r gate. So when they beheld him lying
thus with the half of his dead horse, they said: "Behold! yonder is the
man who wounded our champion and who pursued him hither. Let him lie
where he is until that our champion tells us what we shall do unto him.
For lo! he is a prisoner here and cannot escape from our hands, and so
we have it in our power to do with him whatsoever we please."

Thus they said, not knowing that even at that time their champion was
lying very nigh to death because of the wound he had received at the
hands of Sir Ewaine.

So these went away from that place, leaving Sir Ewaine lying as though
dead in the swoon that his violent fall had caused him. But after a
while life came back to him and he opened his eyes and gazed about him,
and after that he made shift to arise, though with great pain. Then he
beheld that he was a prisoner at that place, and that he lay with the
half of his dead horse betwixt the portcullis and the inner gate of the
castle so that he could neither get into the castle nor out but was
there a prisoner like to a creature caught in a trap.

Then Sir Ewaine went to the wicket of the inner gate and he looked forth
through the iron bars of the wicket for to see what sort of a place it
was into which he had come. And he beheld that within the gate was the
street of the town. And he perceived that the street was very steep and
that it was cobbled with stones. And he beheld that the houses of the
town that stood upon either side of the street were built either of
brick or else of stone, and that they were fair and tall with
overhanging gables and with shining windows of glass and roofs of bright
red tiles. And he beheld that there were many booths and stores with
fair fabrics and merchandise displayed for sale. And he saw that there
were many people in the street but that all they were moving in one
direction as though in great agitation. And as he stood, so gazing, he
was aware of a great sound of lamentation that arose from all parts of
the town, wherefore he thought that maybe the knight whom he had chased
thither must now be lying nigh to death. At that he was much grieved,
for not only was that a very noble and valorous knight, but his death
would certes put Sir Ewaine himself into great jeopardy as soon as the
people of the castle should come to deal with him in that place where he
was now a prisoner.

* * * * *

And now followeth the history of the