, but
also the foremost knight of his Round Table; wherefore King Arthur must
needs come to me to make such terms with me as I shall determine."

* * * * *

As for Queen Guinevere, she waited with her court for a long time for
news of Sir Launcelot, for she wist that now Sir Launcelot was there at
that place she must needs have news of him sooner or later. But no news
came to her; wherefore, as time passed by, she took great trouble
because she had no news, and she said: "Alas, if ill should have
befallen that good worthy knight at the hands of the treacherous lord of
this castle!"

But she knew not how great at that very time was the ill into which Sir
Launcelot had fallen, nor of how he was even then lying like as one dead
in the pit beneath the floor of the passageway.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: The Damsel Elouise the Fair rescues Sir Launcelot]

[Illustration]

Chapter Third

_How Sir Launcelot was rescued from the pit and how he overcame Sir
Mellegrans and set free the Queen and her court from the duress they
were in._

Now when Sir Launcelot awoke from that swoon into which he was cast by
falling so violently into the pit, he found himself to be in a very sad,
miserable case. For he lay there upon the hard stones of the floor and
all about him there was a darkness so great that there was not a single
ray of light that penetrated into it.

[Sidenote: _Sir Launcelot lyeth in the pit._]

So for a while Sir Launcelot knew not where he was; but by and by he
remembered that he was in the castle of Sir Mellegrans, and he
remembered all that had befallen him, and therewith, when he knew
himself to be a prisoner in so miserable a condition, he groaned with
dolor and distress, for he was at that time in great pain both of mind
and body. Then he cried out in a very mournful voice: "Woe is me that I
should have placed any faith in a traitor such as this knight hath from
the very beginning shown himself to be! For here am I now cast into this
dismal prison, and know not how I shall escape from it to bring succor
to those who so greatly need my aid at this moment."

So Sir Launcelot bemoaned and lamented himself, but no one heard him,
for he was there all alone in that miserable dungeon and in a darkness
into which no ray of light could penetrate.

Then Sir Launcelot bent his mind to think of how he might escape from
that place, but though he thought much, yet he coul