g, and bade him make him ready, and so he
kissed the lady Igraine and departed in all haste. But when the lady
heard tell of the duke her husband, and by all record he was dead or
ever King Uther came to her, then she marvelled who that might be that
lay with her in likeness of her lord; so she mourned privily and held
her peace. Then all the barons by one assent prayed the king of accord
betwixt the lady Igraine and him; the king gave them leave, for fain
would he have been accorded with her. So the king put all the trust in
Ulfius to entreat between them, so by the entreaty at the last the king
and she met together. Now will we do well, said Ulfius, our king is a
lusty knight and wifeless, and my lady Igraine is a passing fair lady;
it were great joy unto us all, an it might please the king to make her
his queen. Unto that they all well accorded and moved it to the king.
And anon, like a lusty knight, he assented thereto with good will, and
so in all haste they were married in a morning with great mirth and joy.

And King Lot of Lothian and of Orkney then wedded Margawse that was
Gawaine's mother, and King Nentres of the land of Garlot wedded Elaine.
All this was done at the request of King Uther. And the third sister
Morgan le Fay was put to school in a nunnery, and there she learned so
much that she was a great clerk of necromancy. And after she was
wedded to King Uriens of the land of Gore, that was Sir Ewain's le
Blanchemain's father.

CHAPTER III. Of the birth of King Arthur and of his nurture.

THEN Queen Igraine waxed daily greater and greater, so it befell after
within half a year, as King Uther lay by his queen, he asked her, by the
faith she owed to him, whose was the body; then she sore abashed to give
answer. Dismay you not, said the king, but tell me the truth, and I
shall love you the better, by the faith of my body. Sir, said she, I
shall tell you the truth. The same night that my lord was dead, the hour
of his death, as his knights record, there came into my castle of
Tintagil a man like my lord in speech and in countenance, and two
knights with him in likeness of his two knights Brastias and Jordanus,
and so I went unto bed with him as I ought to do with my lord, and the
same night, as I shall answer unto God, this child was begotten upon me.
That is truth, said the king, as ye say; for it was I myself that came
in the likeness, and therefore dismay you not, for I am father of the
child; and there