we have found sorrows of many kind; at Lincoln left our dear relatives; sixty thousand men, that there are slain.  And if it were to thee will in heart, that we might pass over sea with sail, we would nevermore eft come here; for here we have lost our dear relatives.  So long as is ever, here come we back never!” Then laughed Arthur, with loud voice:—­“Thanked be the Lord, that all dooms wieldeth, that Childric the strong is tired of my land!  My land he hath divided to all his knights; myself he thought to drive out of my country; hold me for base, and have my realm, and my kin all put to death, my folk all destroy.  But of him it is happened, as it is of the fox, when he is boldest over the weald, and hath his full play, and fowls enow; for wildness he climbeth, and rocks he seeketh; in the wilderness holes to him worketh.  Fare whosoever shall fare, he hath never any care; he weeneth to be of power the boldest of all animals.  But when come to him the men under the hills, with horns, with hounds, with loud cries; the hunters there hollow, the hounds there give tongue, they drive the fox over dales and over downs, he fleeth to the holm, and seeketh his hole; in the furthest end in the hole he goeth; then is the bold fox of bliss all deprived, and men dig to him on each side; then is there most wretched the proudest of all animals!  So was it with Childric, the strong and the rich; he thought all my kingdom to set in his own hand, but now I have driven him to the bare death, whether so (whatsoever) I will do, either slay or hang.  Now will I give him peace, and let him speak with me; I will not him slay, nor hang, but his prayer I will receive.  Hostages I will have of the highest of his men; their horses and weapons, ere they hence depart; and so they shall as wretches go to their ships; sail over sea to their good land, and there worthily dwell in their realm, and tell tidings of Arthur the king, how I them have freed, for my father’s soul, and for my freedom solaced the wretches.”  Hereby was Arthur the king of honour deprived, was there no man so bold that durst him advise;—­that repented him sore, soon thereafter!

Childric came from covert to Arthur the king; and he there became his man, with all his knights.  Four-and-twenty hostages Childric there delivered, all they were chosen, and noble men born; they delivered their horses, and their burnies, spears and shields, and their long swords; all they relinquished that they there had.  Forth they gan to march until they came to the sea, where their good ships by the sea stood.  The wind stood at will, the weather most favourable, and they shoved from the strand ships great and long; the land they all left, and floated with the waves, that no sight of land they might see.  The water was still, after their will; they let together their sails glide, board against board, the men there discoursed and said that they would return eft to this land, and avenge worthily their relatives, and waste Arthur’s land, and kill his folk, and win the castles, and work their pleasure.