we shall find where we may shelter us a little.”  So they rode forward, and presently Arthur espied a little lake glinting in the beams of the rising moon, and, as they drew nearer, they descried, full in the moonlight, a little ship, all hung with silks even to the water’s edge.  Then said the King to his knights:  “Yonder is promise of shelter or, it may be, of adventure.  Let us tether our horses in the thicket and enter into this little ship.”  And when they had so done, presently they found themselves in a fair cabin all hung with silks and tapestries, and, in its midst, a table spread with the choicest fare.  And being weary and hungered with the chase, they ate of the feast prepared and, lying down to rest, were soon sunk in deep slumber.

While they slept, the little ship floated away from the land, and it came to pass that a great wonder befell; for when they woke in the morning, King Uriens found himself at home in his own land, and Sir Accolon was in his own chamber at Camelot; but the King lay a prisoner, bound and fettered and weaponless, in a noisome dungeon that echoed to the groans of hapless captives.

When he was come to himself, King Arthur looked about him and saw that his companions were knights in the same hard case as himself; and he inquired of them how they came to be in that plight.  “Sir,” said one of them, “we are in duresse in the castle of a certain recreant knight, Sir Damas by name, a coward false to chivalry.  None love him, and so no champion can he find to maintain his cause in a certain quarrel that he has in hand.  For this reason, he lies in wait with a great company of soldiers for any knights that may pass this way, and taking them prisoners, holds them in captivity unless they will undertake to fight to the death in his cause.  And this I would not, nor any of my companions here; but unless we be speedily rescued, we are all like to die of hunger in this loathsome dungeon.”  “What is his quarrel?” asked the King.  “That we none of us know,” answered the knight.

While they yet talked, there entered the prison a damsel.  She went up to the King at once, and said:  “Knight, will ye undertake to fight in the cause of the lord of this castle?” “That I may not say,” replied the King, “unless first I may hear what is his quarrel.”  “That ye shall not know,” replied the damsel, “but this I tell you:  if ye refuse, ye shall never leave this dungeon alive, but shall perish here miserably.”  “This is a hard case,” said the King, “that I must either die or fight for one I know not, and in a cause that I may not hear.  Yet on one condition will I undertake your lord’s quarrel, and that is that he shall give me all the prisoners bound here in this dungeon.”  “It shall be as ye say,” answered the damsel, “and ye shall also be furnished with horse and armour and sword than which ye never saw better.”  Therewith the damsel bade him follow her, and brought him to a great hall where presently there came to him squires to arm him for the combat; and when their service was rendered, the damsel said to him:  “Sir Knight, even now there has come one who greets you in the name of Queen Morgan le Fay, and bids me tell you that the Queen, knowing your need, has sent you your good sword.”  Then the King rejoiced greatly, for it seemed to him that the sword that the damsel gave him was none other than the good sword Excalibur.