‘I will go back to my own country,’ said the Lady Ettarde, ‘and see my faithful knight no more.’ When Pelleas heard that the Lady Ettarde was going home he was glad. He remembered the happy days he had spent as they rode together through the forest, and he looked forward to other happy days in the open air, when he could again shield the lady from the roughness of the road.
But when the Lady Ettarde saw that Sir Pelleas was following her into her own country, she was angry.
‘I will not have the knight near me,’ she said proudly to her ladies. ‘I will have an older warrior for my love.’ And they knew their lady’s cruel ways, and in pity kept the knight away.
As they rode along the days seemed long to Pelleas, for he neither saw nor spoke to the Lady Ettarde.
When she got near her own castle, she rode on more swiftly, telling her lords and ladies to follow her closely. The drawbridge was down, and the Lady Ettarde rode across it, and waiting only till her lords and ladies crossed it, ordered the bridge to be drawn up, while Pelleas was still on the other side.
The knight was puzzled. Was this a test of his love too, or did the lady for whom he had won the golden circlet indeed not care for him? But that he would not believe. ‘She will grow kinder if I am faithful,’ he thought, and he lived in a tent beneath the castle walls for many days.
The Lady Ettarde heard that Pelleas still lingered near the castle, and in her anger she said, ‘I will send ten of my lords to fight this knight, and then I shall never see his face again.’
But when Pelleas saw the ten lords coming towards him, he armed himself, and fought so bravely that he overthrew each of them.
But after he had overthrown them, he allowed them to get up and to bind him hand and foot, and carry him into the castle. ‘For they will carry me into the presence of the Lady Ettarde,’ he thought.
But when she saw Pelleas, the Lady Ettarde mocked him, and told her lords to tie him to the tail of a horse and turn him out of the castle.