This counsel was not so privily kept but it was understood;for they were but young both,and tender of age,and had not used none such crafts to-fore.Wherefore the damosel Linet was a little displeased,and she thought her sister Dame Lionesse was a little over-hasty,that she might not abide the time of her marriage;and for saving their worship,she thought to abate their hot lusts.And so she let ordain by her subtle crafts that they had not their intents neither with other,as in their delights,until they were married.And so it passed on.At-after supper was made clean avoidance,that every lord and lady should go unto his rest.But Sir Gareth said plainly he would go no farther than the hall,for in such places,he said,was convenient for an errant-knight to take his rest in;and so there were ordained great couches,and thereon feather beds,and there laid him down to sleep;and within a while came Dame Lionesse,wrapped in a mantle furred with ermine,and laid her down beside Sir Gareth.And therewithal he began to kiss her.And then he looked afore him,and there he apperceived and saw come an armed knight,with many lights about him;and this knight had a long gisarm in his hand,and made grim countenance to smite him.When Sir Gareth saw him come in that wise,he leapt out of his bed,and gat in his hand his sword,and leapt straight toward that knight.And when the knight saw Sir Gareth come so fiercely upon him,he smote him with a foin through the thick of the thigh that the wound was a shaftmon broad and had cut a-two many veins and sinews.And therewithal Sir Gareth smote him upon the helm such a buffet that he fell grovelling;and then he leapt over him and unlaced his helm,and smote off his head from the body.And then he bled so fast that he might not stand,but so he laid him down upon his bed,and there he swooned and lay as he had been dead.
Then Dame Lionesse cried aloud,that her brother Sir Gringamore heard,and came down.And when he saw Sir Gareth so shamefully wounded he was sore displeased,and said:I am shamed that this noble knight is thus honoured.Sir,said Sir Gringamore,how may this be,that ye be here,and this noble knight wounded?
Brother,she said,I can not tell you,for it was not done by me,nor by mine assent.For he is my lord and I am his,and he must be mine husband;therefore,my brother,I will that ye wit Ishame me not to be with him,nor to do him all the pleasure that I can.Sister,said Sir Gringamore,and I will that ye wit it,and Sir Gareth both,that it was never done by me,nor by my assent that this unhappy deed was done.And there they staunched his bleeding as well as they might,and great sorrow made Sir Gringamore and Dame Lionesse.
And forthwithal came Dame Linet,and took up the head in the sight of them all,and anointed it with an ointment thereas it was smitten off;and in the same wise she did to the other part thereas the head stuck,and then she set it together,and it stuck as fast as ever it did.And the knight arose lightly up,and the damosel Linet put him in her chamber.All this saw Sir Gringamore and Dame Lionesse,and so did Sir Gareth;and well he espied that it was the damosel Linet,that rode with him through the perilous passages.Ah well,damosel,said Sir Gareth,Iweened ye would not have done as ye have done.My lord Gareth,said Linet,all that I have done I will avow,and all that I have done shall be for your honour and worship,and to us all.And so within a while Sir Gareth was nigh whole,and waxed light and jocund,and sang,danced,and gamed;and he and Dame Lionesse were so hot in burning love that they made their covenant at the tenth night after,that she should come to his bed.And because he was wounded afore,he laid his armour and his sword nigh his bed's side.
CHAPTER XXIII
How the said knight came again the next night and was beheaded again,and how at the feast of Pentecost all the knights that Sir Gareth had overcome came and yielded them to King Arthur.
RIGHT as she promised she came;and she was not so soon in his bed but she espied an armed knight coming toward the bed:
therewithal she warned Sir Gareth,and lightly through the good help of Dame Lionesse he was armed;and they hurtled together with great ire and malice all about the hall;and there was great light as it had been the number of twenty torches both before and behind,so that Sir Gareth strained him,so that his old wound brast again a-bleeding;but he was hot and courageous and took no keep,but with his great force he struck down that knight,and voided his helm,and struck off his head.Then he hewed the head in an hundred pieces.And when he had done so he took up all those pieces,and threw them out at a window into the ditches of the castle;and by this done he was so faint that unnethes he might stand for bleeding.And by when he was almost unarmed he fell in a deadly swoon on the floor;and then Dame Lionesse cried so that Sir Gringamore heard;and when he came and found Sir Gareth in that plight he made great sorrow;and there he awaked Sir Gareth,and gave him a drink that relieved him wonderly well;but the sorrow that Dame Lionesse made there may no tongue tell,for she so fared with herself as she would have died.
Right so came this damosel Linet before them all,and she had fetched all the gobbets of the head that Sir Gareth had thrown out at a window,and there she anointed them as she had done to-fore,and set them together again.Well,damosel Linet,said Sir Gareth,I have not deserved all this despite that ye do unto me.
Sir knight,she said,I have nothing done but I will avow,and all that I have done shall be to your worship,and to us all.And then was Sir Gareth staunched of his bleeding.But the leeches said that there was no man that bare the life should heal him throughout of his wound but if they healed him that caused that stroke by enchantment.