t shall I tell you about the King how the
lady escorts him, accompanied by her damsels and seneschal? All this
would require too much time. When he sees the lady's tears, the King
implores her to come no farther, but to return to her abode. He begged
her with such urgency that, heavy at heart, she turned about followed by
her company.

(Vv. 2639-2773.) My lord Yvain is so distressed to leave his lady that
his heart remains behind. The King may take his body off, but he cannot
lead his heart away. She who stays behind clings so tightly to his heart
that the King has not the power to take it away with him. When the body
is left without the heart it cannot possibly live on. For such a marvel
was never seen as the body alive without the heart. Yet this marvel now
came about: for he kept his body without the heart, which was wont to be
enclosed in it, but which would not follow the body now. The heart has
a good abiding-place, while the body, hoping for a safe return to its
heart, in strange fashion takes a new heart of hope, which is so often
deceitful and treacherous. He will never know in advance, I think, the
hour when this hope will play him false, for if he overstays by single
day the term which he has agreed upon, it will be hard for him to gain
again his lady's pardon and goodwill. Yet I think he will overstay
the term, for my lord Gawain will not allow him to part from him, as
together they go to joust wherever tournaments are held. And as the year
passes by my lord Yvain had such success that my lord Gawain strove
to honour him, and caused him to delay so long that all the first year
slipped by, and it came to the middle of August of the ensuing year,
when the King held court at Chester, whither they had returned the day
before from a tournament where my lord Yvain had been and where he had
won the glory and the story tells how the two companions were unwilling
to lodge in the town, but had their tents set up outside the city, and
held court there. For they never went to the royal court, but the King
came rather to join in theirs, for they had the best knights, and the
greatest number, in their company. Now King Arthur was seated in their
midst, when Yvain suddenly had a thought which surprised him more than
any that had occurred to him since he had taken leave of his lady, for
he realised that he had broken his word, and that the limit of his
leave was already exceeded. He could hardly keep back his tears, but he