in bed. Feel
no concern or embarrassment; for then you may come to me at once, if you
will keep the promise you have made." And he replies: "I will keep my
word, and will return when I think the time has come." Then he went out,
and stayed in the courtyard until he thought it was time to return and
keep the promise he had made. Going back into the hall, he sees nothing
of her who would be his mistress; for she was not there. Not finding or
seeing her, he said: "Wherever she may be, I shall look for her until I
find her." He makes no delay in his search, being bound by the promise
he had made her. Entering one of the rooms, he hears a damsel cry aloud,
and it was the very one with whom he was about to lie. At the same time,
he sees the door of another room standing open, and stepping toward it,
he sees right before his eyes a knight who had thrown her down, and was
holding her naked and prostrate upon the bed. She, thinking that he had
come of course to help her, cried aloud: "Help, help, thou knight, who
art my guest. If thou dost not take this man away from me, I shall find
no one to do so; if thou dost not succour me speedily, he will wrong me
before thy eyes. Thou art the one to lie with me, in accordance with
thy promise; and shall this man by force accomplish his wish before thy
eyes? Gentle knight, exert thyself, and make haste to bear me aid." He
sees that the other man held the damsel brutally uncovered to the waist,
and he is ashamed and angered to see him assault her so; yet it is not
jealousy he feels, nor will he be made a cuckold by him. At the door
there stood as guards two knights completely armed and with swords
drawn. Behind them there stood four men-at-arms, each armed with an axe
the sort with which you could split a cow down the back as easily as a
root of juniper or broom. The knight hesitated at the door, and thought:
"God, what can I do? I am engaged in no less an affair than the quest of
Queen Guinevere. I ought not to have the heart of a hare, when for her
sake I have engaged in such a quest. If cowardice puts its heart in me,
and if I follow its dictates, I shall never attain what I seek. I am
disgraced, if I stand here; indeed, I am ashamed even to have thought
of holding back. My heart is very sad and oppressed: now I am so ashamed
and distressed that I would gladly die for having hesitated here so
long. I say it not in pride: but may God have mercy on me if I do not
prefer to die honourably r