His friends, returning from the fight, On the way there met the knight, For the jousts were wholly run, And all the prizes had been won By the knight who had not stirred From the masses he had heard. All the knights, as they came by, Saluted him and gave him joy, And frankly said that never yet Had any knight performed such feat, Nor ever honour won so great As he had done in arms that day; While many of them stopped to say That they all his prisoners were: "In truth, your prisoners we are: We cannot but admit it true: Taken we were in arms by you!" Then the truth dawned on him there, And all at once he saw the light, That She, by whom he stood in prayer, --The Virgin,--stood by him in fight! The moral of the tale belongs to the best feudal times. The knight at once recognized that he had become the liege-man of the Queen, and henceforth must render his service entirely to her. So he called his "barons," or tenants, together, and after telling them what had happened, took leave of them and the "siecle":-- "Moult est ciest tournoiement beaux Ou ele a pour moi tournoie; Mes trop l'avroit mal emploie Se pour lui je ne tournoioie! Fox seroie se retournoie A la mondaine vanite. A dieu promet en verite Que james ne tournoierai Fors devant le juge verai Qui conoit le bon chevalier Et selonc le fet set jutgier." Lors prent congie piteusement, Et maint en plorent tenrement. D'euls se part, en une abaie Servi puis la vierge Marie. "Glorious has the tourney been Where for me has fought the Queen; But a disgrace for me it were If I tourneyed not for her. Traitor to her should I be, Returned to worldly vanity. I promise truly, by God's grace, Never again the lists to see, Except before that Judge's face, Who knows the true knight from the base, And gives to each his final place." Then piteously he takes his leave While in tears his barons grieve. So he parts, and in an abbey Serves henceforth the Virgin Mary.