'Then, fair fellows,' he said, very heavily, 'I charge you that no man tell Sir Gawaine of the death of his two brothers; for I am sure that when he heareth that his loved younger brother, Sir Gareth, is slain, he will nigh go out of his mind for sorrow and anger.' The king strode up and down the chamber, wringing his hands in the grief he could not utter. 'Why, oh why, did he slay them?' he cried out at length. 'He himself knighted Sir Gareth when he went to fight the oppressor of the Lady Lyones, and Sir Gareth loved him above all others.' 'That is truth,' said some of the knights, and could not keep from tears to see the king's grief, 'but they were slain in the hurtling together of the knights, as Sir Lancelot dashed in the thick of the press. He wist not whom he smote, so blind was his rage to get to the queen at the stake.' 'Alas! alas!' said the king. 'The death of them will cause the greatest woful war that ever was in this fair realm. I see ruin before us all--rent and ruined shall we be, and all peace for ever at an end.' Though the king had forbidden any of his knights to tell Sir Gawaine of the death of his two brothers, Sir Mordred called his squire aside, and bade him go and let Sir Gawaine know all that had happened. 'Do you see to it,' he told the man, 'that thou dost inflame his mind against Sir Lancelot.' The knave went to Sir Gawaine, and found him walking on the terrace of the palace overlooking the broad quiet Thames, where the small trading ships sailed up and down the river on their ways to and from Gaul and the ports of the Kentish coast. 'Sir,' said the squire, doffing his cap and bowing, 'great and woful deeds have been toward this day. The queen hath been rescued by Sir Lancelot and his kin, and some thirty knights were slain in the melee about the stake.' 'Heaven defend my brethren,' said Sir Gawaine, 'for they went unarmed. But as for Sir Lancelot, I guessed he would try a rescue, and I had deemed him no man of knightly worship if he had not. But, tell me, how are my brethren. Where be they?' 'Alas, sir,' said the man, 'they be slain.' The grim face of Sir Gawaine went pale, and with an iron hand he seized the shoulder of the squire and shook him in his rage. 'Have a care, thou limb of Mordred's, if thou speakest lies,' he said. 'I would not have them dead for all this realm and its riches. Where is my young brother, Sir Gareth?' 'Sir, I tell ye truth,' said the man, 'for I know how heavy would be your anger if I lied in this. Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris are slain, and all good knights are mourning them, and in especial the king our master.' Sir Gawaine took a step backwards and his face went pale and then it darkened with rage. 'Tell me who slew them?' he thundered. 'Sir,' replied the man, 'Sir Lancelot slew them both.' 'False knave!' cried Sir Gawaine, 'I knew thou didst lie.' He struck the man a great buffet on the head, so that he fell half dazed to the ground.