knelt down and kissed the pallid face of Sir Gawaine, and for
very sorrow he felt that the heart in his breast was nigh to bursting.

So in a little while, with the beat of the surf and the cry of the
seagulls upon his ears, the light of the sun in his eyes, and the free
air of heaven all about him, Sir Gawaine died. And his death was as he
had ever craved it to be, under the open sky, after battle, where he
had given good strokes and received them.

Now the letter which Sir Gawaine had written was given unto a young
squire of Sir Gawaine's, by name Tewder, and he was commanded to depart
forthwith back to Brittany, and deliver it into the hands of Sir
Lancelot. But, among the knights that had stood about the dying Sir
Gawaine, was a traitor, who was in the service of Sir Mordred the
rebel, and he knew that if Sir Lancelot should receive that letter, and
come to Britain with all his brave kin and their host, Sir Mordred
would have much ado to conquer King Arthur.

Therefore the traitor knight, whose name was Sir Fergus, did accost
Tewder the squire, and with fair seeming told him that he also was
bidden to go back to Brittany, to bring back certain jewels which the
king in his hasty departure had left in his lodging at the town of Dol.

Tewder, unsuspecting of all evil, went aboard a boat with Sir Fergus,
and together they bargained with the master to take them across when
the tide should rise again at dark. Together they crossed the sea that
night and took the road towards Sir Lancelot's town; and in a dark wood
Sir Fergus set upon the squire, who fought bravely, but was slain at
last, and the letter of Sir Gawaine was taken by the traitor.

Then, returning to the seashore, the wretch went aboard another boat,
and chaffered with the merchant to take him across the sea to the town
of Llongporth, whence he thought to get quickly to Mordred, to receive
from him the reward of his treachery and murder. But at night, as they
sailed over the dark sea, a fifty-oared longship, filled with Saxon
pirates, crept upon them; the pagans poured over the sides, slew men
almost in their sleep, and flung their bodies overboard. And though
Fergus fought well, his head was almost struck from his body by a great
sheering axe-blow. When the pirates had taken all the goods they
desired from the merchant vessel, they stove a hole in its side, and it
sank to the bottom of the sea. So that no man ever again saw the letter
which was meant for