Lancelot saluted the damsel and made great cheer, and when they had
eaten in hall, forthwith behold you, the damsel where she cometh that
Lancelot overtook in the forest with the knight.
"Sir," saith she to the lord of the castle, "You have harboured this
night your deadly enemy that slew your brother at the Waste Manor."
"By my faith," saith the lord of the manor, "I think not so, for him
would I not have harboured, nor will I not believe it for true until
such time as I have proved it. Sir," saith he to Lancelot, "Make the
demand that the others make!"
"What is it?" saith Lancelot.
"See there my daughter! Ask her of me, and if you be such as you ought
to be, I will give her to you."
"Sir," saith Lancelot, "No knight is there in the world so good but
ought to plume him upon having her to wife, so always she were willing,
and, so I thought that you would be willing to give her to me, I would
willingly ask you."
Lancelot spake otherwise than as he thought, for the departing of the
Queen and the sorrow thereof lay so at his heart that never again might
he lean upon any love in the world, neither of dame nor damsel. He
asked his daughter of the knight of the castle, and came before him to
save the custom so that he might not have blame thereof. And he showed
him the sword that is in the column, all inlaid with gold.
"Go," saith he, "and fulfil the custom, as other knights have done."
"What is it?" saith Lancelot.
"They might not draw forth the sword from this column, and so failed of
my daughter and of their lives."
"Lord God," saith Lancelot, "Defend me from this custom!"
And he cometh toward the column as fast as he may, and seizeth the
sword with both hands. So soon as he touched it, the sword draweth it
forth with such a wrench that the column quaked thereof. The damsel
was right joyful thereat, albeit she misdoubted the fellness and
cruelty of her father, for never yet had she seen knight that pleased
her so much to love as he.
"Sir," saith the other damsel, "I tell you plainly, this is Lancelot,
the outrageous, that slew your brother. Natheless, is it no lie that
he is one of the best knights of the world, albeit by the stoutness of
his knighthood and his valour many an outrage hath he done, and more
shall he yet do and he escape you, and, so you will believe me, you
will never allow him to depart thus; sith that and you kill him or slay
him you will save the life of many a knight."
The daughter of the lord of the castle is sore displeased of the damsel
for this that she saith, and looketh at Lancelot from time to time and
sigheth, but more durst she not do. Much marvelleth she, sith that
Lancelot hath drawn the sword forth of the column, that he asketh her
not of her father as his own liege woman, but he was thinking of
another thing, and never was he so sorrowful of any lady as he was for
the Queen. But whatsoever thought or desire he may have therein, he
telleth the lord of the castle that he holdeth him to his covenant made
at such time as the sword was still fixed in the column.
"I have a right not to hold thereto," saith the lord of the castle,
"Nor shall I break not my vow and I fail you herein; for no man is
bound to give his daughter to his mortal enemy. Sith that you have
slain my brother, you are my mortal enemy, and were I to give her to
you, she ought not to wish it, and were she to grant you her love she
would be a fool and a madwoman."
Right sorrowful is the damsel or this that she heareth her father say.
She would fain that Lancelot and she were in the forest, right in the
depth thereof. But Lancelot had no mind to be as she was thinking.
The lord of the castle made guard the gateway of the castle well, in
such sort that Lancelot might issue therefrom on no side. Afterward he
bade his knights privily that they take heed on their lives that they
be all ready on the morrow and all garnished of their arms, for that it
was his purpose to smite off Lancelot's head and hang it above all the
others.