Quoth Sir Launcelot of the Lake, “Sir, I am Sir Launcelot indeed, and wit you, Sir Gawaine, I have well tried to avoid this battle, for I fear me in this battle or in some other battle of its kind, either you or I shall be slain. And I would not slay you for the love that was of old betwixt us; for still I remember me of that love, and I hold it very dear to my heart. Wherefore I would not do battle with you if that battle could be avoided.”
Quoth Sir Gawaine, “What prate you of love, Sir? This battle cannot be avoided, for wit you that even if ever I loved you, yet all that love is now passed away, or rather it is transformed into hate. For you have wounded me so deeply in my heart that no man can wound me so deeply and yet live while I live also upon the earth. Wherefore either you or I shall die by the hand of the other, if not at this time, then at some other time.”
Quoth Sir Launcelot, “How have I wounded thee, Gawaine, or in what way have I done thee such hurt as this? Tell me that I may make that wrong right again.”
Sir Gawaine accuses Sir Launcelot.
Said Sir Gawaine, “Wit you not that I have often told you how that first you slew two of my sons, and my brother, and how that afterward you slew two more of my brothers? Is not that injury enough for any man to bear within his heart and yet to live under that injury?”
Then Sir Launcelot sighed and he said, “Sir, wit you that those two sons and that brother I slew in battle and they were armed, and assaulting me, and I knew them not. As for those two of your brothers whom I afterward slew, them I slew in the press and fury of fighting. For I saw not their faces in that fury and knew them not. For if I had known them, wit you that I would have held my hand and spared them? Sir, for that I am grieved to the heart, for I loved them both very well; more especially Sir Gareth whom I made a knight in the field.”
Then Sir Gawaine laughed very bitterly, and he said, “Sir, you make a very good excuse, still you did that which you did, and having done it you must pay for it. For so every man must pay for that which he hath done; let it be good or let it be ill. Come, Sir, prepare yourself for battle, for I am hungry to have battle with you.”
Then again Sir Launcelot sighed, this time so deeply that his heart had been lifted from its strings within his bosom by that sigh. And with that sigh he closed his helmet, and reined in his horse and withdrew to that part of the field which was to be his assigned place of battle.
Many view the battle.
Then many of the defenders of the castle came down to the walls of the castle and stood there, and looked down from those walls upon the two who stood so in array of battle. And King Arthur and many others came from the camp of the besiegers, and also stood them afar off to behold the battle, so that with those and with these who were there it was as good an assembly as any knights could have chosen in which to do battle.