to his knowledge, nor carnal sin, for virgin and chaste is he and
doth never outrage to any."

"I know well," saith Messire Gawain, "that all the valours and all the
cleannesses that ought to be in a knight are in him, and therefore am I
the more sorrowful that I am not of them that he knoweth, for a man is
worth the more that hath acquaintance with a good knight."

VIII.

Messire Gawain lay the night in the hermit's house, right sorrowful,
and in the morning departed when he had heard mass. Josephus the good
clerk witnesseth us in this high history that this hermit had to name
Josuias, and was a knight of great worship and valour, but he renounced
all for the love of God, and was fain to set his body in banishment for
Him. And all these adventures that you hear in this high record came
to pass, Josephus telleth us, for the setting forward the law of the
Saviour. All of them could he not record, but only these whereof he
best remembered him, and whereof he knew for certain all the adventures
by virtue of the Holy Spirit. This high record saith that Messire
Gawain hath wandered so far that he is come into the Red Launde whereas
the assembly of knights should be held. He looketh and seeth the tents
pitched and the knights coming from all quarters. The most part were
already armed within and before their tents. Messire Gawain looketh
everywhere, thinking to see the knight he seeketh, but seemeth him he
seeth him not, for no such shield seeth he as he beareth. All abashed
is he thereof, for he hath seen all the tents and looked at all the
arms. But the knight is not easy to recognise, for he hath changed his
arms, and nigh enough is he to Messire Gawain, albeit you may well
understand that he knoweth it not. And the tournament assembleth from
all parts, and the divers fellowships come the one against other, and
the melly of either upon other as they come together waxeth sore and
marvellous. And Messire Gawain searcheth the ranks to find the knight,
albeit when he meeteth knight in his way he cannot choose but do
whatsoever a knight may do of arms, and yet more would he have done but
for his fainness to seek out the knight. The damsel is at the head of
the tournament, for that she would fain know the one that shall have
the mastery and the prize therein.

The knight that Messire Gawain seeketh is not at the head of the
fellowships, but in the thickest of the press, and such feats of arms
doth he that more ma