So this dwarf departed, and came to Sir Persant, where he found the
damosel Linet and Sir Beaumains, and there he told them all as ye have
heard; and then they took their leave, but Sir Persant took an ambling
hackney and conveyed them on their ways, and then beleft them to God;
and so within a little while they came to that hermitage, and there
they drank the wine, and ate the venison and the fowls baken. And so
when they had repasted them well, the dwarf returned again with his
vessel unto the castle again; and there met with him the Red Knight of
the Red Launds, and asked him from whence that he came, and where he
had been. Sir, said the dwarf, I have been with my lady’s sister of
this castle, and she hath been at King Arthur’s court, and brought a
knight with her. Then I account her travail but lost; for though she
had brought with her Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, Sir Lamorak, or Sir
Gawaine, I would think myself good enough for them all.
It may well be, said the dwarf, but this knight hath passed all the
perilous passages, and slain the Black Knight and other two more, and
won the Green Knight, the Red Knight, and the Blue Knight. Then is he
one of these four that I have afore rehearsed. He is none of those,
said the dwarf, but he is a king’s son. What is his name? said the Red
Knight of the Red Launds. That will I not tell you, said the dwarf, but
Sir Kay upon scorn named him Beaumains. I care not, said the knight,
what knight so ever he be, for I shall soon deliver him. And if I ever
match him he shall have a shameful death as many other have had. That
were pity, said the dwarf, and it is marvel that ye make such shameful
war upon noble knights.
CHAPTER XV. How the damosel and Beaumains came to the siege; and came
to a sycamore tree, and there Beaumains blew a horn, and then the
Knight of the Red Launds came to fight with him.
Now leave we the knight and the dwarf, and speak we of Beaumains, that
all night lay in the hermitage; and upon the morn he and the damosel
Linet heard their mass and brake their fast. And then they took their
horses and rode throughout a fair forest; and then they came to a
plain, and saw where were many pavilions and tents, and a fair castle,
and there was much smoke and great noise; and when they came near the
siege Sir Beaumains espied upon great trees, as he rode, how there hung
full goodly armed knights by the neck, and their shields about their
necks with their swords, and gilt spurs upon their heels, and so there
hung nigh a forty knights shamefully with full rich arms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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