they were in all ways prepared they
withdrew to a little distance so as to have a good course to run. Then
when all were ready for that encounter, each knight shouted and set
spurs to his horse, and all four thundered together with such violence
that the ground trembled beneath them. So they met in the middle of the
course and so furious was the meeting of those four good knights that
you might have heard the roar of that encounter for half a mile away or
more. In that encounter both Sir Lavaine and Sir Mador broke each his
spear upon his enemy and neither of them suffered a fall. But Sir
Gawaine had no such fortune for his spear broke into splinters unto the
very truncheon thereof, and the spear of Sir Launcelot held, so that Sir
Gawaine was lifted out from his saddle and flung upon the ground with
such violence that he rolled thrice or four times over and over before
he ceased to fall.

Now those who looked upon that encounter were well assured that Sir
Gawaine would easily overthrow his opponent into the dust, for Sir
Gawaine was held to be one of the very greatest knights in all of the
world. Wherefore it was that when they beheld how violently he had been
flung to earth by that unknown knight against whom he had tilted, they
were astonished beyond all bounds of wonderment.

But Sir Mador de la Porte, when he beheld how Sir Gawaine lay there in
the dust as though dead, voided his horse and ran to the fallen knight
where he lay. And he raised the umbril of Sir Gawaine's helmet, and lo!
the face of Sir Gawaine was like to the face of one who was dead. And at
first Sir Mador thought that he was dead, but after a while Sir Gawaine
sighed and then sighed again, and thereupon Sir Mador knew that he was
not dead, but in a swoon from the violence of the fall. And Sir Mador
rejoiced very greatly that no more ill had come of that encounter.

Then Sir Mador turned to Sir Launcelot, and cried out: "Sir Knight
Malfait, go thy way in the fiend's name. For indeed thou art well named
Malfait, seeing what an evil thing it is that thou hast done to this
worshipful knight. For wit you that this is none other than Sir Gawaine,
the nephew of King Arthur himself, whom you have overthrown; and had you
slain him, as at first I believed you had, it would have been a very ill
thing for you. Moreover, you are to know that this knight was to have
been the leader of all those upon King Arthur's side in the battle
to-morrow-day, but now God kn