“Ha!” quoth King Arthur. “That would indeed be a dower worthy for any king to have with his queen.” [Sidenote: _King Leodegrance bestows the Round Table upon King Arthur._] “Then,” King Leodegrance said, “that dower shalt thou have with my daughter; and if it bring thee great glory, then shall thy glory be my glory, and thy renown shall be my renown. For if my glory shall wane, and thy glory shall increase, behold! is not my child thy wife?” And King Arthur said: “Thou sayest well and wisely.” Thus King Arthur became the master of that famous ROUND TABLE. And the ROUND TABLE was set up at Camelot (which some men now call Winchester). And by and by there gathered about it such an array of knights as the world had never beheld before that time, and which it shall never behold again. Such was the history of the beginning of the ROUND TABLE in King Arthur’s reign. [Illustration: King Arthur meets the Lady Guinevere.] [Illustration] Chapter Sixth. _How King Arthur Was Wedded in Royal State and How the Round Table Was Established._ And now was come the early fall of the year; that pleasant season when the meadow-land and the wold were still green with summer that had only just passed; when the sky likewise was as of summer-time--extraordinarily blue and full of large floating clouds; when a bird might sing here and another there, a short song in memory of spring-time, when all the air was tempered with warmth and yet the leaves were everywhere turning brown and red and gold, so that when the sun shone through them it was as though a cloth of gold, broidered with brown and crimson and green, hung above the head. At this season of the year it is exceedingly pleasant to be a-field among the nut-trees with hawk and hound, or to travel abroad in the yellow world, whether it be a-horse or a-foot. Now this was the time of year in which had been set the marriage of King Arthur and the Lady Guinevere at Camelot, and at that place was extraordinary pomp and glory of circumstance. All the world was astir and in a great ferment of joy, for everybody was exceedingly glad that King Arthur was to have him a Queen. [Sidenote: _How Camelot town was adorned._]