I know not how long he sought him, till shelter at length he found 15 In the Waleis land: 'fore Kanvoleis were pitched on the open ground Many tents so fair and knightly; (I speak not from fancy light But sooth are the words I tell ye if the tale ye would hear aright) Then he bade his folk to halt there, and he sent on before his face The chief of his squires, and he bade him to seek them a resting-place. 20 He would fain do his master's bidding, and swift to the town he sped, And many a pack-horse laden his comrades behind him led. And never a house he saw there but its roof was a shield I trow, And the walls were hung and circled with spears in a goodly row, For the queen of the Waleis country had ordered at Kanvoleis 25 That a Tourney fair be holden, and they ordered it in such wise That a coward had little liked it--for whoever would seek such strife At his will doth it chance but seldom! She was maiden, not yet a wife, And herself and two lands she offered to him who the prize should hold; And many to earth had fallen in whose ear had this tale been told, 30 And he who such fall must suffer he held that his chance was o'er. And many a dauntless hero showed knighthood those walls before, And many a horse rushed onward as the knight spurred to onslaught fierce, And the sword-blades rang clear on each other, and spears did the shield rims pierce.