My lord,Sir Launcelot,said Sir Meliagrance,I rede you beware what ye do;for though ye are never so good a knight,as ye wot well ye are renowned the best knight of the world,yet should ye be advised to do battle in a wrong quarrel,for God will have a stroke in every battle.
As for that,said Sir Launcelot,God is to be dread;but as to that I say nay plainly,that this night there lay none of these ten wounded knights with my lady Queen Guenever,and that will I prove with my hands,that ye say untruly in that now.Hold,said Sir Meliagrance,here is my glove that she is traitress unto my lord,King Arthur,and that this night one of the wounded knights lay with her.And I receive your glove,said Sir Launcelot.And so they were sealed with their signets,and delivered unto the ten knights.At what day shall we do battle together?said Sir Launcelot.This day ight days,said Sir Meliagrance,in the field beside Westminster.I am agreed,said Sir Launcelot.But now,said Sir Meliagrance,sithen it is so that we must fight together,I pray you,as ye be a noble knight,await me with no treason,nor none villainy the meanwhile,nor none for you.So God me help,said Sir Launcelot,ye shall right well wit I was never of no such conditions,for I report me to all knights that ever have known me,I fared never with no treason,nor I loved never the fellowship of no man that fared with treason.Then let us go to dinner,said Meliagrance,and after dinner ye and the queen and ye may ride all to Westminster.I will well,said Sir Launcelot.
Then Sir Meliagrance said to Sir Launcelot:Pleaseth it you to see the estures of this castle?With a good will,said Sir Launcelot.And then they went together from chamber to chamber,for Sir Launcelot dread no perils;for ever a man of worship and of prowess dreadeth least always perils,for they ween every man be as they be;but ever he that fareth with treason putteth oft a man in great danger.So it befell upon Sir Launcelot that no peril dread,as he went with Sir Meliagrance he trod on a trap and the board rolled,and there Sir Launcelot fell down more than ten fathom into a cave full of straw;and then Sir Meliagrance departed and made no fare as that he nist where he was.
And when Sir Launcelot was thus missed they marvelled where he was become;and then the queen and many of them deemed that he was departed as he was wont to do suddenly.For Sir Meliagrance made suddenly to put away aside Sir Lavaine's horse,that they might all understand that Sir Launcelot was departed suddenly.So it passed on till after dinner;and then Sir Lavaine would not stint until that he ordained litters for the wounded knights,that they might be laid in them;and so with the queen and them all,both ladies and gentlewomen and other,went unto Westminster;and there the knights told King Arthur how Meliagrance had appealed the queen of high treason,and how Sir Launcelot had received the glove of him:And this day eight days they shall do battle afore you.By my head,said King Arthur,I am afeard Sir Meliagrance hath taken upon him a great charge;but where is Sir Launcelot?said the king.Sir,said they all,we wot not where he is,but we deem he is ridden to some adventures,as he is ofttimes wont to do,for he hath Sir Lavaine's horse.Let him be,said the king,he will be founden,but if he be trapped with some treason.
CHAPTER VIII
How Sir Launcelot was delivered out of prison by a lady,and took a white courser and came for to keep his day SO leave we Sir Launcelot lying within that cave in great pain;and every day there came a lady and brought him his meat and his drink,and wooed him,to have lain by him;and ever the noble knight,Sir Launcelot,said her nay.Sir Launcelot,said she,ye are not wise,for ye may never out of this prison,but if ye have my help;and also your lady,Queen Guenever,shall be brent in your default,unless that ye be there at the day of battle.God defend,said Sir Launcelot,that she should be brent in my defau
<and if it be so,said Sir Launcelot,that I may not be there,it shall be well understanded,both at the king and at the queen,and with all men of worship,that I am dead,sick,outher in prison.For all men that know me will say for me that I am in some evil case an I be not there that day;and well I wot there is some good knight either of my blood,or some other that loveth me,that will take my quarrel in hand;and therefore,said Sir Launcelot,wit ye well ye shall not fear me;and if there were no more women in all this land but ye,I will not have ado with you.Then art thou shamed,said the lady,and destroyed for ever.As for world's shame,Jesu defend me,and as for my distress,it is welcome whatsoever it be that God sendeth me.
So she came to him the same day that the battle should be,and said:Sir Launcelot,methinketh ye are too hard-hearted,but wouldest thou but kiss me once I should deliver thee,and thine armour,and the best horse that is within Sir Meliagrance's stable.As for to kiss you,said Sir Launcelot,I may do that and lose no worship;and wit ye well an I understood there were any disworship for to kiss you I would not do it.Then he kissed her,and then she gat him,and brought him to his armour.
And when he was armed,she brought him to a stable,where stood twelve good coursers,and bade him choose the best.Then Sir Launcelot looked upon a white courser the which liked him best;and anon he commanded the keepers fast to saddle him with the best saddle of war that there was;and so it was done as he bade.
Then gat he his spear in his hand,and his sword by his side,and commended the lady unto God,and said:Lady,for this good deed I shall do you service if ever it be in my power.
CHAPTER IX