to have. "Sire," quoth he, "would you know what you have promised
me? I wish to have in great store of your gold and of your silver
and comrades from your retinue such as I shall will to choose;
for I wish to go forth from your empire, and I shall go to offer
my service to the king who reigns over Britain, that he may dub
me knight. Never, indeed, on any day as long as I live shall I
wear visor on my face or helm on my head, I warrant you, till
King Arthur gird on my sword if he deign to do it; for I will
receive arms of no other." The emperor without more ado replies:
"Fair son, in God's name, say not so. This land and mighty are
diverse and contrary. And that man is a slave. Constantinople is
wholly yours. You must not hold me a niggard when I would fain
give you so fair a boon. Soon will I have you crowned; and a
knight shall you be to-morrow. All Greece shall be in your hand;
and you shall receive from your barons--as indeed you ought to
receive--their oaths and homage. He who refuses this is no wise
man."

The lad hears the promise--namely, that his father will dub him
knight on the morrow after Mass--but says that he will prove
himself coward or hero in another land than his own. "If you will
grant my boon in that matter in which I have asked you; then give
me fur both grey and of divers colour and good steeds and silken
attire; for before I am knight I will fain serve King Arthur. Not
yet have I so great valour that I can bear arms. None by entreaty
or by fair words could persuade me not to go into the foreign
land to see the king and his barons, whose renown for courtesy
and for prowess is so great. Many high men through their idleness
lose great praise that they might have if they wandered o'er the
world. Repose and praise agree all together, as it seems to me;