“Well do I know of thee,” said the Little King. “Often have I heard of thee, and had I known who thou wert, I would not have assaulted thee.” Then the Little King said to Sir Geraint, “Sir Knight, Sir Geraint, I perceive that thou art hurt in several places, and I am very sorry for that. For lo, the leg-pieces of thine armor are all red with blood, and blood is flowing from thy body armor from several wounds. Thou art not fit to travel in the hot sun, so I pray thee that thou and thy lady will return with me to my castle. There thou mayst refresh and recover thyself from thy hurts, and rest and reinvigorate thyself for thy continued journeyings.”
But Sir Geraint refused him. “Nay,” said he, “I will not go with thee to thy castle, but instead of that I will go forward upon my way.”
Then the Little King looked at Enid, and when he beheld how fragile and how beautiful she was, and when he beheld how grieved she was that Geraint had suffered so many and such grievous wounds, he felt great pity for her. “Messire,” he said to Sir Geraint, “thou dost wrong not to rest thyself and have thy wounds looked to and dressed, for if thou fallest in with another adventure such as this, it is not likely that thou wilt be able to defend thyself from assault. Who then would have care of thy lady if harm should befall thee?”
Then Sir Geraint cried out very fiercely, “Sir, already have I answered thee that I will continue on my way, therefore do not try to dissuade me any further, for both I and my lady are going forward upon our way!” So saying he went to his horse and he mounted upon his saddle and he took his spear in hand and rode away from that place, and he bade the Lady Enid to ride on before him as aforetime she had ridden and so they quitted that place.
Sir Geraint suffers because of his wounds.
Sir Geraint stands beneath a tree.
Now the day was very hot so that the blood within the armor of Sir Geraint when he ceased to bleed, it dried upon him by reason of the heat of the sun. Then the wounds that Sir Geraint had suffered were glued with blood to the armor, so that he suffered three times more pain from those wounds now than he suffered when he had received them. But of this he said naught, only he rode along very grimly. But at last he could endure his pain no more, wherefore he called upon the Lady Enid to halt for a little while at a certain place where the oak trees of a woodland came down to the road and shaded the high-road. Then the Lady Enid would have helped him to dismount, but he would not suffer her to do so but forbade her, saying to her, “Go and stand aside under yonder tree, for my wounds ache me and I would be alone for a little while.” So Enid went to the other tree and stood there weeping, and Sir Geraint dismounted from his horse and stood under his tree, suffering very bitter pain from his wounds.
As they thus stood, there came the sound of a sudden tumult of horses and of voices, and the cause of that tumult was that King Arthur and his court were come hunting into the neighboring woodland. So whilst Sir Geraint was considering which way he should go to escape from them, he was espied by a foot-page who was attendant upon Sir Kay the Seneschal.
This page went to Sir Kay, and he said to him, “Sir, yonder under that tree is a man in broken and defaced armor who appeareth to be wounded.” Sir Kay said, “Where is he?” and then he too beheld Sir Geraint.
Sir Kay bespeaks Sir Geraint.