Then she asked him if he had ate any meat late. Nay, madam, truly I ate
no meat nigh this three days, but late here I spake with a good man
that fed me with his good words and holy, and refreshed me greatly. Ah,
sir knight, said she, that same man is an enchanter and a multiplier of
words. For an ye believe him ye shall plainly be shamed, and die in
this rock for pure hunger, and be eaten with wild beasts; and ye be a
young man and a goodly knight, and I shall help you an ye will. What
are ye, said Sir Percivale, that proffered me thus great kindness? I
am, said she, a gentlewoman that am disherited, which was sometime the
richest woman of the world. Damosel, said Sir Percivale, who hath
disherited you? for I have great pity of you. Sir, said she, I dwelled
with the greatest man of the world, and he made me so fair and clear
that there was none like me; and of that great beauty I had a little
pride more than I ought to have had. Also I said a word that pleased
him not. And then he would not suffer me to be any longer in his
company, and so drove me from mine heritage, and so disherited me, and
he had never pity of me nor of none of my council, nor of my court. And
sithen, sir knight, it hath befallen me so, and through me and mine I
have benome him many of his men, and made them to become my men. For
they ask never nothing of me but I give it them, that and much more.
Thus I and all my servants were against him night and day. Therefore I
know now no good knight, nor no good man, but I get them on my side an
I may. And for that I know that thou art a good knight, I beseech you
to help me; and for ye be a fellow of the Round Table, wherefore ye
ought not to fail no gentlewoman which is disherited, an she besought
you of help.
CHAPTER IX. How Sir Percivale promised her help, and how he required
her of love, and how he was saved from the fiend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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