Then he quoth, 'Is it thou, O Gawain? too little I yet have done 435 That thou shouldst as a friend entreat me; yet hast thou this honour won That all men thou gently treatest--and thy friendship I here will take, Yet not for mine own deserving, but repayment I fain would make. Now say where thine army lieth, since so many tents I see That stand fair by the brink of the river? If King Arthur in truth shall be 440 So near, then must I bemoan me, that in honour I may not dare To enter his royal presence, or look on his queen so fair. Since 'tis meet that I first avenge me of a foul and discourteous blow, For which, since the day I left them, I sorrow and shame must know. For a maiden as she beheld me, laughed sweetly, the seneschal 445 For my sake smote the maid so sorely, 'twas a wood that upon her fell.' 'Rough vengeance thou here hast taken! (Gawain to the Waleis spake) Since thou in a joust hast felled him, and right arm and left leg he brake. Ride here, see his charger lifeless, that lieth the stone below; On the snowdrift behold the splinters of the spear that hath dealt the blow! 450 'Tis the spear thou but now wast seeking!' Then the truth knew Sir Parzival, And straightway he spake unto Gawain, 'Now, if this be the seneschal, And the man who so sorely shamed me, if thou swear me that this was he, Thou mayst ride where thou wilt, and gladly will I ride in thy company!' 'Nay, never a lie do I tell thee,' quoth Gawain, 'thou hast overthrown 455 Segramor, who ere now in battle was ever as victor known, He fell ere yet Kay had met thee: great deeds hast thou done to-day, Since o'er two of our bravest heroes the prize thou hast borne away.'