ppear to
hold in such high regard. Wherefore it is that I am, certes, as good as
he could possibly be, let that be saying much or saying little."

So saying, Sir Launcelot set spurs to his horse and rode away and left
them astonished at his words. And long after he had left those merry
fellows he could hear their voices in the distance babbling together
very loud with wonder that Sir Launcelot of the Lake had been amongst
them for all that time without any one of them suspecting him who he
was. For by this time all the world knew Sir Launcelot of the Lake to be
the greatest champion that ever the world had seen from the very
beginning unto that time.

* * * * *

After that, Sir Launcelot rode forward upon his way toward the eastward
through the moonlit night, and by and by he entered a great space of
forest land. And somewhile after he had entered that woodland the summer
day began to dawn and all the birds began at first to chirp and then to
sing very blithely and with a great multitude of happy voices from out
of every leafy thicket. Then up leapt the jolly sun and touched all the
upper leafage of the trees and turned them into gold.

[Sidenote: _Sir Launcelot beholdeth Corbin._]

And anon the sun rose high and higher and when it was very high in the
heavens Sir Launcelot came out of the forest into an open country of
level meadows and of pasture-lands. And in the midst of that place, a
great way off, he beheld where there was a fair walled town set upon a
hill with a smooth shining river at its foot, and he wist that this must
be the Town of Corbin of which the strolling minstrels had told him the
night before.

So Sir Launcelot rode forward and drew near the town. And as he drew
closer to it he thought that this was one of the fairest towns that ever
he had beheld in all of his life. For the castle of the town and the
houses of the town were all built else of stone or else of brick, and a
thousand windows sparkled in the brightness of the day, shining like to
stars in heaven. And the river that flowed beside the town wound down
between fair green meadows which lay upon either side, and betwixt banks
of reeds and rushes and pollard willows, and it was like to a great
serpent of pure silver lying in the grass. The walls of the castle and
the walls of the town came down to the river, and stood with their feet,
as it were, in the clear and crystal-bright water, and there were trees