beginneth
again on all sides, and the evening cometh on that parteth them at
last. And on this wise the assembly lasted for two days. The damsel
that brought the knight on a bier in a coffin, dead, prayed the
assembly of all the knights to declare which one of all the knights had
done the best, for the knight that she made be carried might not be
buried until such time as he were avenged. And they say that the
knight of the white shield and the other with the shield sinople and
the golden eagle had done better than all the other, but, for that the
knight of the white shield had joined in the melly before the other,
they therefore would give him the prize; but they judged that for the
time that Messire Gawain had joined therein he had not done worse than
the other knight. The damsel seeketh the knight of the white shield
among the knights and throughout all the tents, but cannot find him,
for already hath he departed. She cometh to Messire Gawain and saith:
"Sir, sith that I find not the knight of the white shield, you are he
that behoveth avenge the knight that lieth dead in the litter."

"Damsel," saith Messire Gawain, "Do me not this shame, for it hath been
declared that the other knight hath better done herein than I."

X.

"Damsel, well you know that no honour should I have thereof, were I to
emprise to do that whereof you beseech me, for you have said that
behoveth none to avenge him, save only that hath borne him best at this
assembly, and that is he of the white shield, and, so God help me, this
have I well felt and proven."

XI.

The damsel well understandeth that Messire Gawain speaketh reason.

"Ha, Sir," saith she, "He hath already departed hence and gone into the
forest, and the most divers-seeming knight is he and the best that
liveth, and great pains shall I have or ever I find him again."

"The best?" saith Messire Gawain; "How know you that?"

"I know it well," saith she, "for that in the house of King Fisherman
did the Graal appear unto him for the goodness of his knighthood and
the goodness of his heart and for the chastity of his body. But he
forgat to ask that one should serve thereof, whence hath sore harm
befallen the land. He came to the court of King Arthur, where he took
a shield that none ought to bear save he alone. Up to this time have I
well known his coming and going, but nought shall I know thereof
hereafter for that he hath changed the cognisance of his shield and
ar