The Queen! Look to the Queen!... Oh, almost she fell down in a swound!
Guinevere.
[Recovering herself.] It is naught.... My Lord, I pray you that you will expound your fearsome rede!
Arthur.
That will I do!... Let all be seated. [All obey the King, whereupon Arthur explains.] How I took oath on my head as anointed king not to set me down to meat on All-Hallowmass or I had undertaken some haut quest already do ye know. [All assent.] Also know ye how this damosel came riding hither into this hall, seeking succour for her knight! [Again All assent.] And none is there that knows not how forthwith I enterprised the matter! [Again All assent.] Now hear ye how I fared with it! [All settle themselves like children to whom a thrilling tale is to be told.] Arrived afore the grimly tower I blew my horn and cried, “How now, Sir Knight, an ye be a fair fighter come, prove it, spear to spear and sword to sword, and body to body!” Whereon rushed forth the most outrageous churl and greatest murtherer was ever seen, with a huge laughter like thunder, and spitting flames of fire from his monstrous mouth! And by sorcery he cast an evil spell on me, so that its scabbard would not loose my sword Excalibur, and my arm fell helpless to my side like as it had been the arm of a dead corp! [The Ladies and the younger Pages shudder audibly.] “How, now, King Arthur,” cried the rude churl, “I have you at a vantage, so best yield yourself without ado!” “Now not ever, nor never on my head,” I answered him, “for I had leaver to be hacked to bits than cry mercy of such a fiendly knight that it is no true knight at all!” [General exclamations of approval greet this, many crying, “Oh well said!” ... “Spoken in kingly-wise!” etc.] “Then,” said he, “you leese, not alone your life the which you seem to hold so light, but also your realms, and your queen!” [Again there is a shuddering sensation.] Well, for to curtail a long tale short, “Come,” said he, “I will release the knight the which to deliver you came, and suffer you to depart as you came upon certain conditions!” “Name them,” said I. “That you shall promise by the Holy Rood that you will not set you down to meat on All-Hallowmass until you shall have brought me the answer to a rede that I shall now propound to you!” “I assent to these,” I said!
[All breathe a long sigh of relief, with exclamations of thankfulness that all has turned out so well.]
Guinevere.
Now, scarce can I wait to go to the Minster to do my thankings to God for such deliverance!... But the rede, my Lord! The rede!
All.
Aye, Sir, the rede!