whether this Tor shall be a good knight or no. Yea, sir, he
ought to be a good knight, for he is come of as good a man as any
is alive, and of kings' blood. How <83>so, sir? said the king.
I shall tell you, said Merlin: This poor man, Aries the cowherd,
is not his father; he is nothing sib to him, for King Pellinore
is his father. I suppose nay, said the cowherd. Fetch thy wife
afore me, said Merlin, and she shall not say nay. Anon the wife
was fetched, which was a fair housewife, and there she answered
Merlin full womanly, and there she told the king and Merlin that
when she was a maid, and went to milk kine, there met with her a
stern knight, and half by force he had my maidenhead, and at that
time he begat my son Tor, and he took away from me my greyhound
that I had that time with me, and said that he would keep the
greyhound for my love. Ah, said the cowherd, I weened not this,
but I may believe it well, for he had never no tatches of me.
Sir, said Tor unto Merlin, dishonour not my mother. Sir, said
Merlin, it is more for your worship than hurt, for your father is
a good man and a king, and he may right well advance you and your
mother, for ye were begotten or ever she was wedded. That is
truth, said the wife. It is the less grief unto me, said the
cowherd.



CHAPTER IV

How Sir Tor was known for son of King Pellinore,
and how Gawaine was made knight.

SO on the morn King Pellinore came to the court of King Arthur,