's rage and scorn.

At length Sir Bors saw Sir Gawaine from afar, and spurred across the
field towards him.

'Ha! Sir Bors,' cried the other mockingly, 'if ye will find that
cowardly cousin of thine, and bring him here to face me, I will love
thee.'

''Twere well I should not take thy words seriously,' mocked Sir Bors in
his turn. 'For if I were to bring him to thee, thou wouldst sure repent
it. Never yet hath he failed to give thee thy fall, for all thy pride
and fierceness.'

This was truth. Often in the jousting of earlier days, when Sir
Lancelot had come in disguise and had been compelled to fight Sir
Gawaine, the latter had had the worst. But Sir Lancelot, loving his old
brother-in-arms as he did, had in later years avoided the assault with
Sir Gawaine; yet the greater prowess and skill of Sir Lancelot were
doubted by none.

Sir Gawaine raged greatly at the words of Sir Bors, for he knew they
were true, though he had wished they were not.

'Thy vaunting of thy recreant kinsman's might will not avail thee,' he
cried furiously. 'Defend thyself!'

'I came to have to do with thee,' replied Sir Bors fiercely. 'Yesterday
thou didst slay my cousin Lionel. To-day, if God wills it, thou thyself
shall have a fall.'

Then they set spurs to their horses and met together so furiously that
the lance of either bore a great hole in the other's armour, and both
were borne backwards off their horses, sorely wounded. Their friends
came and took them up and tended them, but for many days neither of the
knights could move from their beds.

When the knights of Sir Lancelot saw that Sir Bors was grievously
wounded, they were wroth with their leader. Going to him, they charged
him with injuring his own cause.

'You will not exert yourself to slay these braggart foes of yours,'
they said to him. 'What does it profit us that you avoid slaying
knights because, though they are now your bitter foes, they were once
brothers of the Round Table? Do they avoid ye, and seek not to slay you
and us your kindred and friends? Sir Lionel is dead, and he is your
brother; and Sir Galk, Sir Griffith, Sir Saffre and Sir Conan--all good
and mighty knights--are wounded sorely. Ye were ever courteous and
kindly, Sir Lancelot,' they ended, 'but have a care lest now your
courtesy ruin not your cause and us.'

Seeing by these words that he was like to chill the hearts of his
friends if he continued to avoid slaying his enemies, Sir Lancelot
sorrow