ady of the Marshes.'

'I doubt not, then, that they would slay me?' said Lancelot. 'But why
hate they me?'

'It is for this,' went on the damsel, 'that you did slay Sir Caradoc,
the brother of the Lady of the Marshes.'

'Alas, then,' said Sir Lancelot, 'there is no pity for me, and none of
my dear friends shall learn of my shameful death.'

'And so that you should suffer much ere you are slain,' went on the
damsel, 'they sent in the night the Coranians, the marsh fiends, to
torture you. Thus will they do until you die, unless, sir knight, you
are a knight with a stout heart, and a good fighter, and will do me
justice. If you will be ruled by me, and will give me a promise, I will
aid you.'

'Damsel, that will I grant you,' said Lancelot, 'for this would be an
evil death for a knight. And full of terror hath been this night, from
the foul things which have beset me.'

'I may not stay further now,' said the maid, 'lest they think I tarry
over-long. But by evening I will come again.'

The day passed and twilight came, and Sir Lancelot was adread for fear
of the night. But anon the damsel came secretly to him and said:

'Now must you promise me this, that you will release my father, whom
Sir Turquine, Sir Caradoc's brother, hath kept in his foul dungeons
since I was but a little child. And all his lands did Sir Turquine rob
from him, and me he gave as a kitchen slut to Morgan le Fay, and evilly
have I been treated who am a good knight's daughter. Now, will ye
promise to free my father?'

'That will I, my poor damsel,' said Lancelot, 'and I will, God aiding
me, slay this Sir Turquine as I slew Sir Caradoc his brother.'

So at the dead of night the damsel opened his door, and with the keys
that she had stolen, she opened twelve other locks that stood between
them and the postern door. Then she brought him to his armour, which
she had hidden in a bush, and she led forth his horse, and he mounted
with much joy, and took the maid with him, and she showed him the way
to a convent of white nuns, and there they had good cheer.

Then, on the morrow, she led him to a thick forest with many hills
therein, and anon they came to a fair ford, and over the ford there
grew a tree, and on it there hung many good shields, each with the
device of some knight thereon, and Sir Lancelot was astounded to see
the shields of many of King Arthur's knights hung there. And on a bole
of the tree there was a bason of copper.

'Now,' said