e,
and could not have got out otherwise: I have been outwitted through some
trickery. At any rate, he has escaped; but if I had been on my guard,
all this would never have happened, and he would never have come to
court. But it's too late now to repent. The rustic, who seldom errs,
pertinently remarks that it is too late to close the stable when
the horse is out. I know I shall now be exposed to great shame and
humiliation, if indeed I do not suffer and endure something worse. What
shall I suffer and endure? Rather, so long as I live, I will give him
full measure, if it please God, in whom I trust." Thus he consoles
himself, and has no other desire than to meet his antagonist on the
field. And he will not have long to wait, I think, for Lancelot goes
in search of him, expecting soon to conquer him. But before the assault
begins, the King bids them go down into the plain where the tower
stands, the prettiest place this side of Ireland for a fight. So they
did, and soon found themselves on the plain below. The King goes down
too, and all the rest, men and women in crowds. No one stays behind; but
many go up to the windows of the tower, among them the Queen, her ladies
and damsels, of whom she had many with her who were fair.

(Vv. 7005-7119.) In the field there stood a sycamore as fair as any tree
could be; it was wide-spread and covered a large area, and around it
grew a fine border of thick fresh grass which was green at all seasons
of the year. Under this fair and stately sycamore, which was planted
back in Abel's time, there rises a clear spring of water which flows
away hurriedly. The bed of the spring is beautiful and as bright as
silver, and the channel through which the water flows is formed, I
think, of refined and tested gold, and it stretches away across the
field down into a valley between the woods. There it pleases the King to
take his seat where nothing unpleasant is in sight. After the crowd has
drawn back at the King's command, Lancelot rushes furiously at Meleagant
as at one whom he hates cordially, but before striking him, he shouted
with a loud and commanding voice: "Take your stand, I defy you! And take
my word, this time you shall not be spared." Then he spurs his steed
and draws back the distance of a bow-shot. Then they drive their horses
toward each other at top speed, and strike each other so fiercely
upon their resisting shields that they pierced and punctured them. But
neither one is wounded, n