again in peace and prosperity.

Among the lesser kings whom Arthur helped to rebuild their towns and
restore order, was King Leodegrance of Cameliard. Now Leodegrance had
one fair child, his daughter Guenevere; and from the first he saw her,
Arthur gave her all his love. So he sought counsel of Merlin, his
chief adviser. Merlin heard the king sorrowfully, and he said: "Sir
king, when a man's heart is set, he may not change. Yet had it been
well if ye had loved another."

So the king sent his knights to Leodegrance, to ask of him his
daughter; and Leodegrance consented, rejoicing to wed her to so good
and knightly a king. With great pomp, the princess was conducted to
Canterbury, and there the king met her, and they two were wed by the
archbishop in the great cathedral, amid the rejoicings of the people.

On that same day did Arthur found his Order of the Round Table, the
fame of which was to spread throughout Christendom and endure through
all time. Now the Round Table had been made for King Uther Pendragon
by Merlin, who had meant thereby to set forth plainly to all men the
roundness of the earth. After Uther died, King Leodegrance had
possessed it; but when Arthur was wed, he sent it to him as a gift,
and great was the king's joy at receiving it. One hundred and fifty
knights might take their places about it, and for them Merlin made
sieges or seats. One hundred and twenty-eight did Arthur knight at
that great feast; thereafter, if any sieges were empty, at the high
festival of Pentecost new knights were ordained to fill them, and by
magic was the name of each knight found inscribed, in letters of gold,
in his proper siege. One seat only long remained unoccupied, and that
was the Siege Perilous. No knight might occupy it until the coming of