we will
not turn again, for He shall help us in whose service we be entered in.
Then as they stood talking there came knights well armed, and bade them
yield them or else to die. That yielding, said they, shall be noyous to
you. And therewith they let their horses run, and Sir Percivale smote
the foremost to the earth, and took his horse, and mounted thereupon,
and the same did Galahad. Also Bors served another so, for they had no
horses in that country, for they left their horses when they took their
ship in other countries. And so when they were horsed then began they to
set upon them; and they of the castle fled into the strong fortress, and
the three knights after them into the castle, and so alighted on foot,
and with their swords slew them down, and gat into the hall.

Then when they beheld the great multitude of people that they had slain,
they held themself great sinners. Certes, said Bors, I ween an God had
loved them that we should not have had power to have slain them thus.
But they have done so much against Our Lord that He would not suffer
them to reign no longer. Say ye not so, said Galahad, for if they misdid
against God, the vengeance is not ours, but to Him which hath power
thereof.

So came there out of a chamber a good man which was a priest, and bare
God's body in a cup. And when he saw them which lay dead in the hall he
was all abashed; and Galahad did off his helm and kneeled down, and so
did his two fellows. Sir, said they, have ye no dread of us, for we be
of King Arthur's court. Then asked the good man how they were slain so
suddenly, and they told it him. Truly, said the good man, an ye might
live as long as the world might endure, ne might ye have done so great
an alms-deed as this. Sir, said Galahad, I repent me much, inasmuch as
they were christened. Nay, repent you not, said he, for they were not
christened, and I shall tell you how that I wot of this castle. Here was
Lord Earl Hernox not but one year, and he had three sons, good knights
of arms, and a daughter, the fairest gentlewoman that men knew. So those
three knights loved their sister so sore that they brent in love, and so
they lay by her, maugre her head. And for she cried to her father they
slew her, and took their father and put him in prison, and wounded him
nigh to the death, but a cousin of hers rescued him. And then did they
great untruth: they slew clerks and priests, and made beat down chapels,
that Our Lord's service migh