And the Moor answered straightway: "So will I tell ye all. Sir Agloval
is my father, 'twas he begat me. And more will I tell ye; it chanced
aforetime as ye may now learn, when he came into the land of the Moors;
there through his valiant deeds he won the heart of a maiden, she was my
mother, by my troth. So far went the matter between them through their
words and through his courtesy, and because he was so fair to look upon,
that she gave him all his will--the which brought her small reward, and
great sorrow. Each plighted their troth to the other ere she granted
him her favours. Therein was she ill-counselled, for he forsook her
thereafter--'tis more than fourteen years past; and when he parted from
her she bare me, though he knew it not. He told her his quest, whereof
he was sore troubled, and how it came about that he must needs leave
her, and that will I now tell ye. My father was seeking a noble knight,
who was lost as at that time, and who was hight Sir Lancelot. Still more
may I tell ye; he told my mother that he and many of his fellows had
sworn a great oath to seek Sir Lancelot, and their quest should endure
two years or more an they found him not, or could learn no tidings of
him. Nor should they tarry in any land more than one night or two. This
vexed my father sorely, that for this cause, and to keep his oath, he
must needs leave my mother. But ere he departed he sware to her that he
would return when he had achieved his quest; but he kept not his oath.
Thus have I sought him in many a court. All this did my lady mother tell
me, and also of the troth-plight. Little good hath it done me that he be
my father, and that he sware to my mother, ere he departed, that for her
honour, and for her profit, he would return to her without fail. Doth he
live, God send him mocking (this I pray in all humility), but an he be
already dead, then may God forgive him his sins. I and my mother are
disinherited, since that he hath deserted us, of great goods and of
a fair heritage, that which fell to her from her father have we lost