er to have been so
tried as I have tried you for all this while that we have journeyed
together; wherefore, if you have proved yourself so worthy in this
thing, how much more will you prove yourself worthy in those greater
things that shall in time come unto you?"

So spake Lynette and thereat Sir Gareth laughed a little and said: "Fair
damsel, have I now leave to ride beside you, and is there now peace
betwixt us?" And Lynette said, "Yea, Messire." So therewith Sir Gareth
rode forward until he was come beside Lynette, and from that time
forward there was peace and concord betwixt them; for Lynette was now as
kind and humble to him as she had been saucy and uncivil before.

[Sidenote: _They journey together in concord._]

And so as they journeyed together Lynette told Sir Gareth many things
concerning the adventure which he was entered upon that he had not known
before. For she told him that this lady who was her sister was hight the
Lady Layonnesse and that she was but eighteen years of age. And she told
him that the Lady Layonnesse was one of the most beautiful ladies in the
world, and she told him that the lady was the countess of a very great
and rich town, hight Granderegard, and of a noble castle appertaining to
the town, which same was called the Castle Dangerous. And she told him
that the marches over which the Lady Layonnesse was countess extended
for several leagues upon this side and upon that side of the town and
the castle, and she told him that the Knight of the Red Lands, who
opposed her sister, was so strong and so doughty a knight that she
believed it would be hard to find in any part of the realm so powerful a
knight as he. And she said to Sir Gareth: "In good sooth, Messire, I
have great fear that you will have sad ado to hold your own against this
Red Knight of the Red Lands, for as Sir Perard was greater and bigger
than those two knights at the ford whom you overthrew so easily, and as
Sir Percevant of Hind was greater and bigger than Sir Perard, so I
believe is this Red Knight of the Red Lands greater and bigger than Sir
Percevant."

"Well, Lynette," quoth Sir Gareth, "so far it hath been that I have had
success in all my battles but one, and in that one I suffered no
dishonor. So I believe I may hope to have a fair fortune with this
knight also, for wit you that the fortunes of any knight lie in the
hands of God and not in man's hands, wherefore if it is His will that I
fare well in this under