d me greatly pleases and
delights me. Since you know my will, I know not why I should any
longer conceal it from you. Very long ago if I had dared I would
have confessed it; for the concealment has pained me much. But
perhaps this maiden would in no wise will that I should be hers,
and she mine. If she grants me nought of herself, yet still I
give myself to her." At these words she trembled; and she does
not refuse this gift. She betrays the wish of her heart both in
words and looks; for trembling she gives herself to him, and says
that never will she make any reservation of will or heart or
person; but will be wholly at the queen's command and will do all
her pleasure. The queen embraces them both and gives the one to
the other. Laughing, she says: "I yield to thee, Alexander, the
body of thy love. Well I know that thou art not alarmed thereat.
Let who will look askance thereat; I give you the one to the
other. Hold, thou, what is thine, and thou, Alexander, what is
thine." She has what is hers, and he, what is his; he, all of
her, and she, all of him. The betrothal took place that very day
at Windsor, without a doubt with the consent and permission of my
Lord Gawain and the king. None could tell, I ween, of the
magnificence and feasting, of the joy and pleasure so great that
at the wedding there would not have been more. But inasmuch as
it would displease most people, I will not waste or spend one
word thereon, for I wish to apply myself to the telling of
something better.

On one day at Windsor had Alexander so much honour and joy as
pleased him. Three joys and three honours he had: One was for the
castle that he took; the second, for that which King Arthur
promised that he would give him when the war was ended--the best
realm in Wales--that day Arthur made him king in his halls. The
greatest joy was the third because his lady-love was queen of the
chessboard whereof he was king. Before five months were passed
Soredamors was great with human seed and grain; and she bore it
till her time. Such was the seed in its germ that the fruit came
according to its kind. A fairer child there could not be, before
or after. They called the child Cliges.

Born was Cliges, in memory of whom this story was put into
French. Ye shall hear me tell fully and relate of him and of his
knightly service, when he shall have come to such an age, that he
will be destined to grow in fame. But meanwhile it happened in
Greece that the emper