said
Tor unto Merlin, dishonour not my mother. Sir, said Merlin, it is more
for your worship than hurt, for your father is a good man and a king,
and he may right well advance you and your mother, for ye were begotten
or ever she was wedded. That is truth, said the wife. It is the less
grief unto me, said the cowherd.

CHAPTER IV. How Sir Tor was known for son of King Pellinore, and how
Gawaine was made knight.

SO on the morn King Pellinore came to the court of King Arthur, which
had great joy of him, and told him of Tor, how he was his son, and how
he had made him knight at the request of the cowherd. When Pellinore
beheld Tor, he pleased him much. So the king made Gawaine knight, but
Tor was the first he made at the feast. What is the cause, said King
Arthur, that there be two places void in the sieges? Sir, said Merlin,
there shall no man sit in those places but they that shall be of most
worship. But in the Siege Perilous there shall no man sit therein but
one, and if there be any so hardy to do it he shall be destroyed, and
he that shall sit there shall have no fellow. And therewith Merlin took
King Pellinore by the hand, and in the one hand next the two sieges and
the Siege Perilous he said, in open audience, This is your place and
best ye are worthy to sit therein of any that is here. Thereat sat Sir
Gawaine in great envy and told Gaheris his brother, yonder knight is
put to great worship, the which grieveth me sore, for he slew our father
King Lot, therefore I will slay him, said Gawaine, with a sword that
was sent me that is passing trenchant. Ye shall not so, said Gaheris, at
this time, for at this time I am but a squire, and when I am made knight
I will be avenged on him, and therefore, brother, it is best ye suffer
till another time, that we may have him out of the court, for an we did
so we should trouble this high feast. I will well, said Gawaine, as ye
will.

CHAPTER V. How at feast of the wedding of King Arthur to Guenever,
a white hart came into the hall, and thirty couple hounds, and how a
brachet pinched the hart which was taken away.

THEN was the high feast made ready, and the king was wedded at Camelot
unto Dame Guenever in the church of Saint Stephen's, with great
solemnity. And as every man was set after his degree, Merlin went to all
the knights of the Round Table, and bade them sit still, that none of
them remove. For ye shall see a strange and a marvellous adventure.
Right so as