a passing good knight as any ye spake of this day, that wot I well, said
the king; for I have seen him proved, but he saith little and he doth
much more, for I know none in all this court an he were as well born on
his mother's side as he is on your side, that is like him of prowess
and of might: and therefore I will have him at this time, and leave Sir
Bagdemagus till another time. So when they were so chosen by the assent
of all the barons, so were there found in their sieges every knights'
names that here are rehearsed, and so were they set in their sieges;
whereof Sir Bagdemagus was wonderly wroth, that Sir Tor was advanced
afore him, and therefore suddenly he departed from the court, and took
his squire with him, and rode long in a forest till they came to a
cross, and there alighted and said his prayers devoutly. The meanwhile
his squire found written upon the cross, that Bagdemagus should never
return unto the court again, till he had won a knight's body of the
Round Table, body for body. So, sir, said the squire, here I find
writing of you, therefore I rede you return again to the court. That
shall I never, said Bagdemagus, till men speak of me great worship,
and that I be worthy to be a knight of the Round Table. And so he rode
forth, and there by the way he found a branch of an holy herb that was
the sign of the Sangreal, and no knight found such tokens but he were a
good liver.

So, as Sir Bagdemagus rode to see many adventures, it happed him to come
to the rock whereas the Lady of the Lake had put Merlin under the stone,
and there he heard him make great dole; whereof Sir Bagdemagus would
have holpen him, and went unto the great stone, and it was so heavy that
an hundred men might not lift it up. When Merlin wist he was there, he
bade leave his labour, for all was in vain, for he might never be holpen
but by her that put him there. And so Bagdemagus departed and did many
adventures, and proved after a full good knight, and came again to the
court and was made knight of the Round Table. So on the morn there fell
new tidings and other adventures.

CHAPTER VI. How King Arthur, King Uriens, and Sir Accolon of Gaul,
chased an hart, and of their marvellous adventures.

THEN it befell that Arthur and many of his knights rode a-hunting into a
great forest, and it happed King Arthur, King Uriens, and Sir Accolon
of Gaul, followed a great hart, for they three were well horsed, and so
they chased so fast that