King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
midst, with a golden eagle set above it.
Then Sir Gawain and Sir Bors rode forward, leaving the other two behind
in ambush, and gave King Arthur's message. To which the Emperor replied,
"Return, and tell your lord that I am come to conquer him and all his
land."
At this, Sir Gawain burned with anger, and cried out, "I had rather than
all France that I might fight with thee alone!"
"And I also," said Sir Bors.
Then a knight named Ganius, a near cousin of the Emperor, laughed out
aloud, and said, "Lo! how these Britons boast and are full of pride,
bragging as though they bare up all the world!"
At these words, Sir Gawain could refrain no longer, but drew forth his
sword and with one blow shore off Ganius' head; then with Sir Bors, he
turned his horse and rode over waters and through woods, back to the
ambush, where Sir Lionel and Sir Bedivere were waiting. The Romans
followed fast behind them till the knights turned and stood, and then
Sir Bors smote the foremost of them through the body with a spear, and
slew him on the spot. Then came on Calibere, a huge Pavian, but Sir Bors
overthrew him also. And then the company of Sir Lionel and Sir Bedivere
brake forth from their ambush and fell on the Romans, and slew and
hewed them down, and forced them to return and flee, chasing them to
their tents.
But as they neared the camp, a great host more rushed forth, and turned
the battle backwards, and in the turmoil, Sir Bors and Sir Berel fell
into the Romans' hands. When Sir Gawain saw that, he drew his good sword
Galotine, and swore to see King Arthur's face no more if those two
knights were not delivered; and then, with good Sir Idrus, made so sore
an onslaught that the Romans fled and left Sir Bors and Sir Berel to
their friends. So the Britons returned in triumph to King Arthur, having
slain more than ten thousand Romans, and lost no man of worship from
amongst themselves.
When the Emperor Lucius heard of that discomfiture he arose, with all
his army, to crush King Arthur, and met him in the vale of Soissons.
Then speaking to all his host, he said, "Sirs, I admonish you that this
day ye fight and acquit yourselves as men; and remembering how Rome is
chief of all the earth, and mistress of the universal world, suffer not
these barbarous and savage Britons to abide our onset." At that, the
trumpets blew so loud, that the ground trembled and shook.
Then did the rival hosts draw near each other with great shoutings; and
when they closed, no tongue can tell the fury of their smiting, and the
sore struggling, wounds, and slaughter. Then King Arthur, with his
mightiest knights, rode down into the thickest of the fight, and drew
Excalibur, and slew as lightning slays for swiftness and for force. And
in the midmost crowd he met a giant, Galapas by name, and struck off
both his legs at the knee-joints; then saying, "Now art thou a better
size to deal with!" smote his head off at a second blow: and the body
killed six men in falling down.
Anon, King Arthur spied where Lucius fought and worked great deeds of
prowess with his own hands. Forthwith he rode at him, and each attacked
the other passing fiercely; till at the last, Lucius struck King Arthur
with a fearful wound across the face, and Arthur, in return, lifting up
Excalibur on high, drove it with all his force upon the Emperor's head,
shivering his helmet, crashing his head in halves, and splitting his
body to the breast. And when the Romans saw their Emperor dead, they
fled in hosts of thousands; and King Arthur and his knights, and all his
army followed them, and slew one hundred thousand men.
Then returning to the field, King Arthur rode to the place where Lucius
lay dead, and round him the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia, and seventeen
other kings, with sixty Roman senators, all noble men. All these he
ordered to be carefully embalmed with aromatic gums, and laid in leaden
coffins, covered with their shields and arms and banners. Then calling
for three senators who were taken prisoners, he said to them, "As the
ransom of your lives, I will that ye take these dead bodies and carry
them to Rome, and there present them for me, with these letters saying I
will myself be shortly there. And I suppose the Romans will beware how
they again ask tribute of me; for tell them, these dead bodies that I
send them are for the tribute they have dared to ask of me; and if they
wish for more, when I come I will pay them the rest."
So, with that charge, the three senators departed with the dead bodies,
and went to Rome; the body of the Emperor being carried in a chariot
blazoned with the arms of the empire, all alone, and the bodies of the
kings two and two in chariots following.
After the battle, King Arthur entered Lorraine, Brabant, and Flanders,
and thence, subduing all the countries as he went, passed into Germany,
and so beyond the mountains into Lombardy and Tuscany. At length he came
before a city which refused to obey him, wherefore he sat down before it
to besiege it. And after a long time thus spent, King Arthur called Sir
Florence, and told him they began to lack food for his hosts--"And not
far from hence," said he, "are great forests full of cattle belonging to
my enemies. Go then, and bring by force all that thou canst find; and
take with thee Sir Gawain, my nephew, and Sir Clegis, Sir Claremond, the
Captain of Cardiff, and a strong band."
Anon, those knights made ready, and rode over holts and hills, and
through forests and woods, till they came to a great meadow full of fair
flowers and grass, and there they rested themselves and their horses
that night. And at the dawn of the next day, Sir Gawain took his horse
and rode away from his fellows to seek some adventure. Soon he saw an
armed knight walking his horse by a wood's side, with his shield laced
to his shoulder, and no attendant with him save a page, bearing a mighty
spear; and on his shield were blazoned three gold griffins. When Sir
Gawain spied him, he put his spear in rest, and riding straight to him,
asked who he was. "A Tuscan," said he; "and thou mayest prove me when
thou wilt, for thou shalt be my prisoner ere we part."
Then said Sir Gawain, "Thou vauntest thee greatly, and speakest proud
words; yet I counsel thee, for all thy boastings, look to thyself the
best thou canst."
At that they took their spears and ran at each other with all the might
they had, and smote each other through their shields into their
shoulders; and then drawing swords smote with great strokes, till the
fire sprang out of their helms. Then was Sir Gawain enraged, and with
his good sword Galotine struck his enemy through shield and hauberk, and
splintered into piece all the precious stones of it, and made so huge a
wound that men might see both lungs and liver. At that the Tuscan,
groaning loudly, rushed on to Sir Gawain, and gave him a deep slanting
stroke, and made a mighty wound and cut a great vein asunder, so that he
bled fast. Then he cried out, "Bind thy wound quickly up, Sir knight,
for thou be-bloodest all thy horse and thy fair armor, and all the
surgeons of the world shall never staunch thy blood; for so shall it be
to whomsoever is hurt with this good sword."
Then answered Sir Gawain, "It grieveth me but little, and thy boastful
words give me no fear, for thou shalt suffer greater grief and sorrow
ere we part; but tell me quickly who can staunch this blood."
"That can I do," said the strange knight, "and will, if thou wilt aid
and succor me to become christened, and to believe in God, which now I
do require of thee upon thy manhood."
"I am content," said Sir Gawain; "and may God help me to grant all thy
wishes. But tell me first, what soughtest thou thus here alone, and of
what land art thou?"
"Sir," said the knight, "my name is Prianius, and my father is a great
prince, who hath rebelled against Rome. He is descended from Alexander
and Hector, and of our lineage also were Joshua and Maccabæus. I am of
right the king of Alexandria, and Africa, and all the outer isles, yet I
would believe in the Lord thou worshipest, and for thy labor I will give
thee treasure enough. I was so proud in heart that I thought none my
equal, but now have I encountered with thee, who hast given me my fill
of fighting; wherefore, I pray thee, Sir knight, tell me of thyself."
"I am no knight," said Sir Gawain; "I have been brought up many years in
the wardrobe of the noble prince King Arthur, to mind his armor and
array."
"Ah," said Prianius, "if his varlets be so keen and fierce, his knights
must be passing good! Now, for the love of heaven, whether thou be
knight or knave, tell me thy name."
"By heaven!" said Gawain, "now will I tell thee the truth. My name is
Sir Gawain, and I am a knight of the Round Table."
"Now am I better pleased," said Prianius, "than if thou hadst given me
all the province of Paris the rich. I had rather have been torn by wild
horses than that any varlet should have won such victory over me as thou
hast done. But now, Sir knight, I warn thee that close by is the Duke of
Lorraine, with sixty thousand good men of war; and we had both best flee
at once, for he will find us else, and we be sorely wounded and never
likely to recover. And let my page be careful that he blow no horn, for
hard by are a hundred knights, my servants; and if they seize thee, no
ransom of gold or silver would acquit thee."
Then Sir Gawain rode over a river to save himself, and Sir Prianius
after him, and so they both fled till they came to his companions who
were in the meadow, where they spent the night. When Sir Whishard saw
Sir Gawain so hurt, he ran to him weeping, and asked him who it was had
wounded him; and Sir Gawain told him how he had fought with that
man--pointing to Prianius--who had salves to heal them both. "But I can
tell ye other tidings," said he--"that soon we must encounter many
enemies, for a great army is close to us in our front."
Then Prianius and Sir Gawain alighted and let their horses graze while
they unarmed, and when they took this armor and their clothing off, the
hot blood ran down freshly from their wounds till it was piteous to
see. But Prianius took from his page a vial filled from the four rivers
that flow out of Paradise, and anointed both their wounds with a certain
balm, and washed them with that water, and within an hour afterwards
they were both as sound and whole as ever they had been. Then, at the
sound of a trumpet, all the knights were assembled to council; and after
much talking, Prianius said, "Cease your words, for I warn you in yonder
wood ye shall find knights out of number, who will put out cattle for a
decoy to lead you on; and ye are not seven hundred!"
"Nevertheless," said Sir Gawain, "let us at once encounter them, and see
what they can do; and may the best have the victory."
Then they saw suddenly an earl named Sir Ethelwold, and the Duke of
Duchmen come leaping out of ambush of the woods in front, with many a
thousand after them, and all rode straight down to the battle. And Sir
Gawain, full of ardor and courage, comforted his knights, saying, "They
all are ours." Then the seven hundred knights, in one close company, set
spurs to their horses and began to gallop, and fiercely met their
enemies. And then were men and horses slain and overthrown on every
side, and in and out amidst them all, the knights of the Round Table
pressed and thrust, and smote down to the earth all who withstood them,
till at length the whole of them turned back and fled.
"By heaven!" said Sir Gawain, "this gladdeneth well my heart, for now
behold them as they flee! they are full seventy thousand less in number
than they were an hour ago!"
Thus was the battle quickly ended, and a great host of high lords and