CHAPTER V
 
 How Sir Tor was made knight of the Round Table, and
 how Bagdemagus was displeased.
 
 NOW, said King Pellinore, I shall put to you two knights, and ye
 shall choose which is most worthy, that is Sir Bagdemagus, and
 Sir Tor, my son.  But because Sir Tor is my son I may not praise
 him, but else, an he were not my son, I durst say that of his age
 there is not in this land a better knight than he is, nor of
 better conditions and loath to do any wrong, and loath to take
 any wrong.  By my head, said Arthur, he is a passing good knight
 as any ye spake of this day, that wot I well, said the king; for
 I have seen him proved, but he saith little and he doth much
 more, for I know none in all this court an he were <109>as well
 born on his mother's side as he is on your side, that is like him
 of prowess and of might: and therefore I will have him at this
 time, and leave Sir Bagdemagus till another time.  So when they
 were so chosen by the assent of all the barons, so were there
 found in their sieges every knights' names that here are
 rehearsed, and so were they set in their sieges; whereof Sir
 Bagdemagus was wonderly wroth, that Sir Tor was advanced afore
 him, and therefore suddenly he departed from the court, and took
 his squire with him, and rode long in a forest till they came to
 a cross, and there alighted and said his prayers devoutly.  The
 meanwhile his squire found written upon the cross, that
 Bagdemagus should never return unto the court again, till he had
 won a knight's body of the Round Table, body for body.  So, sir,
 said the squire, here I find writing of you, therefore I rede you
 return again to the court.  That shall I never, said Bagdemagus,
 till men speak of me great worship, and that I be worthy to be a
 knight of the Round Table.  And so he rode forth, and there by
 the way he found a branch of an holy herb that was the sign of
 the Sangreal, and no knight found such tokens but he were a good
 liver.
 
 So, as Sir Bagdemagus rode to see many adventures, it happed him
 to come to the rock whereas the Lady of the Lake had put Merlin
 under the stone, and there he heard him make great dole; whereof
 Sir Bagdemagus would have holpen him, and went unto the great
 stone, and it was so heavy that an hundred men might not lift it
 up.  When Merlin wist he was there, he bade leave his labour, for
 all was in vain, for he might never be holpen but by her that put
 him there.  And so Bagdemagus departed and did many adventures,
 and proved after a full good knight, and came again to the court
 and was made knight of the Round Table.  So on the morn there
 fell new tidings and other adventures.
 
 
 
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