it may be that even the glory of
Paradise is not more wonderful than that unusual radiance.

Such was the world of autumn in which in the latter part of their
journeyings in company those two noble knights made progress together.
For anon they would ride along the smooth and dusty highways, where were
hedgerows, growing thin of leaves but all bright with red and purple
berries; and anon they would be riding through some thin woodland where
the dry and fallen leaves rustled under foot with a sound like to a
faint thunder of multitudinous rustlings; and anon they would be
journeying along the wolds where the wind blew strong and free and the
great white clouds sailed very smoothly and solemnly across the sky
above their heads.

[Sidenote: _They meet Sir Percival and Sir Sagramore._]

So travelling ever in that wise--sometimes here, sometimes there--they
came one day in the early morning to where there was a smooth and
shining lake, the chill waters whereof were all asmoke in the gentle
warmth of the newly risen sun. And here were sedge and reeds, all fading
brown and yellow, and at many places, wild fowl, disturbed at their
coming, would spring up with loud and noisy splashings from the
entangled water. So as they went beside that lake they beheld two
knights coming toward them, riding side by side in the sunlight. And
when they four had met together and had saluted one another and had
bespoken one another, they found that those two knights were Sir
Percival and Sir Sagramore, and that they also were journeying as armed
companions, as aforetold of in this history.

So they four went a little farther to where there was a pleasant
thatched farmhouse not far distant from the roadside, and there they
broke their fast with bread and milk and fresh laid eggs and honey,
which the farmer's wife served to them.

[Sidenote: _Sir Sagramore telleth of the Adventure of the Fountain._]

Then Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors besought Sir Percival and Sir Sagramore
for news, and therewith they two told Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors how they
had parted with Sir Ewaine and how that he had gone upon that Adventure
of the Fountain. Then Sir Sagramore told them how it had befallen with
him upon that same adventure, and to all this Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors
listened very intently. And after Sir Sagramore had ended his story, Sir
Bors and Sir Gawaine asked him many questions concerning those
happenings, and he answered all that they asked him. Then Si