t, and reached it after many days.

When King Arthur entered his hall, and had been welcomed by his
knights, the seneschal brought forth a messenger, who had come from
King Rience of North Wales, and the man with insolent looks uttered
this message:

'My lord, King Rience, hath but now discomfited and overwhelmed seven
kings, and each hath done him homage, and given him for a sign of their
subjection their beard clean cut from their chins. And my lord hath
caused a rich mantle to be hemmed with these kings' beards, and there
yet lacketh one place. Wherefore my lord hath sent me to demand that ye
give him homage and send him thy beard also. Or else he will enter thy
lands, and burn and slay and lay waste, and will not cease until he
hath thy head as well as thy beard.'

'Now this is the most shameful message that any man sent to a king!'
said Arthur, 'and thy king shall rue his villainous words.' Then he
laughed a little grimly. 'Thou seest, fellow, that my beard is full
young yet to make a hem. So take this message back to thy master. If he
will have it, he must wait until I grow older; but yet he shall not
wait long before he sees me, and then shall he lose his head, by the
faith of my body, unless he do homage to me.'

So the messenger departed, and King Arthur set about the ordering of
his army to invade the land of Rience.

Later, on a day when the king sat in council with his barons and
knights, there came a damsel into the hall, richly beseen and of a fair
countenance. She knelt at the feet of the king, and said humbly:

'O king, I crave a boon of ye, and by your promise ye shall grant it
me.'

'Who are ye, damsel?' asked the king.

'My lord, my lady mother hath sent me, and she is the Lady of the
Lake.'

'I remember me,' said Arthur, 'and thou shalt have thy boon.'

Whereat the damsel rose and let her mantle fall, that was richly
furred, and then they saw that she was girded about the waist with a
great sword.

Marvelling, the king asked, 'Damsel, for what cause are ye girded with
that sword?'

'My lord,' said the damsel, in distress and sadness, 'this sword that I
am girded withal, doth me great sorrow and remembrance. For it was the
sword of him I loved most tenderly in all the world, and he hath been
slain by falsest treachery by a foul knight, Sir Garlon, and nevermore
shall I be joyful. But I would that my dear love be avenged by his own
good sword, which my lady mother hath endowed with grea