Then came the four sons by couple, and two of them brake their spears,
and so did the other two. And all this while Sir Marhaus touched them
not. Then Sir Marhaus ran to the duke, and smote him with his spear
that horse and man fell to the earth, and so he served his sons; and
then Sir Marhaus alighted down and bade the duke yield him or else he
would slay him. And then some of his sons recovered, and would have set
upon Sir Marhaus; then Sir Marhaus said to the duke, Cease thy sons, or
else I will do the uttermost to you all. Then the duke saw he might not
escape the death, he cried to his sons, and charged them to yield them
to Sir Marhaus; and they kneeled all down and put the pommels of their
swords to the knight, and so he received them. And then they helped up
their father, and so by their cominal assent promised to Sir Marhaus
never to be foes unto King Arthur, and thereupon at Whitsuntide after
to come, he and his sons, and put them in the king’s grace.
Then Sir Marhaus departed, and within two days his damosel brought him
whereas was a great tournament that the Lady de Vawse had cried. And
who that did best should have a rich circlet of gold worth a thousand
besants. And there Sir Marhaus did so nobly that he was renowned, and
had sometime down forty knights, and so the circlet of gold was
rewarded him. Then he departed from them with great worship; and so
within seven nights his damosel brought him to an earl’s place, his
name was the Earl Fergus, that after was Sir Tristram’s knight; and
this earl was but a young man, and late come into his lands, and there
was a giant fast by him that hight Taulurd, and he had another brother
in Cornwall that hight Taulas, that Sir Tristram slew when he was out
of his mind. So this earl made his complaint unto Sir Marhaus, that
there was a giant by him that destroyed all his lands, and how he durst
nowhere ride nor go for him. Sir, said the knight, whether useth he to
fight on horseback or on foot? Nay, said the earl, there may no horse
bear him. Well, said Sir Marhaus, then will I fight with him on foot;
so on the morn Sir Marhaus prayed the earl that one of his men might
bring him whereas the giant was; and so he was, for he saw him sit
under a tree of holly, and many clubs of iron and gisarms about him. So
this knight dressed him to the giant, putting his shield afore him, and
the giant took an iron club in his hand, and at the first stroke he
clave Sir Marhaus’ shield in two pieces. And there he was in great
peril, for the giant was a wily fighter, but at last Sir Marhaus smote
off his right arm above the elbow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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