t he can trust himself in her presence or her in his, and that he will be able to hide the affair from others who may or may not have his best interests at heart, such as Agravain and Mordred.
In addition, the basic deception would mean little were it not for the fact that there is a basic trust to go along with that deception---the king's trust for both Lancelot and the queen, his beautiful wife. In fact, the story would have been cut quite short had the king believed Agravain when the latter told him in no uncertain terms that Lancelot was indeed sleeping with the queen.
In any case, again, deception fills the story from the beginning. The self-deception of Lancelot about being able to refrain from loving the queen is the beginning of the disaster. Then the king is self-deceived about Lancelot's and the queen's trustworthiness. Then Lancelot deceives the other knights about being ill and not being able to attend the tournament. Then they deceive others when they discover his presence at the tournament. Then Lancelot deceives the girl who gives him her sleeve to wear, first with respect to his having a heart which is free, and then simply by wearing the sleeve, which leads her to believe that he is in love with her.
At each point of this series of deceptions there is a corresponding trust on the part of the deceiver that the deception will not be revealed, that those who are in the know will not reveal the deception. In some cases this proves accurate, in others it does not.
The king, though he has been told of the affair between Lancelot and the queen, disbelieves it, and this disbelief, based on trust, is further strengthened when he is told that Lancelot loves the girl whose sleeve he wore. Again, the basic trust of the king is emphasize
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