need we will send to ye for succour; and likewise ye, if ye have need,
send for us, and we will not tarry, by the faith of our bodies."

When the two kings had left, King Arthur rode to Caerleon, and thither
came to him his half-sister Belisent, wife to King Lot, sent as a
messenger, but in truth to espy his power; and with her came a noble
retinue, and also her four sons--Gawain, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth.
But when she saw King Arthur and his nobleness, and all the splendour of
his knights and service, she forbore to spy upon him as a foe, and told
him of her husband's plots against him and his throne. And the king, not
knowing that she was his half-sister, made great court to her; and being
full of admiration for her beauty, loved her out of measure, and kept her
a long season at Caerleon. Wherefore her husband, King Lot, was more than
ever King Arthur's enemy, and hated him till death with a passing great
hatred.

At that time King Arthur had a marvellous dream, which gave him great
disquietness of heart. He dreamed that the whole land was full of many
fiery griffins and serpents, which burnt and slew the people everywhere;
and then that he himself fought with them, and that they did him mighty
injuries, and wounded him nigh to death, but that at last he overcame and
slew them all. When he woke, he sat in great heaviness of spirit and
pensiveness, thinking what this dream might signify, but by-and-by, when
he could by no means satisfy himself what it might mean, to rid himself of
all his thoughts of it, he made ready with a great company to ride out
hunting.

As soon as he was in the forest, the king saw a great hart before him, and
spurred his horse, and rode long eagerly after it, and chased until his
horse lost breath and fell down dead from under him. Then, seeing the hart