e so small
that perhaps they will not notice you. Take this ring and give it
to our greatest knight, Sir Lancelot, and pray him to come and
rescue me."

The little maid waited until she thought the time for escape had
come, and rode off as quietly as she could. Sir Malgrace saw her
go, and suspected that the queen had sent her. He ordered his
archers to shoot at the child, but she escaped unhurt.

"Madam," said Sir Malgrace to the queen, "I know well that you
have sent for Sir Lancelot, but you may be sure that hither he
shall never come."

Then Sir Malgrace ordered his archers to stand guard on the road
and shoot down any knight they saw.

"But if he should be Sir Lancelot," he said, "be sure that you do
not venture very close to him, for he is hard to overcome."

Meantime the little maid reached Arthur's Court in safety. She
found the king and his knights very anxious because the queen had
not returned. She told her story, and gave the queen's ring to
Sir Lancelot.

"Bring me my armor!" shouted Sir Lancelot. "I will rescue my good
and dear queen before the night falls. I would rather see her
safe here again than own all France."

He put on his armor and mounted his white horse and rode off
without delay. The little maid led him to the place where the ten
knights had fought with the hundred and eighty. From this point
he traced them by the blood on the grass and on the road. At last
he reached the archers.

"Turn back," they said. "No one may pass here."

"That I will not," said Sir Lancelot. "I am a Knight of the Round
Table, and therefore have the right of way throughout the land."

At that they shot their arrows at him. He was wounded with many
of them, and his white horse was killed. Sir Lancelot tried to
reach the men, but there were so many hedges and ditches in the
way that he could not. They hastened back to tell Sir Malgrace
that a knight whom they had not succeeded in killing was coming
to the castle.

Sir Lancelot tried to walk, but his armor was too heavy for him
to carry in his wounded state. He dared not leave any of it
behind, for he would need it all in fighting. Just as he was
wondering what he could do, a carter passed him, driving a rough
wagon.

"Carter," said Sir Lancelot, "let me ride in your wagon to the
castle of Sir Malgrace."

The carter was amazed, for in that day a knight never entered
into a cart unless he was a condemned man going to be hanged. Sir
Lancelot, however, d