id, It is no time for me to suffer thee to rest. And
therewith he came fiercely upon Arthur, and Sir Arthur was wroth for
the blood that he had lost, and smote Accolon on high upon the helm,
so mightily, that he made him nigh to fall to the earth; and therewith
Arthur's sword brast at the cross, and fell in the grass among the
blood, and the pommel and the sure handles he held in his hands. When
Sir Arthur saw that, he was in great fear to die, but always he held up
his shield and lost no ground, nor bated no cheer.

CHAPTER X. How King Arthur's sword that he fought with brake, and how he
recovered of Accolon his own sword Excalibur, and overcame his enemy.

THEN Sir Accolon began with words of treason, and said, Knight, thou art
overcome, and mayst not endure, and also thou art weaponless, and thou
hast lost much of thy blood, and I am full loath to slay thee, therefore
yield thee to me as recreant. Nay, said Sir Arthur, I may not so, for I
have promised to do the battle to the uttermost by the faith of my body,
while me lasteth the life, and therefore I had liefer to die with
honour than to live with shame; and if it were possible for me to die
an hundred times, I had liefer to die so oft than yield me to thee;
for though I lack weapon, I shall lack no worship, and if thou slay me
weaponless that shall be thy shame. Well, said Accolon, as for the shame
I will not spare, now keep thee from me, for thou art but a dead man.
And therewith Accolon gave him such a stroke that he fell nigh to the
earth, and would have had Arthur to have cried him mercy. But Sir Arthur
pressed unto Accolon with his shield, and gave him with the pommel in
his hand such a buffet that he went three strides aback.

When the Damosel of the Lake beheld Arthur, how full of prowess his
body was, and the false treason that was wrought for him to have had
him slain, she had great pity that so good a knight and such a man
of worship should so be destroyed. And at the next stroke Sir Accolon
struck him such a stroke that by the damosel's enchantment the sword
Excalibur fell out of Accolon's hand to the earth. And therewithal Sir
Arthur lightly leapt to it, and gat it in his hand, and forthwithal he
knew that it was his sword Excalibur, and said, Thou hast been from me
all too long, and much damage hast thou done me; and therewith he espied
the scabbard hanging by his side, and suddenly he sterte to him and
pulled the scabbard from him, and threw it