_have_
done?" "Lady," said he, "for you." "How," said she, "do you
love me so much?" "So much, Lady, as I love neither myself
nor any other." "And since when have you loved me thus?"
"Since the hour when I was called knight and yet was not
one."[52] "Then, by the faith you owe me, whence came this
love that you have set upon me?" Now as the Queen said these
words it happened that the Lady of the Puy of Malahault[53]
coughed on purpose, and lifted her head, which she had held
down. And he understood her now, having oft heard her
before: and looked at her and knew her, and felt in his
heart such fear and anguish that he could not answer the
Queen. Then began he to sigh right deeply, and the tears
fell from his eyes so thick, that the garment he wore was
wet to the knees. And the more he looked at the Lady of
Malahault the more ill at ease was his heart. Now the Queen
noticed this and saw that he looked sadly towards the place
where her ladies were, and she reasoned with him. "Tell me,"
she said, "whence comes this love that I am asking you
about?" and he tried as hard as he could to speak, and said,
"Lady, from the time I have said." "How?" "Lady, you did it,
when you made me your friend, if your mouth lied not." "My
friend?" she said; "and how?" "I came before you when I had
taken leave of my Lord the King all armed except my head and
my hands. And then I commended you to God, and said that,
wherever I was, I was your knight: and you said that you
would have me to be your knight and your friend. And then I
said, 'Adieu, Lady,' and you said, 'Adieu, fair sweet
friend.' And never has that word left my heart, and it is
that word that has made me a good knight and valiant--if I
be so: nor ever have I been so ill-bested as not to remember
that word. That word comforts me in all my annoys. That word
has kept me from all harm, and freed me from all peril, and
fills me whenever I hunger. Never have I been so poor but
that word has made me rich." "By my faith," said the Queen,
"that word was spoken in a good hour, and God be praised
when He made me speak it. Still, I did not set it as high as
you did: and to many a knight have I said it, when I gave no
more thought to the saying. But _your_ thought was no base
one, but gentle and debon