ingly. They that know me call me
Arthur."

"Arthur? Have you indeed such name?"

"Yea, damsel," saith he.

"So help me God," saith she, "Now am I sorrier for you than tofore, for
you have the name of the worst King in the world, and I would that he
were here in such sort as you are now. But never again will he move
from Cardoil, do what he may, such dread hath the Queen lest any should
take him from her, according as I have heard witness, for never saw I
neither the one nor the other. I was moved to go to his court, but I
have met full a score knights one after other, of whom I asked
concerning him, and one told me the same tale as another, for each told
me that the court of King Arthur is the vilest in the world, and that
all the knights of the Table Round have renounced it for the badness
thereof."

"Damsel," saith the King, "Hereof may he well be sorry, but at the
beginning I have heard say he did right well."

"And who careth," saith the damsel, "for his good beginning when the
end is bad? And much it misliketh me that so seemly knight and so
worshipful man as are you should have the name of so evil a king."

"Damsel," saith the King, "A man is not good by his name, but by his
heart."

"You say true," saith the damsel, "But for the King's name have I
despite of yours. And whitherward are you going?"

"I shall go to Cardoil, where I shall find King Arthur when I shall
come thither."

"Go to, then, and bestir!" saith she.

"One bad man with another! No better hope have I of you, sith that you
go thither!"

"Damsel, you may say your pleasure, for thither I go! God be with you!"

"And may never God guide you," saith she, "and you go the court of King
Arthur!"

XII.

With that the King mounted again and departed, and left the damsel
under the tree and entered into the deep forest and rode with much ado
as fast as he might to come to Cardoil. And he had ridden a good ten
leagues Welsh when he heard a Voice in the thick of the forest that
began to cry aloud: "King Arthur of Great Britain, right glad at heart
mayst thou be of this that God hath sent me hither unto thee. And so
He biddeth thee that thou hold court at the earliest thou mayst, for
the world, that is now made worse of thee and of thy slackness in
well-doing, shall thereof be greatly amended!"

With that the Voice is silent, and the King was right joyous in his
heart of that he had heard. The story speaketh no more here of other