CHAPTER XVIII. How Sir Bors returned and told tidings of Sir Launcelot;
and of the tourney, and to whom the prize was given.
Then Sir Bors made him ready to depart from Sir Launcelot; and then Sir
Launcelot said: Fair cousin, Sir Bors, recommend me unto all them unto
whom me ought to recommend me unto. And I pray you, enforce yourself at
that jousts that ye may be best, for my love; and here shall I abide
you at the mercy of God till ye come again. And so Sir Bors departed
and came to the court of King Arthur, and told them in what place he
had left Sir Launcelot. That me repenteth, said the king, but since he
shall have his life we all may thank God. And there Sir Bors told the
queen in what jeopardy Sir Launcelot was when he would assay his horse.
And all that he did, madam, was for the love of you, because he would
have been at this tournament. Fie on him, recreant knight, said the
queen, for wit ye well I am right sorry an he shall have his life. His
life shall he have, said Sir Bors, and who that would otherwise, except
you, madam, we that be of his blood should help to short their lives.
But madam, said Sir Bors, ye have been oft-times displeased with my
lord, Sir Launcelot, but at all times at the end ye find him a true
knight: and so he departed.
And then every knight of the Round Table that were there at that time
present made them ready to be at that jousts at All Hallowmass, and
thither drew many knights of divers countries. And as All Hallowmass
drew near, thither came the King of Northgalis, and the King with the
Hundred Knights, and Sir Galahad, the haut prince, of Surluse, and
thither came King Anguish of Ireland, and the King of Scots. So these
three kings came on King Arthur’s party. And so that day Sir Gawaine
did great deeds of arms, and began first. And the heralds numbered that
Sir Gawaine smote down twenty knights. Then Sir Bors de Ganis came in
the same time, and he was numbered that he smote down twenty knights;
and therefore the prize was given betwixt them both, for they began
first and longest endured. Also Sir Gareth, as the book saith, did that
day great deeds of arms, for he smote down and pulled down thirty
knights. But when he had done these deeds he tarried not but so
departed, and therefore he lost his prize. And Sir Palomides did great
deeds of arms that day, for he smote down twenty knights, but he
departed suddenly, and men deemed Sir Gareth and he rode together to
some manner adventures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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