g in this
land. It had been great damage to have destroyed your lord, said Arthur.
It is truth, said Accolon, but now I have told you truth, wherefore I
pray you tell me of whence ye are, and of what court? O Accolon, said
King Arthur, now I let thee wit that I am King Arthur, to whom thou hast
done great damage. When Accolon heard that he cried aloud, Fair, sweet
lord, have mercy on me, for I knew not you. O Sir Accolon, said King
Arthur, mercy shalt thou have, because I feel by thy words at this time
thou knewest not my person; but I understand well by thy words that thou
hast agreed to the death of my person, and therefore thou art a traitor;
but I wite thee the less, for my sister Morgan le Fay by her false
crafts made thee to agree and consent to her false lusts, but I shall be
sore avenged upon her an I live, that all Christendom shall speak of it;
God knoweth I have honoured her and worshipped her more than all my kin,
and more have I trusted her than mine own wife and all my kin after.

Then Sir Arthur called the keepers of the field, and said, Sirs, come
hither, for here are we two knights that have fought unto a great damage
unto us both, and like each one of us to have slain other, if it had
happed so; and had any of us known other, here had been no battle, nor
stroke stricken. Then all aloud cried Accolon unto all the knights and
men that were then there gathered together, and said to them in this
manner, O lords, this noble knight that I have fought withal, the
which me sore repenteth, is the most man of prowess, of manhood, and of
worship in the world, for it is himself King Arthur, our alther liege
lord, and with mishap and with misadventure have I done this battle with
the king and lord that I am holden withal.

CHAPTER XII. How Arthur accorded the two brethren, and delivered the
twenty knights, and how Sir Accolon died.

THEN all the people fell down on their knees and cried King Arthur
mercy. Mercy shall ye have, said Arthur: here may ye see what adventures
befall ofttime of errant knights, how that I have fought with a knight
of mine own unto my great damage and his both. But, sirs, because I am
sore hurt, and he both, and I had great need of a little rest, ye shall
understand the opinion betwixt you two brethren: As to thee, Sir Damas,
for whom I have been champion and won the field of this knight, yet will
I judge because ye, Sir Damas, are called an orgulous knight, and full
of villainy, an