The good knights were in the midst of the assembly, and right wrathful
was the one against the other, and they held their swords naked and
their shields on their arms and dealt each other huge buffets right in
the midst of the helms. The most part of the knights come to them and
tell them that the assembly waiteth for them to come thereunto. They
have much pains to part them asunder, and then the melly beginneth
again on all sides, and the evening cometh on that parteth them at
last. And on this wise the assembly lasted for two days. The damsel
that brought the knight on a bier in a coffin, dead, prayed the
assembly of all the knights to declare which one of all the knights had
done the best, for the knight that she made be carried might not be
buried until such time as he were avenged. And they say that the
knight of the white shield and the other with the shield sinople and
the golden eagle had done better than all the other, but, for that the
knight of the white shield had joined in the melly before the other,
they therefore would give him the prize; but they judged that for the
time that Messire Gawain had joined therein he had not done worse than
the other knight. The damsel seeketh the knight of the white shield
among the knights and throughout all the tents, but cannot find him,
for already hath he departed. She cometh to Messire Gawain and saith:
"Sir, sith that I find not the knight of the white shield, you are he
that behoveth avenge the knight that lieth dead in the litter."
"Damsel," saith Messire Gawain, "Do me not this shame, for it hath been
declared that the other knight hath better done herein than I."