CHAPTER XVI

How the Damosel of the Lake saved King Arthur from
mantle that should have burnt him.

WITH that came the Damosel of the Lake unto the king, and said,
Sir, I must speak with you in privity.  Say on, said the king,
what ye will.  Sir, said the damosel, put not on you this mantle
till ye have seen more, and in no wise let it not come on you,
nor on no knight of yours, till ye command the bringer thereof to
put it upon her.  Well, said King Arthur, it shall be done as ye
counsel me.  And then he said unto the damosel that came from his
sister, Damosel, this mantle that ye have brought me, I will see
it upon you.  Sir, she said, It will not beseem me to wear a
king's garment.  By my head, said Arthur, ye shall wear it or it
come on my back, or any man's that here is.  And so the king made
it to be put upon her, and forth withal she fell down dead, and
never more spake word after and burnt to coals.  Then was the
king wonderly wroth, more than he was to-forehand, and said unto
King Uriens, My sister, your wife, is alway about to betray me,
and well I wot either ye, or my nephew, your son, is of counsel
with her to have me destroyed; but as for you, said the king to
King Uriens, I deem not greatly that ye be of her counsel, for
Accolon confessed to me by his own mouth, that she would have
destroyed you as well as me, therefore I hold you excused; but as
for your son, Sir Uwaine, I hold him suspect, therefore I charge
you put him out of my court.  So Sir Uwaine was discharged.  And
when Sir Gawaine wist that, he made him ready to <127>go with
him; and said, Whoso banisheth my cousin-germain shall banish me. 
So they two departed, and rode into a great forest, and so they
came to an abbey of monks, and there were well lodged.  But when
the king wist that Sir Gawaine was departed from the court, there
was made great sorrow among all the estates.  Now, said Gaheris,
Gawaine's brother, we have lost two good knights for the love of
one.  So on the morn they heard their masses in the abbey, and so
they rode forth till that they came to a great forest.  Then was
Sir Gawaine ware in a valley by a turret [of] twelve fair
damosels, and two knights armed on great horses, and the damosels
went to and fro by a tree.  And then was Sir Gawaine ware how
there hung a white shield on that tree, and ever as the damosels
came by it they spit upon it, and some threw mire upon the
shield.