e Sir Gawaine to receive the
sacrament, and then Sir Gawaine prayed the King to send for Sir
Launcelot, and to cherish him above all other knights. And so at the
hour of noon, Sir Gawaine yielded up the spirit, and the King let inter
him in a chapel within Dover Castle.

Then was it told King Arthur that Sir Mordred had pitched a new field
upon Barham Down. Upon the morn the King rode thither to him, and
there was a great battle betwixt them, and much people were slain on
both parties. But at the last Sir Arthur's party stood best, and Sir
Mordred and his party fled to Canterbury. Upon this much people drew
unto King Arthur, and he went with his host down by the seaside,
westward towards Salisbury, and there was a day assigned between him
and Sir Mordred when they should meet in battle upon a down beside
Salisbury, not far from the sea.

In the night before the battle King Arthur dreamed a wonderful dream,
and it seemed to him verily that there came Sir Gawaine unto him, and
said; "God giveth me leave to come hither for to warn you that, if ye
fight to-morn with Sir Mordred, as ye both have assigned, doubt ye not
ye must be slain, and the most part of your people on both parties.
For the great grace and goodness that Almighty Jesu hath unto you, and
for pity of you and many other good men that there shall be slain, God
hath sent me to you, of His special grace, to give you warning, that in
no wise ye do battle to-morn, but that ye take a treaty for a month;
and proffer ye largely, so as to-morn to be put in delay, for within a
month shall come Sir Launcelot, with all his noble knights, and rescue
you honourably, and slay Sir Mordred and all that ever will hold with
him."

Then Sir Gawaine vanished, and anon the King commanded Sir Lucan and
his brother, Sir Bedivere, with two bishops with them, and charged them
to take a treaty for a month with Sir Mordred in any wise they might.
So then they departed, and came to Sir Mordred, where he had a grim
host of an hundred thousand men. There they entreated Sir Mordred long
time, and at the last he was agreed to have Cornwall and Kent by King
Arthur's days, and after the days of King Arthur all England.

CHAPTER XL

OF ARTHUR'S LAST GREAT BATTLE IN THE WEST

Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere were agreed with Sir Mordred that King
Arthur and he should meet betwixt both their hosts, for to conclude the
treaty they had made, and every each of them should bring fourteen