u will also
increase your own renown. She herself was going in search for you to
secure the boon for which she hoped; no one else would have taken her
place, had she not been detained by an illness which compels her to keep
her bed. Now tell me, please, whether you will dare to come, or whether
you will decline." "No," he says; "no man can win praise in a life of
ease; and I will not hold back, but will follow you gladly, my sweet
friend, whithersoever it may please you. And if she for whose sake you
have sought me out stands in some great need of me, have no fear that I
shall not do all I can for her. Now may God grant me the happiness and
grace to settle in her favour her rightful claim."

(Vv. 5107-5184.) [325] Thus conversing, they two rode away until they
approached the town of Pesme Avanture. They had no desire to pass it
by, for the day was already drawing to a close. They came riding to the
castle, when all the people, seeing them approach, called out to the
knight: "Ill come, sire, ill come. This lodging-place was pointed out to
you in order that you might suffer harm and shame. An abbot might take
his oath to that." "Ah," he replied, "foolish and vulgar folk, full
of all mischief, and devoid of honour, why have you thus assailed me?"
"Why? you will find out soon enough, if you will go a little farther.
But you shall learn nothing more until you have ascended to the
fortress." At once my lord Yvain turns toward the tower, and the crowd
cries out, all shouting aloud at him: "Eh, eh, wretch, whither goest
thou? If ever in thy life thou hast encountered one who worked thee
shame and woe, such will be done thee there, whither thou art going,
as will never be told again by thee." My lord Yvain, who is listening,
says: "Base and pitiless people, miserable and impudent, why do you
assail me thus, why do you attack me so? What do you wish of me, what
do you want, that you growl this way after me?" A lady, who was somewhat
advanced in years, who was courteous and sensible, said: "Thou hast no
cause to be enraged: they mean no harm in what they say; but, if thou
understoodest them aright, they are warning thee not to spend the night
up there; they dare not tell thee the reason for this, but they are
warning and blaming thee because they wish to arouse thy fears. This
they are accustomed to do in the case of all who come, so that they may
not go inside. And the custom is such that we dare not receive in our
own houses, fo