'Fair lady,' said the king, 'I would help you willingly, but as ye will not tell me your lady's name, none of my knights here shall go with you with my consent.'
The damsel looked about the hall with a quick angry glance, and the knights that sat there liked not her sour looks. Then from the crowd of scullions and kitchen lads that hung about the serving-tables at the side of the hall came Beaumains, his dress smirched, but his handsome face lit up and his eyes burning with eagerness.
'Sir king!' he cried, holding up his hand, 'a boon I crave!'
As he came to the step of the dais the damsel shrank from him as if he had been something foul.
'Say on,' replied the king to the young man.
'God thank you, my king,' went on Beaumains. 'I have been these twelve months in your kitchen, and have had my full living, as ye did graciously order, and now I ask for the two further gifts ye promised.'
'Ye have but to ask,' replied the king.
'Sir, they are these,' said Beaumains. 'First, that you will grant me this adventure of the damsel.'
'I grant it you,' said King Arthur.
'Then, sir, this is the other,—that ye shall bid Sir Lancelot du Lake to follow me, and to make me a knight when I shall desire him.'