ows if he will be able to wear armor again
for many days to come. Wherefore go thy way and trouble us no more."

Quoth Sir Launcelot: "Well, Sir Knight, this quarrel was altogether of
your own seeking, and not of ours. Wherefore, if ill hath befallen this
worshipful knight, it is of his own devising and not of mine."

But Sir Mador only cried out the more vehemently: "Go your way! Go your
way, and leave us in peace!" And thereupon Sir Launcelot and Sir Lavaine
drew their bridle reins and set heel to horse and rode away from that
place, leaving Sir Mador and those others who were there to cherish Sir
Gawaine and to revive him from his swoon as best they might.

[Sidenote: _Sir Bernard of Astolat followeth Sir Launcelot and Sir
Lavaine._]

Now there was among those knights who were with Sir Gawaine and Sir
Mador a certain old and very worthy knight of Astolat, hight Sir
Bernard, surnamed of Astolat. Seeing Sir Launcelot and Sir Lavaine
departing in that wise, Sir Bernard hied him after them and when he had
come up with them he saluted them, and said, "Messires, I pray ye tell
me where it is ye lodge this night."

Sir Launcelot said: "Fair Sir, we know not where we lodge for we go to
seek such lodging as we may find in Astolat."

Sir Bernard said: "You will find no lodging in Astolat this night, for
all places are full. Now I pray ye that you will lodge with me, for I
have a very good and comely house and I shall be greatly honored for to
have you lodge with me. For I make my vow, Sir Knight Malfait, that
never saw I such a buffet as that which you gave to Sir Gawaine anon.
Nor do I believe that ever Sir Launcelot of the Lake himself could have
done more doughtily than you did in that encounter. Wherefore, I think
that you will win you great glory to-morrow-day, and that I shall have
due worship if so be that ye two shall have lodged with me over this
night."

Then Sir Launcelot laughed, and he said to Sir Bernard: "Well, Sir
Knight, I give you gramercy for your courtesy, and so we will gladly
take up our inn with you until the time of the tournament. Only this I
demand, that we shall be privily lodged apart from any one else, for we
wish it that we shall not be known until to-morrow and after this
tournament shall have transpired."

"Messire," quoth Sir Bernard, "it shall all be as you desire."

So those three rode on their way together until they had come to Astolat
and to the habitation of Sir Bernard of Astol