hat had been assigned unto her; and the dwarf
Axatalese was near by in attendance upon her. And there had been a
marshal of the field appointed to judge of the battle that was to be
fought, and as each knight came to the field, the marshal led him to
where he was to take his stand--which stand was in such a place as
should offer a fair course and so that the sun should not shine into the
eyes of either of the knights contestant.

So when everything was duly prepared for battle and when the knights had
taken each his place and when each knight was in all ways ready for the
course to be run, the marshal cried out the call to the assault.
Thereupon each knight immediately leaped his horse away from where it
stood and hurtled the one against the other like a whirlwind with a
great thunder of galloping hoofs. So they came together in a cloud of
dust and with a terrible crashing of splintered wood. For in that
encounter each knight shattered his lance into pieces, even to the hand
that held it, and so violent was the blow that each gave the other that
both horses staggered back as though they had struck each against a
solid rock instead of against an armed rider.

Then each knight voided his tottering horse, and each drew his sword,
and immediately they rushed together with such eagerness that it was as
though the lust of battle was the greatest joy that the world could have
for them. So they fell to fighting with the utmost and most terrible
fury, lashing such blows that the sound of the strokes of iron upon iron
resembled the continual roaring of thunder.

[Sidenote: _Of the battle of Sir Gareth with the Red Knight._]

So they fought for so long a while that it was a wonder that any man of
flesh and blood could withstand the blows that each gave and received.
For ever and anon the sword would find its place and upon such a blow
some cantel of armor would maybe be hewn from the body of that knight
who received the stroke. And the book that telleth of this battle sayeth
that the side of each knight was in a while made naked in places because
that the armor had been hewn away from it. And it sayeth the armor of
Sir Gareth was wellnigh as red as was the armor of his enemy because of
the blood that dyed it that ensanguine color. And the same history says
that they were somewhile so bemazed by the blows that they endured that
either would at times seize the sword of the other for his own, for it
is recorded in that history tha