cried, ’’tis you I seek for here;
    Your worth has won me:  knight, I love thee dear;
    And of my love such proof will soon impart,
    Shall wing with envy thy proud sovereign’s heart: 
    Then slighted merit shall be fully known,
    And kings repine at wealth beyond their own.’ 
    Words such as these arous’d the astonish’d knight,
    He felt love’s kindling flame inspire his spright,
    And, ‘O pure paragon,’ he straight replied,
    ’Thy love is all!  I hold no wish beside! 
    If bliss so rare thy favouring lips decree,
    No deed shall foil thy champion’s chivalry;
    No toil shall wear, no danger shall dismay,
    Let my queen will, and Lanval must obey: 
    So may I thrive as, from this moment bless’d,
    One hope I cherish, one sole boon request,
    Thy winning form, thy fostering smiles to see,
    And never, never more to part from thee.’

    So speaking ceas’d awhile the enraptur’d knight,
    For now the two fair damsels met his sight;
    Each on her arm resplendent vestments brought,
    Fresh from the loom, magnificently wrought: 
    Enrob’d in them, with added grace he mov’d,
    As one by nature form’d to be belov’d;
    And, by the fairy to the banquet led,
    And placed beside her on one genial bed,
    Whiles the twain handmaids every want supplied,
    Cates were his fare to mortal man denied: 
    Yet was there one, the foremost of the feast,
    One food there was far sweeter than the rest,
    One food there was did feed the warriors flame,
    For from his lady’s lovely lips it came.

    What feeble wit of man might here suffice,
    To point with colours dim Sir Lanval’s extacies! 
    There lapt in bliss he lies, there fain would stay,
    There dream the remnant of his life away: 
    But o’er their loves his dew still evening shed,
    Night gathered on amain, and thus the fairy said;
    ’Rise, knight!  I may not longer keep thee here;
    Back to the court return and nothing fear,
    There, in all princely cost, profusely free,
    Maintain the honour of thyself and me;
    There feed thy lavish fancies uncontroul’d,
    And trust the exhaustless power of fairy gold. 
    ’But should reflection thy soft bosom move,
    And wake sad wishes for thy absent love;
    (And sure such wishes thou canst never frame,
    From any place where presence would be shame),
    Whene’er thou call thy joyful eyes shall see
    This form, invisible to all but thee. 
    One thing I warn thee; let the blessing rest
    An unrevealed treasure in thy breast;
    If here thou fail, that hour my favours end,
    Nor wilt thou ever more behold thy friend:’—­
    Here, with a parting kiss, broke off the fay,
    ‘Farewell!’ she cried, and sudden pass’d away. 
    The knight look’d up, and just without the tent