ies were asleep in their tents, and Sir Gawaine
was there too.

'He has forgotten me, and will stay here always with the Lady
Ettarde,' muttered Sir Pelleas in scorn, and he drew the sword he
had won at the tournament, to slay the false knight Sir Gawaine.

Then, all at once, he remembered the vows he had taken, when the
great King had knighted him, and slowly he sheathed his sword, and
went gloomily down to the river.

But Sir Pelleas could not make up his mind to go away, and again he
turned and went back to the tent, where Sir Gawaine lay, still
asleep.

Once more Sir Pelleas drew his sword, and laid it across the false
knight's bare neck.

When Sir Gawaine woke in the morning, he felt the cold steel, and
putting up his hand, he found the sword that Sir Pelleas had left.

Sir Gawaine did not know how the sword had come there, but when he
told the Lady Ettarde what had happened, and showed her the sword,
she knew it was the one that Sir Pelleas had won at the tournament,
when he had given her the golden circlet.

'You have not slain the knight who loved me,' cried the Lady
Ettarde, 'for he has been here, and left his sword across your
throat.' And then she hated Gawaine because he had told her a lie,
and she drove him from her castle.

And the Lady Ettarde thought of her true knight Sir Pelleas, and at
last she loved him with all her heart.

But when he had left his sword across Sir Gawaine's throat, Pelleas
had gone sadly back to his tent, and taking off his armour, had
lain down to die.

Then the knight's servant was in great distress, because his master
would neither eat nor sleep, but lay in his tent getting more pale
and more thin day by day. And the servant was wandering sadly along
the bank of the river, wondering how he could help his master, when
he met a beautiful maiden called the 'Lady of the Lake.'

The maiden asked why he looked so sad, and, won by her gentleness,
he told her how his master had been hated by the Lady Ettarde, and
betrayed by the false knight Sir Gawaine.

'Bring me to your master,' said the Lady of the Lake.

And when she had come to the tent and saw Sir Pelleas, she loved
him.

'I will send him to sleep,' she murmured, 'and when he wakes he
will be well.' And she threw an enchantment over him, and he slept.

When Sir Pelleas awoke, he felt strong once more, and at last he
knew that the cruel Lady Ettarde had never been the lady of his
dreams, and he loved her no lon