"Damsel," saith the King, "Have many knights passed thereby sithence
that the coffin was set there?"
"Yea, sir, so many that neither I nor none other may tell the number.
Yet natheless hath not the coffin removed itself for none. When the
lad heareth his father and mother talking thus, he asketh what a knight
may be? 'Fair son,' saith his mother, 'Of right ought you well to know
by your lineage.' She telleth the lad that he had eleven uncles on his
father's side that had all been slain in arms, and not one of them
lived knight but twelve years. Sir," saith she to the King, "The lad
made answer that this was nor that he had asked, but how knights were
made? And the father answered that they were such as had more valour
than any other in the world. After that he said, 'Fair son, they are
clad in habergeons of iron to protect their bodies, and helms laced
upon their heads, and shields and spears and swords girded wherewithal
to defend their bodies.'"