At last it seemed to him that the black Knights nearest the castle fared the worst, so, as he ever took the part of the weaker, he rode to their help and smote many of the white Knights to the earth and did marvellous deeds of arms. But always the white Knights held round Sir Lancelot to tire him out. And as no man may endure for ever, in the end Sir Lancelot waxed so faint of fighting that his arms would not lift themselves to deal a stroke; then they took him, and led him away into the forest and made him alight from his horse and rest, and when he was taken the fellowship of the castle were overcome for want of him. “Never ere now was I at tournament or jousts but I had the best,” moaned Sir Lancelot to himself, as soon as the Knights had left him and he was alone. “But now am I shamed, and I am persuaded that I am more sinful than ever I was.” Sorrowfully he rode on till he passed a chapel, where stood a nun, who called to him and asked him his name and what he was seeking. So he told her who he was, and what had befallen him at the tournament, and the vision that had come to him in his sleep. “Ah, Lancelot,” said she, “as long as you were a knight of earthly knighthood you were the most wonderful man in the world and the most adventurous. But now, since you are set among Knights of heavenly adventures, if you were worsted at that tournament it is no marvel. For the tournament was meant for a sign, and the earthly Knights were they who were clothed in black in token of the sins of which they were not yet purged. And the white Knights were they who had chosen the way of holiness, and in them the quest has already begun. Thus you beheld both the sinners and the good men, and when you saw the sinners overcome you went to their help, as they were your fellows in boasting and pride of the world, and all that must be left in that quest. And that caused your misadventure. Now that I have warned you of your vain-glory and your pride, beware of everlasting pain, for of all earthly Knights I have pity of you, for I know well that among earthly sinful Knights you are without peer.” VII. An Adventure of Sir Gawaine. When Sir Gawaine departed he rode long without any adventure. From Whitsunday to Michaelmas he rode and found not the tenth part of the adventures he was wont to do. But it befell on a day that he met Sir Ector de Maris, at which they rejoiced exceedingly, complaining to one another of the lack of adventure in the quest on which they were set. “Truly,” said Sir Gawaine to Sir Ector, “I am nigh weary of this quest, and loth to follow it to further strange countries.” “One thing seems strange to me,” said Sir Ector, “I have met with twenty Knights, and they all complain as I do.”