"And I command you," saith Perceval, "that you go straightway to my
mother, and tell her that she shall see me betimes and I may get done,
and so salute her and tell her I am sound and whole. And what is the
name of this castle?"
"Sir, it hath for name the Key of Wales, for it is the gateway of the
land."
XI.
Perceval lay the night in the castle he had reconquered for his mother,
and the morrow, when he was armed, he departed. These promised that
they would keep the castle loyally and would deliver it up to his
mother at her will. He rode until he came to the tents where the
damsels were, and drew rein and listened. But there was not so great
joy as when the damsel that rode like a knight and led the Car came
thither with Clamados. Great dole heard he that was made, and beating
of palms. Wherefore he bethought him what folk they might be.
Natheless he was not minded to draw back without entering. He alighted
in the midst of the tents and set down his shield and his spear, and
seeth the damsels wringing their hands and tearing their hair, and much
marvelleth he wherefore it may be. A damsel cometh forward that had
set forth from the castle where he had slain the knight: "Sir, to your
shame and ill adventure may you have come hither!"
Perceval looketh at her and marvelleth much of that she saith, and she
crieth out: "Lady, behold here him that hath slain the best knight of
your lineage! And you, Clamados, that are within there, he hath slain
your father and your uncle! Now shall it be seen what you will do!"
The Damsel of the Car cometh thitherward and knoweth Perceval by the
shield that he bare of sinople with a white hart.
"Sir," saith she, "welcome may you be! Let who will make dole, I will
make joy of your coming!"
XII.
Therewith the Damsel leadeth him into a tent and maketh him sit on a
right rich couch; afterward she maketh him be disarmed of her two
damsels and clad in a right rich robe. Then she leadeth him to the
Queen of the Tents that was still making great dole.
"Lady," saith the Damsel of the Car, "Stint your sorrow, for behold,
here is the Good Knight on whose account were the tents here pitched,
and on whose account no less have you been making this great joy right
up to this very day!"
"Ha," saith she, "Is this then the son of the Widow Lady?"
"Yea, certes," saith the Damsel.
"Ha," saith the Lady, "He hath slain me the best knight of all my kin,
and the one that protected me from mine enemies."
"Lady," saith the Damsel, "this one will be better able to protect and
defend us, for the Best Knight is he of the world and the comeliest."
The Queen taketh him by the hand and maketh him sit beside her. "Sir,"
saith she, "Howsoever the adventure may have befallen, my heart biddeth
me make joy of your coming."
"Lady," saith he, "Gramercy! Chaos would fain have slain me within his
castle, and I defended myself to my power."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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