st ride back with this lady
who has swooned. Then I will return here to you."

"Alas, alas, I fear it will be too late," cried the damsel,
turning back into the forest.

Then King Pellenore lifted Vivien on her horse, and tied her to
its back by her long green scarf. At this she opened her eyes and
groaned, and said that she was very sick. She made him ride very
slowly to the court.

King Pellenore did not talk to her. He was thinking all the time
of the golden-haired maiden. As soon as he reached the city gate
he gave Vivien over into the care of a knight who was passing,
and galloped back to the woods.

When he reached the spot where the beautiful damsel had spoken to
him, he turned into the thick part of the wood and followed a
narrow path. It was so narrow that the branches of the trees on
both sides struck his shoulders, but still he hurried on. The
path ended in a glade, and there he saw the lady and her lover
lying on the grass.

"Alas, alas!" the lady said, "my dear lord is dead and I am
dying."

Then King Pellenore saw that the fair young knight who lay on the
ground was very pale and quiet, and that all the grass about was
blood-stained.

"Ah, good knight," said the lady, "after you left me, a lion ran
out of the wood and slew my lover with one stroke of his paw. He
has wounded me so sorely that I too shall die."

Then King Pellenore wept.

"I wish that I had made Vivien wait here," he said, "and had
helped you. I fear I have done wrong."

He sat down and took her golden head on his knee, and spoke to
her gently till she died. Then he put her body and her lover's
body on his horse, and walked beside them sorrowfully until he
reached Arthur's Court.

Near the great hall he met Arthur and Merlin and several knights.

"I am a miserable man," he said.

Then the wise Merlin said: "You are more miserable than you know.
This beautiful lady was your own daughter who was stolen from you
as a child. Only lately she learned who her father was. She was
coming here to seek you."

Then King Pellenore wept loudly.

"This is my punishment," he cried, "for not aiding the maiden.
The one who needs help most should be given it first, and she
needed it more than Vivien. I am indeed punished."

"And you shall be punished yet more," said Merlin; "and in good
time, Vivien also for the part she took. Some day the friend whom
you most trust shall deceive you, and you shall be betrayed to
death."

King Pellen