Alyssander Escapes Morgan le Fay’s Castle of Beau Regard is a rescue-and-escape episode in which healing becomes the pretext for confinement. Wounded after his earlier adventures, Alyssander accepts Queen Morgan le Fay’s terms for recovery: he will remain within her castle for a year and a day. A damsel who has a claim to the castle warns him that Morgan intends to use him, then arranges his escape through a private postern as her uncle arrives with four hundred knights to destroy the stronghold. The episode turns on the gap between a knight’s pledged word and the freedom he needs to avoid becoming Morgan’s prisoner in fact as well as by promise.

From Wounds to Confinement

Morgan first tends Alyssander’s wounds with an ointment that worsens his condition. When he complains the following morning, she applies other ointments, and his pain subsides. The sequence makes his recovery dependent on Morgan’s intervention, but the care does not resolve the danger surrounding him: it gives her leverage over his next decision.

A damsel of the castle asks Morgan to help her marry Alyssander, who has won her through his deeds. Morgan instead tells Alyssander to refuse the match, warning him that the woman is not suitable for him. When the damsel asks Alyssander to give her to Sir Gerine le Grose, a knight who has loved her for many years, he agrees. She and Sir Gerine are then formally joined in marriage. Alyssander’s consent settles her request, while Morgan redirects his own future toward a bargain that will bind him to her castle.

The Year-and-a-Day Promise

Morgan puts Alyssander into a horse-litter and gives him a drink that leaves him asleep for three days and three nights. She brings him to her own castle, then asks whether he wants to be healed. Alyssander answers that anyone would want recovery if it were possible. Morgan makes the condition explicit: he must promise by his knighthood not to leave the bounds of the castle for a year and a day. He agrees, and, after making the promise, soon recovers.

Once well, Alyssander regrets his oath because it prevents him from taking revenge on King Mark. The healing has therefore restored his capacity to act while the promise restricts what he may do: his body is recovered, but his freedom and intended pursuit remain suspended. The year and a day marks the term of the confinement, and Alyssander understands himself as a prisoner by his own pledged word.

The Damsel’s Plan and the Castle’s Fall

A second damsel, a cousin of Morgan and of the Earl of Pase, finds Alyssander grieving in the castle. She tells him that Morgan is keeping him there so she can subject him to her will. Alyssander rejects that prospect, saying he would rather die than submit. The damsel offers to secure his release without damaging his honour: the castle, she explains, rightfully belongs to her, and her uncle, the powerful Earl of Pase, already hates Morgan.

Her plan relies on that inheritance claim and the earl’s enmity. She will ask him to attack the castle on the grounds of its evil customs, then lead Alyssander through a private postern into a garden where his horse and armour will be waiting. She also reminds him that he can remain within the castle’s bounds for the promised year and a day, so that his escape need not break his oath. Alyssander accepts the arrangement and kisses her. She sends to her uncle, who agrees to come on a set day.

When the day arrives, the damsel shows Alyssander the postern. He escapes into the garden and finds his horse and armour there. The Earl of Pase comes with four hundred knights and sets fire to the castle; the attack leaves no stone standing. Alyssander has remained in the garden throughout the burning, outside the destroyed stronghold and beyond Morgan’s immediate control.

The Oath and Its Consequences

After the castle has been destroyed, the earl orders that the ground on which Beau Regard stood be guarded for a year and a day against any knight who comes to challenge him. The same term that defined Alyssander’s promise thus returns as a new public condition attached to the ruined site. The story does not say that Alyssander takes up this challenge; it records the earl’s proclamation as the immediate aftermath of the escape.

The episode distinguishes a promise’s wording from the power that first made it coercive. Alyssander has sworn not to cross the castle’s bounds, and he honours that limit by leaving through the planned route only when the damsel opens the way into the garden. His release depends not on defeating Morgan in combat but on the damsel’s knowledge of her inheritance, her appeal to her uncle, and the provision of horse and armour. The castle’s destruction removes Morgan’s hold over the place, while Alyssander’s unused vow, his regret over revenge, and the earl’s new year-and-a-day proclamation leave the consequences of confinement visible even after the escape.