"How oft in the mellay I've cleft the array, * And given their bravest to lions a prey: Ask of me and of them when I proved me prow * O'er creation, on days of the foray and fray: When I left in the onslaught their lions to lie * On the sands of the low lands[FN203] in fieriest day."
When he ended his verse, the Princess came up to him with smiles and kissed his hand; then she doffed her hauberk and he said to her, "O lady mine, wherefore didst thou don that coat of mail and bare thy brand?" "To guard thee against these caitiffs,"[FN204] she replied. Then she summoned the gate keepers and asked them, "How came ye to admit the King's Knights into my dwelling without leave of me?"; and they answered, "O Princess, it is not our custom to ask leave of thee for the King's messengers, and espec
