treason against him and this dear land.'

'Lady,' said Sir Lancelot, 'on my knighthood I will try to accord with
my lord. If our enemies have not quite poisoned his thoughts of us, he
may listen and believe.'

Thereupon Sir Lancelot caused his trumpeter to sound from the walls,
and ask that King Arthur would hold a parley with him. This was done,
and Sir Pentred, a knight of King Arthur's, took the message to the
king.

In a little while King Arthur, with Sir Gawaine and a company of his
counsellors and knights, came beneath the walls, and the trumpeters
blew a truce, and the bowmen ceased from letting fly their arrows and
the men-at-arms from throwing spears.

Then Sir Lancelot ca