Then quoth Gawain, “I wot I will do even as it may please ye, and kiss
at your commandment, as a true knight should who forbears to ask for
fear of displeasure.”
At that she came near and bent down and kissed the knight, and each
commended the other to Christ, and she went forth from the chamber
softly.
Then Sir Gawain arose and called his chamberlain and chose his garments,
and when he was ready he gat him forth to Mass, and then went to meat,
and made merry all day till the rising of the moon, and never had a
knight fairer lodging than had he with those two noble ladies, the elder
and the younger.
And ever the lord of the land chased the hinds through holt and heath
till eventide, and then with much blowing of bugles and baying of hounds
they bore the game homeward; and by the time daylight was done all the
folk had returned to that fair castle. And when the lord and Sir Gawain
met together, then were they both well pleased. The lord commanded them
all to assemble in the great hall, and the ladies to descend with their
maidens, and there, before them all, he bade the men fetch in the spoil
of the day’s hunting, and he called unto Gawain, and counted the tale of
the beasts, and showed them unto him, and said, “What think ye of this
game, Sir Knight? Have I deserved of ye thanks for my woodcraft?”
“Yea, I wis,” quoth the other, “here is the fairest spoil I have seen
this seven year in the winter season.”