The maid was
sensible, and perfectly willing that the King should kiss her;
she would have been discourteous, indeed, to resent it. In
courteous fashion and in the presence of all his knights the King
kissed her, and said: "My dear. I give you my love in all
honesty. I will love you with true heart, without malice and
without guile." By this adventure the King carried out the
practice and the usage to which the White Stag was entitled at
his court.
Here ends the first part of my story. (19)
(Vv. 1845-1914.) When the kiss of the Stag was taken according
to the custom of the country, Erec, like a polite and kind man,
was solicitous for his poor host. It was not his intention to
fail to execute what he had promised. Hear how he kept his
covenant: for he sent him now five sumpter mules, strong and
sleek, loaded with dresses and clothes, buckrams and scarlets,
marks of gold and silver plate, furs both vair and grey, skins of
sable, purple stuffs, and silks. When the mules were loaded with
all that a gentleman can need, he sent with them an escort of ten
knights and sergeants chosen from his own men, and straightly
charged them to salute his host and show great honour both to him
and to his lady, as if it were to himself in person; and when
they should have presented to them the sumpters which they
brought them, the gold, the silver, and money, and all the other
furnishings which were in the boxes, they should escort the lady
and the vavasor with great honour into his kingdom of Farther
Wales.
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