know not where to find. Riding seaward, I came
to where this ship lay moored, and, entering it, the vessel drifted
oceanward. I know not to what land I have come, nor what name this
city bears. I pray you, fair lady, give me your best counsel."

The Queen listened to his tale with the deepest interest, and when
Gugemar made his appeal for aid and counsel she replied: "Truly, fair
sir, I shall counsel you as best I may. This city to which you have
come belongs to my husband, who is its King. Of much worship is he,
but stricken in years, and because of the jealousy he bears me he has
shut me up between these high walls. If it please you you may tarry
here awhile and we will tend your wound until it be healed."

Gugemar, wearied and bewildered at the strange things which had
happened to him in the space of a day, thanked the Queen, and accepted
her kind offer of entertainment with alacrity. Between them the Queen
and her lady assisted him to leave the ship and bore him to a chamber,
where he was laid in a fair bed and had his wound carefully dressed.
When the ladies had withdrawn and the knight was left to himself he
knew that he loved the Queen. All memory of his home and even of his
tormenting wound disappeared, and he could brood only upon the fair
face of the royal lady who had so charmingly ministered to him.

Meanwhile the Queen was in little better case. All night she could not
sleep for pondering upon the handsome youth who had come so
mysteriously into her life, and her maiden, seeing this, and marking
how she suffered, went to Gugemar's chamber and told him in a frank
and almost childlike manner how deeply her mistress had been smitten
with love for him.

"You are young," she said, "so is my lady. Her lord is old and their
union is unseemly. Heaven intended you for one another and has brought
you together in its own good time."

Shortly, after she had heard Mass, the Queen summoned Gugemar into her
presence. At first both were dumb with confusion. At last his passion
urged Gugemar to speak, and his love-words came thick and fast. The
Queen hearkened to them, and, feeling that they rang true, admitted
that she loved him in return.

For a year and a half Gugemar dwelt in the Queen's bower. Then the
lovers met with misfortune.

For some days before the blow fell the Queen had experienced a feeling
of coming evil. So powerfully did this affect her that she begged
Gugemar for a garment of his. The knight marve