When Lynette heard that, she was angry, and said, ‘I came for Sir Lancelot, the greatest of all your knights, and you give me a kitchen-boy.’ In her anger, she walked out of the palace gates, and rode quickly down the streets. She neither looked nor waited to see if Gareth followed.
‘I will wait for nothing,’ thought the new knight, and he hurried after Lynette to the palace gates, but there he was stopped.
Gareth’s mother had not forgotten that a year had passed since her boy had left her. In her quiet castle she had been busy planning a surprise for her prince.
‘Gareth will be a knight to-day,’ she thought. ‘I will send our dwarf to him with a noble war-horse and armour fit for a knight. Surely he will begin his adventures the more gladly, that I help to send him forth,’ she murmured, thinking half-regretfully of the long year she had made him spend in the kitchen.
And Gareth was glad when he saw his mother’s gift; and when he had put on the armour, there was no more handsome knight in all King Arthur’s court than Sir Gareth. He mounted his horse, and, telling the dwarf to follow, rode quickly after Lynette.
But Gareth had not gone far, when he heard shouts behind him, and, turning, he saw that Sir Kay was riding after him.
‘If it is possible, I will bring my kitchen-boy boy back again,’ thought Sir Kay, ‘for he works well.’ ‘Have you forgotten that I am your master?’ he shouted, as he reached Gareth.
‘You are no longer my master,’ said Gareth, ‘and I know that you are the most unkind of all Arthur’s knights.’
Then Sir Kay was so angry that he drew his sword, and Gareth drew his and struck Sir Kay so hard a blow, that he tumbled off his horse, and lay on the ground as if he were dead. Then Gareth took away his old master’s sword and shield, and telling the dwarf to take Sir Kay’s horse, he once more hurried on to reach Lynette.
Both Lancelot and Lynette had seen Sir Gareth fight with Sir Kay, for the King had asked Sir Lancelot to ride on before Gareth, that he might know if his new knight could use his sword.