ry, and that he had
not done the service and homage he owed as King Arthur's under-lord.
But King Mark promised to make large amends for the wrongs he had done,
for he was a fair speaker, and false thereunder. So on a day King
Arthur prayed of him one gift, and King Mark promised to give him
whatsoever he desired, if it were in his power. Then King Arthur asked
him to be good lord unto Sir Tristram, and to take him back into
Cornwall, and to cherish him for Arthur's sake. King Mark promised
this, and swore upon a book afore Arthur and all his knights.
Therewith King Arthur forgave him all the evil will that ever he owed
him, and King Mark and Sir Tristram took either other by the hands hard
knit together. But for all this King Mark thought falsely, as it
proved afterward.

Then soon afterward King Mark took his leave to ride into Cornwall, and
Sir Tristram rode with him; wherefore the most part of the Round Table
were passing heavy, and some were wroth, knowing that King Mark was the
most coward and the villainest knight living.

After a while letters came out of Cornwall that spake ill of Sir
Tristram and showed plainly that King Mark took Sir Tristram for his
mortal enemy. Sir Launcelot in especial made great sorrow for anger,
wherefore Dinadan, a gentle, wise, and courteous knight, said to him:
"King Mark is so villainous that by fair speech shall never man get of
him. But ye shall see what I shall do. I will make a lay for him, and
when it is made I shall make a harper sing it afore him."

So anon Dinadan went and made the lay, hoping thereby to humble the
crafty king; and he taught it an harper named Eliot, and when he knew
it, he taught it to many harpers. And so, by the will of Sir Launcelot
and of Arthur, the harpers went straight into Wales and into Cornwall,
to sing the lay that Sir Dinadan made of King Mark, which was the worst
lay that ever harper sang with harp or with any other instrument.

At a great feast that King Mark made came in Eliot the harper, and
because he was a curious harper, men heard him sing the lay that
Dinadan had made, the which spake the most villainy of King Mark's
treason that ever man heard. When the harper had sung his song to the
end, King Mark was wonderly wroth, for he deemed that the lay that was
sung afore him was made by Sir Tristram's counsel, wherefore he thought
to slay him and all his well willers in that country.

So King Mark grew ever more jealous of Sir T