Messire Gawain lay the night in the hermit's house, right sorrowful,
and in the morning departed when he had heard mass. Josephus the good
clerk witnesseth us in this high history that this hermit had to name
Josuias, and was a knight of great worship and valour, but he renounced
all for the love of God, and was fain to set his body in banishment for
Him. And all these adventures that you hear in this high record came
to pass, Josephus telleth us, for the setting forward the law of the
Saviour. All of them could he not record, but only these whereof he
best remembered him, and whereof he knew for certain all the adventures
by virtue of the Holy Spirit. This high record saith that Messire
Gawain hath wandered so far that he is come into the Red Launde whereas
the assembly of knights should be held. He looketh and seeth the tents
pitched and the knights coming from all quarters. The most part were
already armed within and before their tents. Messire Gawain looketh
everywhere, thinking to see the knight he seeketh, but seemeth him he
seeth him not, for no such shield seeth he as he beareth. All abashed
is he thereof, for he hath seen all the tents and looked at all the
arms. But the knight is not easy to recognise, for he hath changed his
arms, and nigh enough is he to Messire Gawain, albeit you may well
understand that he knoweth it not. And the tournament assembleth from
all parts, and the divers fellowships come the one against other, and
the melly of either upon other as they come together waxeth sore and
marvellous. And Messire Gawain searcheth the ranks to find the knight,
albeit when he meeteth knight in his way he cannot choose but do
whatsoever a knight may do of arms, and yet more would he have done but
for his fainness to seek out the knight. The damsel is at the head of
the tournament, for that she would fain know the one that shall have
the mastery and the prize therein.
The knight that Messire Gawain seeketh is not at the head of the
fellowships, but in the thickest of the press, and such feats of arms
doth he that more may no knight do, and smiteth down the knights about
him, that flee from him even as the deer-hound fleeth from the lion.
"By my faith," saith Messire Gawain, "sith that they have lied to me
about the knight, I will seek him no more this day, but forget my
discontent as best I may until evening."
He seeth the knight, but knoweth him not, for he had a white shield and
cognisances of the same. And Messire Gawain cometh to him as fast as
his horse may carry him, and the knight toward Messire Gawain. So
passing stoutly they come together that they pierce their shields below
the boss. Their spears were so tough that they break not, and they
draw them forth and come together again so strongly that the spears
wherewith they smote each other amidst the breast were bended so that
they unriveted the holdfasts of their shields, and they lost their
stirrups, and the reins fly from their fists, and they stagger against
the back saddlebows, and the horses stumbled so as that they all but
fell. They straighten them in saddle and stirrup, and catch hold upon
their reins, and then come together again, burning with wrath and fury
like lions, and either smiteth on other with their spears that may
endure no longer, for the shafts are all to-frushed as far as the fists
in such sort that they that look on marvel them much how it came to
pass that the points had not pierced their bodies. But God would not
that the good knights should slay each other, rather would He that the
one should know the true worth of the other. The habergeons
safeguarded not their bodies, but the might of God in whom they
believed, for in them had they all the valour that knight should have;
and never did Messire Gawain depart from hostel wherein he had lien,
but he first heard mass before he went if so he might, nor never found
he dame nor damsel discounselled whereof he had not pity, nor did he
ever churlishness to other knight, nor said nor thought it, and he
came, as you have heard, of the most holy lineage of Josephus and the
good King Fisherman.