ea strand, if he turneth his face toward the lake, be
he nought (never) so low born, full well he shall be saved, the water
glideth him beside, and the man there remaineth easy, after his will
he dwelleth there full still, so that he is not because of the water
anything injured!" Then said Howel, noble man of Brittany: "Now I hear
tell a wonderful story, and marvellous is the Lord that it all made!"

Then said Arthur, noblest of kings. "Blow ye my horns with loud noise,
and say ye to my knights, that I will march forth-right." Trumpets
there were blown, horns there resounded; bliss was in the host with
the busy king, for each was solaced, and proceeded toward his land.
And the king forbade them, by their bare life, that no man in the
world should be so mad, nor person so unwise, that he should break his
peace; and if any man did it, he should suffer doom. Even with the
words the army marched, there sung warriors marvellous songs of Arthur
the king, and of his chieftains, and said in song, to this world's end
never more would be such a king as Arthur, through all things, king
nor caiser, in ever any realm!

Arthur proceeded to York, with folk very surprising (numerous), and
dwelt there six weeks with much joy. The burgh walls were broken and
fallen down, that Childric all consumed, and the halls all clean. Then
called the king a distinguished priest, Pirai,--he was an exceeding
wise man, and learned in book:--"Pirai, thou art mine own priest, the
easier it shall be for thee." The king took a rood, holy and most
good, and gave to Pirai in hand, and therewith very much land, and the
archbishop's staff he there gave to Pirai;--ere was Pirai a good
priest, now is he archbishop! Then bade him Arthur, noblest of kings,
that he should arear churches, and restore the hymns, and take charge
of God's folk, and rule them fair. And he bade all his knights to deem
right (just) dooms, and the earth-tillers to take to their craft, and
every man to greet other. And what man soever did worse than the king
had ordered, he would drive him to a bare burning, and if it were a
base man, he should for that hang. The yet spake Arthur, noblest of
kings, ordered that each man who had lost his land by whatsoever kind
of punishment he were bereaved, that he should come again, full
quickly and full soon--the rich and the low--and should have eft his
own, unless he were so foully conditioned, that he were traitor to his
lord, or toward his lord fors