"Tidings are come to me of late that they of the kingdom of Oriande and
Albanie and of the other islands that are your appanages have all
leagued together, and have sworn and given surety that they will aid
one another against you, and they are going presently to make Lancelot
their King, and will come down upon your land as speedily as they may
wheresoever he may dare lead them, and they have sworn their oath that
they will conquer your kingdom just as you now hold it, and, so you be
not garnished against them betimes, you may have thereof sore trouble
to your own body as well as the loss whereof I tell you."
"By my head," saith the King, "I believe not that Lancelot durst think
this, nor that he would have the heart to do me evil."
"By my head," saith Briant, "Long time have I had misgivings both of
this and of him, but one ought not to tell one's lord all that one
knows, for that one cannot be sure either that it be not leasing or
that folk wish to meddle in his affairs out of envy. But nought is
there in the world that I will conceal from you henceforward for the
love that you bear me and for that you have affiance in me, and so may
you well have, for I have abandoned my land for you that marched with
your own, whereby you may sorely straiten your enemies, for well you
know that in your court is there no knight of greater puissance than am
I."