cheer, said
the page, for this knight hath slain your enemy. Then they all made him
good cheer as lay in their power. But wit ye well they made him good
cheer, for they might none otherwise do, for they were but poor.

And so on the morn he went to mass, and there he saw the thirty ladies
kneel, and lay grovelling upon divers tombs, making great dole and
sorrow. Then Sir Gareth wist well that in the tombs lay their lords.
Fair ladies, said Sir Gareth, ye must at the next feast of Pentecost
be at the court of King Arthur, and say that I, Sir Gareth, sent you
thither. We shall do this, said the ladies. So he departed, and by
fortune he came to a mountain, and there he found a goodly knight that
bade him, Abide sir knight, and joust with me. What are ye? said Sir
Gareth. My name is, said he, the Duke de la Rowse. Ah sir, ye are the
same knight that I lodged once in your castle; and there I made promise
unto your lady that I should yield me unto you. Ah, said the duke,
art thou that proud knight that profferest to fight with my knights;
therefore make thee ready, for I will have ado with you. So they let
their horses run, and there Sir Gareth smote the duke down from his
horse. But the duke lightly avoided his horse, and dressed his shield
and drew his sword, and bade Sir Gareth alight and fight with him. So
he did alight, and they did great battle together more than an hour, and
either hurt other full sore. At the last Sir Gareth gat the duke to the
earth, and would have slain him, and then he yield him to him. Then must
ye go, said Sir Gareth, unto Sir Arthur my lord at the next feast, and
say that I, Sir Gareth of Orkney, sent you unto him. It shall be done,
said the duke, and I will do to you homage and fealty with an hundred
knights with me; and all the days of my life to do you service where ye
will command me.

CHAPTER XXXIII. How Sir Gareth and Sir Gawaine fought each against
other, and how they knew each other by the damosel Linet.

SO the duke departed, and Sir Gareth stood there alone; and there he
saw an armed knight coming toward him. Then Sir Gareth took the duke's
shield, and mounted upon horseback, and so without biding they ran
together as it had been the thunder. And there that knight hurt Sir
Gareth under the side with his spear. And then they alighted and drew
their swords, and gave great strokes that the blood trailed to the
ground. And so they fought two hours.

At the last there came the da