CHAPTER XXXI
 
 How at a great feast that King Mark made an harper
 came and sang the lay that Dinadan had made.
 
 
 NOW will we pass of this matter, and speak we of the
 harpers that Sir Launcelot and Sir Dinadan had sent into
 Cornwall.  And at the great feast that King Mark made
 for joy that the Sessoins were put out of his country, then
 came Eliot the harper with the lay that Dinadan had made
 and secretly brought it unto Sir Tristram, and told him
 the lay that Dinadan had made by King Mark.  And
 when Sir Tristram heard it, he said:  O Lord Jesu, that
 Dinadan can make wonderly well and ill, thereas it shall
 be.  Sir, said Eliot, dare I sing this song afore King Mark?
 Yea, on my peril, said Sir Tristram, for I shall be thy
 warrant.  Then at the meat came in Eliot the harper, and
 because he was a curious harper men heard him sing the
 same lay that Dinadan had made, the which spake the
 most villainy by King Mark of his treason that ever man
 heard.
 
 When the harper had sung his song to the end King
 Mark was wonderly wroth, and said:  Thou harper, how
 durst thou be so bold on thy head to sing this song afore
 me.  Sir, said Eliot, wit you well I am a minstrel, and I
 must do as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the
 arms of.  And sir, wit ye well that Sir Dinadan, a knight
 of the Table Round, made this song, and made me to
 sing it afore you.  Thou sayest well, said King Mark,
 and because thou art a minstrel thou shalt go quit, but I
 charge thee hie thee fast out of my sight.  So the harper
 departed and went to Sir Tristram, and told him how he
 had sped.  Then Sir Tristram let make letters as goodly
 as he could to Launcelot and to Sir Dinadan.  And so he
 let conduct the harper out of the country.  But to say
 that King Mark was wonderly wroth, he was, for he
 deemed that the lay that was sung afore him was made by
 Sir Tristram's counsel, wherefore he thought to slay him
 and all his well-willers in that country.