Mark had not ridden far when he encountered a party of knights of Arthur's court, and would have avoided them, for he knew their habit of challenging to a just every stranger knight whom they met.  But it was too late.  They had seen his armor, and recognized him as a Cornish knight, and at once resolved to have some sport with him.  It happened they had with them Daguenet, King Arthur's fool, who, though deformed and weak of body, was not wanting in courage:

"And little Dagonet on the morrow morn,
High over all the yellowing Autumn-tide,
Danced like a wither'd leaf before the Hall.
Then Tristram, saying, "Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?"
Wheel'd round on either heel, Dagonet replied,
'Belike for lack of wiser company;
Or being fool, and seeing too much wit
Makes the world rotten, why, belike I skip
To know myself the wisest knight of all.'"—The Last Tournament.

The knights, as Mark approached, laid their plan that Daguenet should personate Sir Launcelot of the Lake and challenge the Cornish knight... (Age of Chivalry; or, King Arthur and His Knights, Bulfinch, 1900)