passing glad to see
him, for there was a great love ever between them; and Merlin told him how
King Arthur had sped in the battle, and how it had ended; and told him the
names of every king and knight of worship who was there. So Blaise wrote
down the battle, word for word, as Merlin told him; and in the same way
ever after, all the battles of King Arthur's days Merlin caused Blaise,
his master, to record.

CHAPTER III

_The Adventure of the Questing Beast--King Arthur drives the Saxons from
the Realm--The Battles of Celidon Forest and Badon Hill_

Anon, thereafter, came word to King Arthur that Ryence, King of North
Wales, was making war upon King Leodegrance of Camelgard; whereat he was
passing wroth, for he loved Leodegrance well, and hated Ryence. So he
departed with Kings Ban and Bors and twenty thousand men, and came to
Camelgard, and rescued Leodegrance, and slew ten thousand of Ryence's men
and put him to flight. Then Leodegrance made a great festival to the three
kings, and treated them with every manner of mirth and pleasure which
could be devised. And there had King Arthur the first sight of Guinevere,
daughter of Leodegrance, whom in the end he married, as shall be told
hereafter.

Then did Kings Ban and Bors take leave, and went to their own country,
where King Claudas worked great mischief. And King Arthur would have gone
with them, but they refused him, saying, "Nay, ye shall not at this time,
for ye have yet much to do in these lands of your own; and we with the
riches we have won here by your gifts shall hire many good knights, and,
by the grace of God, withstand the malice of King Claudas; and if we have
need we will send to ye for succour; and likewise ye, if ye have need,
send for us, and we will not tarry, by the faith of our bodies."

When the two kings had left, King Arthur rode to Caerleon, and thither
came to him his half-sister Belisent, wife to King Lot, sent as a
messenger, but in truth to espy his power; and with her came a noble
retinue, and also her four sons--Gawain, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth.
But when she saw King Arthur and his nobleness, and all the splendour of
his knights and service, she forbore to spy upon him as a foe, and told
him of her husband's plots against him and his throne. And the king, not
knowing that she was his half-sister, made great court to her; and being
full of admiration for her beauty, loved her out of measure, and kept her
a long season at C