nd I pray you for my sake enforce yourself there, that
men may speak of you worship; but I charge you as ye will have my love,
that ye warn your kinsmen that ye will bear that day the sleeve of gold
upon your helmet. Madam, said Sir Launcelot, it shall be done. And so
either made great joy of other. And when Sir Launcelot saw his time he
told Sir Bors that he would depart, and have no more with him but Sir
Lavaine, unto the good hermit that dwelt in that forest of Windsor; his
name was Sir Brasias; and there he thought to repose him, and take all
the rest that he might, because he would be fresh at that day of jousts.

So Sir Launcelot and Sir Lavaine departed, that no creature wist where
he was become, but the noble men of his blood. And when he was come to
the hermitage, wit ye well he had good cheer. And so daily Sir Launcelot
would go to a well fast by the hermitage, and there he would lie down,
and see the well spring and burble, and sometime he slept there. So at
that time there was a lady dwelt in that forest, and she was a great
huntress, and daily she used to hunt, and ever she bare her bow with
her; and no men went never with her, but always women, and they were
shooters, and could well kill a deer, both at the stalk and at the
trest; and they daily bare bows and arrows, horns and wood-knives,
and many good dogs they had, both for the string and for a bait. So it
happed this lady the huntress had abated her dog for the bow at a barren
hind, and so this barren hind took the flight over hedges and woods. And
ever this lady and part of her women costed the hind, and checked it by
the noise of the hounds, to have met with the hind at some water; and so
it happed, the hind came to the well whereas Sir Launcelot was sleeping
and slumbering. And so when the hind came to the well, for heat she went
to soil, and there she lay a great while; and the dog came after, and
umbecast about, for she had lost the very perfect feute of the hind.
Right so came that lady the huntress, that knew by the dog that she had,
that the hind was at the soil in that well; and there she came stiffly
and found the hind, and she put a broad arrow in her bow, and shot at
the hind, and over-shot the hind; and so by misfortune the arrow smote
Sir Launcelot in the thick of the buttock, over the barbs. When Sir
Launcelot felt himself so hurt, he hurled up woodly, and saw the lady
that had smitten him. And when he saw she was a woman, he said thus:
L