I will, and so will I if thou wilt succour and aid
me, that I may be christened and believe on God, and thereof I require
thee of thy manhood, and it shall be great merit for thy soul. I grant,
said Gawaine, so God help me, to accomplish all thy desire, but first
tell me what thou soughtest here thus alone, and of what land and
liegiance thou art of. Sir, he said, my name is Priamus, and a great
prince is my father, and he hath been rebel unto Rome and overridden
many of their lands. My father is lineally descended of Alexander and
of Hector by right line. And Duke Joshua and Maccabaeus were of our
lineage. I am right inheritor of Alexandria and Africa, and all the out
isles, yet will I believe on thy Lord that thou believest on; and for
thy labour I shall give thee treasure enough. I was so elate and hauteyn
in my heart that I thought no man my peer, nor to me semblable. I was
sent into this war with seven score knights, and now I have encountered
with thee, which hast given to me of fighting my fill, wherefore sir
knight, I pray thee to tell me what thou art. I am no knight, said
Gawaine, I have been brought up in the guardrobe with the noble King
Arthur many years, for to take heed to his armour and his other array,
and to point his paltocks that long to himself. At Yule last he made me
yeoman, and gave to me horse and harness, and an hundred pound in money;
and if fortune be my friend, I doubt not but to be well advanced and
holpen by my liege lord. Ah, said Priamus, if his knaves be so keen and
fierce, his knights be passing good: now for the King's love of Heaven,
whether thou be a knave or a knight, tell thou me thy name. By God,
said Sir Gawaine, now I will say thee sooth, my name is Sir Gawaine, and
known I am in his court and in his chamber, and one of the knights of
the Round Table, he dubbed me a duke with his own hand. Therefore grudge
not if this grace is to me fortuned, it is the goodness of God that
lent to me my strength. Now am I better pleased, said Priamus, than thou
hadst given to me all the Provence and Paris the rich. I had liefer to
have been torn with wild horses, than any varlet had won such loos, or
any page or priker should have had prize on me. But now sir knight
I warn thee that hereby is a Duke of Lorraine with his army, and the
noblest men of Dolphiny, and lords of Lombardy, with the garrison of
Godard, and Saracens of Southland, y-numbered sixty thousand of good men
of arms; wherefore but