you, that you will protect the child as it has pleased God to protect him! he then told him how he had found the child, and of the letters on his breast. You tell me such wonders, replied Lisuarte, as I never heard till now: it must needs be that the Lioness found him near this place. I cannot say, said Nasciano, nor let us seek to know more of this than pleases God. Then said the King, I beseech you come and eat with me to-morrow at the Fountain of the Seven Beech Trees, where you will find the Queen and our company, and bring with you Esplandian and the Lioness, and your nephew, to whom I ought to show favour for the sake of Sargil his father, who was a good Knight, and served the King my brother well.
The King then returned to his pavilion, he reached it two hours after noon, and there he found Don Galaor and Norandel, and Guilan the Pensive, who had just arrived with two deer, with whom he talked and made merry, but of his own adventure he said nothing; then bade he the cloths be spread, but Don Grumedan came up and said, Sir, the Queen hath not yet eat, and she requests to speak with you first, for so it behoveth. Immediately he rose and went to her, and she showed
him a letter sealed with an emerald, through which threads of gold were passed, and there were letters round about it saying, this is the seal of Urganda the Unknown. Sir, quoth she, as I came along the road a Damsel met us, richly attired upon a palfrey, and a Dwarf with her upon a good horse. She rode by all my company, and close by my daughter, without vouchsafing a word to them, but when I came up she said, Queen, take this letter, and read it with the King before you dine, and then she and the Dwarf spurred away so fast that there was no time to ask her any thing. The King then opened the letter and read thus:
To the most high and honoured King Lisuarte.
I Urganda the Unknown, who love you, advise you to your benefit, that at the time when the fair boy who has been nursed by three nurses shall appear you love him and cherish him well, for great joy shall he bring to you, and shall deliver you from the greatest danger wherein ever you were placed. He is of high lineage, and know O King that from the milk of his first nurse he shall be so strong and fierce of heart that his great feats in arms shall obscure all the worthies of his own time, and from his second nurse he shall be gentle and courteous, and humble, and of all good
qualities, and from his third nurse prudent and of good understanding, and right catholic, and of fair speech; therefore will he be beloved by all, and no Knight shall equal him. And his great deeds in arms shall all be employed in the service of the Most High God, despising that which other Knights of these days follow more for the honour and vain glory of this world than for the sake of conscience, so that he shall have God on his right hand and his Lady on his left. And I tell thee moreover good King that this child shall make peace between thee and Amadis and his lineage, which shall last all thy days, and which none other could do.
When he had read this, the King blessed himself and said, the wisdom of this woman can neither be imagined nor expressed! I have this day found the child of whom she speaks! and with that he told the Queen what had happened, and how Nasciano and the boy would be with them on the morrow. Right joyful was Brisena to think she should see that child, and talk with that holy man about her conscience. The King then bade her say nothing of all this, and he returned to his tent to take food, there he told his Knights not to go hunt the next day for he had a letter to read to
them from Urganda the Unknown, and he ordered the huntsmen to drive all the beasts into a sheltered valley and keep them there all the day: this did he that they might not be frightened by the Lioness. So thus as you hear they passed the day regaling themselves in that meadow which was full of flowers and of fresh green grass.
On the morrow they all assembled in the King's tent and there heard mass. Lisuarte then took them to the Queen's Pavilion, which was pitched beside a fountain in a fresh meadow, for it was the month of May. The curtains of the pavilion were open, so that the Princesses and Dames and Damsels of high parentage were all seen seated on the estrados, and there the high-born Knights went and conversed with them. The King then had the letter of Urganda read, whereat they were all greatly amazed, marvelling what fortunate child it might be, but most of all Oriana mused thereon and sighed for her son, thinking that perhaps this might be he whom she had lost. What think ye of this letter? said the King. Certes Sir, replied Don Galaor, I doubt not that what she saith will come to pass, as it ever hath done, and how much soever others may rejoice when the child shall appear, with reason shall I above all
others be glad, seeing that through him shall be accomplished the thing I most desire, which is to see my brother Amadis and his kinsmen in your love and service once more, as they were heretofore wont to be. Lisuarte answered, all this is in the hand of God, he will do his service, and we must be contented. While they were thus communing they beheld the hermit coming and his boys with him. Esplandian came first, leading the Lioness in a slender leash and the two Spaniels coupled, and behind him was the holy man Nasciano; then came Esplandian's foster brother Sargil, and two bowmen who had taught Esplandian in the mountain, and they brought upon one beast the stags whom Lisuarte had seen the Lioness slay, and on another two roe-bucks, and hares, and rabbits whom the boys and they had killed with their arrows. When they in the tents beheld such a company, and that great and terrible Lioness, they rose hastily and went to place themselves before the King, but he held out a wand and bade them remain in their places, saying that he who led this Lioness would defend them. It may be so, replied Don Galaor, but methinks we should have a weak defender in the huntsman who leads her if she should grow angry; this is a marvellous thing to see!