“What is his name?”
“That will I not tell you,” said the dwarf; “but Sir Kay in scorn called him Beaumains.”
“I care not for him,” said the red knight. “What knight soever he be, I shall soon deal with him; and if I win him, he shall have a shameful death, as many others have had.”
“That were a pity,” said the dwarf, and so they parted.
That night Sir Beaumains and the damsel Lynette remained at the hermitage. The next morning they took their horses, and rode through a forest, and came to a plain, where they saw many pavilions and tents, and beyond them a great castle. As they came near the siege, Beaumains saw that upon great trees to the right and to the left hung by the necks more than forty knights, with their shields and swords fastened about them. Then Sir Beaumains abated his countenance, and said, “What is this?”
“Fair sir,” said Lynette, “do not be discouraged by this sight. All these knights came hither to this siege to rescue my sister; and when the Red Knight of the Red Lands had overcome them, he put them to this shameful death without mercy or pity, and in the same way will he serve you, unless you prove yourself the better.”
“Jesu defend me,” cried Beaumains, “from such a villanous death! Rather than I should fare thus, I would be slain in the battle.”
“You need not trust in him,” said the damsel, “for he hath no courtesy, but all that he overcomes are shamefully murdered. And that is a great pity, for he is a full likely man, and of great prowess, and hath wide lands and possessions.”
“He may be a noble knight,” said Beaumains, “but he useth shameful customs; and it is marvellous that none of the good knights of my lord King Arthur have dealt with him before now.”
Now were they come to a tall sycamore tree, on which hung the greatest horn they ever saw, made of elephant’s bone; and Lynette told Beaumains that if he would meet the Red Knight of the Red Lands he must blow that horn. “But, sir, I pray you,” she said, “blow it not till noon; for it is now but prime, and it is said that his strength increases till at noon he has seven men’s strength.”