When the King had eaten, the damsel cometh before him.
"Sir," saith she, "Make your knights be summoned and ready for that
which you have granted me, and you yourself first of all."
"Damsel," saith the King, "Right willingly."
He setteth his hand to the coffer, thinking to open it, but it was not
right that it should open for him. As he set his hand thereon the
coffer sweated through just as had it been sprinkled all over and was
wet with water. The King marvelled greatly, and so made Messire Gawain
set his hand to it and Lancelot and all those of the court, but he that
might open it was not among them. Messire Kay the Seneschal had served
at meat. He heard say that the King and all the others had essayed and
proved the coffer but might not open it. He is come thither, all
uncalled for.
"Now, then, Kay," saith the King, "I had forgotten you."
"By my head," saith Kay, "You ought not to forget me, for as good
knight am I and of as much worth as they that you have called before
me, and you ought not to have delayed to send for me. You have
summoned all the others, and me not a whit, and yet am I as well able,
or ought to be, to open the coffer as are they; for against as many
knights have I defended me as they, and as many have I slain in
defending my body as have they."
"Kay," saith the King, "Shall you be so merry and you may open the
coffer, and if you have slain the knight whose head lieth therein? By
my head, I that am King would fain that the coffer should not open for
me, for never was no knight so poor as that he should have neither
kinsman nor friend, for he is not loved of all the world that is hated
by one man."
"By my head," saith Kay, "I would that all the heads of all the knights
I have slain, save one only, were in the midst of this hall, and that
there were letters sealed with them to say that they were slain by me.
Then would you believe what you are not willing to believe for the
envious ones that think they are better worth than I, and yet have not
served you so well."