that Arthur once had his court. And here also at one time was Caradoc Freichfras with his wife Tegau, the most honest woman in Arthur's court.
Who can say that it was not here that the boy appeared with the mantle, the ballad concerning which is in Percy's Reliques, though indeed in that it is said to have occurred in Carlisle?
"Now have thou here, King Arthur,
- Have this here of mee,
And give unto thy comely queen
- All-shapen as you see.
"'No wife it shall become
- That once hath been to blame.
Then every knight in Arthur's court
- Slye glaunced at his dame.
"And first came Lady Guenever,
- The mantle she must trye.
This dame, she was new-fangled,
- And of a roving eye.
"When she had tane the mantle,
- And all was with it cladde,
From top to toe it shiver'd down,
- As tho' with sheers beshradde.
"Down she threw the mantle,
- She longer would not stay;
But, storming like a fury,
- To her chamber flung away."
So one lady after another attempted to wear the mantle, and it curled and became contracted on each, and all were shamed in the sight of Arthur and the whole court.
"Sir Cradock call'd his lady,
- And bade her to come neare:
'Come win this mantle, lady,
- And do me credit here.'
