Or where sleeps Artus of Bretaigne.”
The Seigneur gave his infant son into the keeping of Bruyant, a trusty friend of his, and they set out for the fairy fountain with a troop of vassals. They left the infant in the forest of Broceliande. Here the fairies soon found him.
“Ha, sisters,” said one whose skin was as white as the robe of gossamer she wore, and whose golden crown betokened her the queen of the others, “come hither and see a new-born infant. How, I wonder, does he come to be here? I am sure I did not behold him in this spot yesterday. Well, at all events, he must be baptized and suitably endowed, as is our custom when we discover a mortal child. Now what will you give him?”
“I will give him,” said one, “beauty and grace.”
“I endow him,” said a second, “with generosity.”
THE FAIRIES OF BROCELIANDE FIND THE LITTLE BRUNO
“And I,” said a third, “with such valour that he will 73 overthrow all his enemies at tourney and on the battlefield.”
The Queen listened to these promises. “Surely you have little sense,” she said. “For my part, I wish that in his youth he may love one who will be utterly insensible to him, and although he will be as you desire, noble, generous, beautiful, and valorous, he will yet, for his good, suffer keenly from the anguish of love.”