But how say ye, my masters ?" So they all with one consent said Yea, and they would ask for no better king than their lady his daughter.

Then said the King: "Hearken carefully, for my time is short: Yet is she young and a maiden, though she be wise.

Now therefore do I need some man well looked to of the folk, who shall rule the land in her name till she be of eighteen winters, and who shall be her good friend and counsellor into all wisdom thereafter.

Which of you, my masters, is meet for this matter ?" Then they all looked one on the other, and spake not.

And the King said: "Speak, some one of you, without fear; this is no time for tarrying." Thereon spake an elder, the oldest of them, and said: "Lord, this is the very truth, that none of us here present are meet for this office: whereas, among other matters, we be all unmeet for battle; some of us have never been warriors, and other some are past the age for leading an host.