ueen replies, "you have asked me a question in which I see no hate
or evil, but rather good intent; the name of the knight, I know, is
Lancelot of the Lake." [420] "God, how happy and glad at heart I am!"
the damsel says. Then she leans forward and calls to him by name so
loudly that all the people hear: "Lancelot, turn about and see who is
here taking note of thee!"

(Vv. 3685-3954.) When Lancelot heard his name, he was not slow to turn
around: he turns and sees seated up there at the window of the tower
her whom he desired most in the world to see. From the moment he caught
sight of her, he did not turn or take his eyes and face from her,
defending himself with backhand blows. And Meleagant meanwhile attacked
him as fiercely as he could, delighted to think that the other cannot
withstand him now; and they of the country are well pleased too,
while the foreigners are so distressed that they can no longer support
themselves, and many of them fall to earth either upon their knees or
stretched out prone; thus some are glad, and some distressed. Then the
damsel cried again from the window: "Ah, Lancelot, how is it that thou
dost now conduct thyself so foolishly? Once thou wert the embodiment
of prowess and of all that is good, and I do not think God ever made a
knight who could equal thee in valour and in worth. But now we see
thee so distressed that thou dealest back-hand blows and fightest thy
adversary, behind thy back. Turn, so as to be on the other side, and so
that thou canst face toward this tower, for it will help thee to keep
it in view." Then Lancelot is so ashamed and mortified that he hates
himself, for he knows full well that all have seen how, for some time
past, he has had the worst of the fight. Thereupon he leaps backward and
so manoeuvres as to force Meleagant into a position between him and the
tower. Meleagant makes every effort to regain his former position. But
Lancelot rushes upon him, and strikes him so violently upon his body and
shield whenever he tries to get around him, that he compels him to whirl
about two or three times in spite of himself. Lancelot's strength and
courage grow, partly because he has love's aid, and partly because he
never hated any one so much as him with whom he is engaged. Love and
mortal hate, so fierce that never before was such hate seen, make him so
fiery and bold that Meleagant ceases to treat it as a jest and begins to
stand in awe of him, for he had never met or known