Father Jean then received the shield from Sir Fran?ois and blessed it before handing it back to the knight, who fitted it to its straps and secured it on his sons back. The Duke of Quenelles drew the sword he had brough to the altar, which shone brightly in the morning light streaming through the stained-glass windows of the priory. This he handed to the prior, who blessed it before handing it back to Sir Tancred, who scabbarded it before kneeling to buckle it onto Robert's belt.

He stood again and Father Jean gave the final blessing, "Today you have received your sword and your shield. Use them well, new knight errant, that some day you may be dubbed a full knight of the realm of Bretonnia. Amen. We pray that all the good men and women of Bretonnia, and all the Grail Knights who have gone before, especially Sir Birinus the patron of Giselles, will interceed for you that the grace of the Lady may favour your cause. Amen. And we ask that the Lady will always be with you when you call, that you shall never fail in your sacred duty as a knight. Amen." A short pause, then he finished by saying "The mass is ended, go into the world to love and serve the Lady of the Lake."

As they filed out of the priory, Sir Fran?ois took his sons arm and told him that he must ready himself immediately to depart - his banquet would have to wait until he returned victorious from battle as the Duke meant to ride out at sexts and it was already terce. He told him also that Donal, a boy around a year Sir Robert's junior, was to accompany him as his squire, that his horse, complete with suitable barding, was being made ready in the stables, and that tabards with his colours on had been placed in his quarters.

Sir Robert (as he should now be titled) therefore spent almost the next three hours preparing to depart. He checked, double-checked and triple-checked both his and Donal's equipment and supplies, and the state of the horses and their tack. Lastly he visited his mother and his father and took their leave, and a few minutes before sexts he and Donal turned out in the castle yard to join the Duke's column.

They joined a group of other knights errant and their squires near the rear of the order of march, therefore Sir Robert was unable to hear the words his father said to Duke Tancred as they said their farewells. Soon they were marching out of the castle gate, down the hill and through the town of ?lfinfort before joining the road to Quenelles.

They rode first through the familiar countryside he had known all his life. East along the Morceaux to Cinque Damoiselles they went, then turned south up the Giselles towards Gisellebourg. From this road he was able to take a last look over his left shoulder as the tip of the white tower of ?lfinfort disappeared behind the shoulder of the hills of the Giselles valley. They continued to ride through the town of Gisellebourg and then along the elf-road across the Hare Brook and out of the barony that would one day be his.

Shortly after passing Merlebourg they left the Giselles and the Haute-Morceaux region that he knew. They rode now though the fertile plains of southern Quenelles, the Massif Orcal fading to blue behind them. They paused for the night here, still within sight of the high tower of Stoarwell on the boundary of Giselles.