. And after they were all thus seated in
the grass, sundry attendants came and spread out a fair white
table-cloth and laid upon the cloth a goodly feast for their
refreshment--cold pasties of venison, roasted fowls, manchets of white
bread, and flagons of golden wine and ruby wine. And all they took great
pleasure when they gazed upon that feast, for they were anhungered with
their sporting. So they ate and drank and made them merry; and whilst
they ate certain minstrels sang songs, and certain others recited goodly
contes and tales for their entertainment. And meanwhile each fair lady
wove wreaths of herbs and flowers and therewith bedecked her knight,
until all those noble gentlemen were entirely bedight with
blossoms--whereat was much merriment and pleasant jesting.

Thus it was that Queen Guinevere went a-maying, and so have I told you
all about it so that you might know how it was.

[Sidenote: _A knight cometh forth from the forest._]

Now whilst the Queen and her party were thus sporting together like to
children in the grass, there suddenly came the sound of a bugle-horn
winded in the woodlands that there were not a very great distance away
from where they sat, and whilst they looked with some surprise to see
who blew that horn in the forest, there suddenly appeared at the edge of
the woodland an armed knight clad cap-a-pie. And the bright sunlight
smote down upon that armed knight so that he shone with wonderful
brightness at the edge of the shadows of the trees. And after that
knight there presently followed an array of men-at-arms--fourscore and
more in all--and these also were clad at all points in armor as though
prepared for battle.

This knight and those who were with him stopped for a little while at
the edge of the wood and stood regarding that May-party from a distance;
then after a little they rode forward across the meadow to where the
Queen and her court sat looking at them.

Now at first Queen Guinevere and those that were with her wist not who
that knight could be, but when he and his armed men had come nigh
enough, they were aware that he was a knight hight Sir Mellegrans, who
was the son of King Bagdemagus, and they wist that his visit was not
likely to bode any very great good to them.

For Sir Mellegrans was not like his father, who (as hath been already
told of both in the Book of King Arthur and in The Story of the
Champions of the Round Table) was a good and worthy king, and a friend