but do you as I tell
you and go you straightway, very quietly, and carry out my commands. And
see to it that no one shall be disturbed in your going or coming, for it
is my purpose that we two shall go privily away from this place and that
no one shall be aware of our going."

[Sidenote: _Gareth escapeth from his companions._]

So spake Gareth, and Axatalese was aware that his command must be
obeyed. So the dwarf went very quietly to do Gareth's bidding, and anon
he returned with the clothes of a certain one of the attendants, and the
clothes were of plain green cloth, and Gareth clad himself in that
simple raiment. Then he and the dwarf went forth from the pavilion and
they went to where the horses were, and they chose two of the horses and
saddled them and bridled them with saddles and harness and trappings of
plain leather, such as the least of the attendants might use--and in all
of that time no one of those in attendance upon Gareth was aware of what
he had done. Then Gareth and the dwarf rode away from that place and
still all the others slept, and they slept for a long while after.

And be it here said that when those three lords who were in charge of
Gareth awoke and found that he and Axatalese were gone, they were filled
with terror and dismay, for they wist not why he was gone nor whither,
and they dreaded the anger of the Queen, Gareth's mother. Then the chief
of those lords said: "Lo! here are we betrayed by this young prince and
his dwarf. For he hath left us and taken himself away, we know not
whither, and so we dare not return to the court of Orkney again. For
should we return without him they will assuredly punish us for suffering
him to depart, and that punishment may come even to the taking of our
lives."

Then another of those lords said: "Messire, those words are very true,
so let us not return unto the court of Orkney, but let us escape unto
some other part of the realm where the wrath of the King and Queen may
not reach us."

So it was as that lord said, for straightway they departed from that
place and went to a part of the realm where neither the King and Queen
of Orkney nor King Arthur might hear of them, and there they abode for
that time and for some time afterward.

[Sidenote: _How King Arthur sat at feast._]

Now at this time King Arthur was celebrating the Feast of Pentecost at
the Castle of Kynkennedon. With him sat all the great lords of his court
and all the Knights-companion of