Sir Kay for the pleasure of the knight suffered him to do his will, and so stood aside. And then anon within six strokes Sir Launcelot had stricken them to the earth.
And then they all three cried, "Sir knight, we yield us unto you as man of might matchless."
"As to that," said Sir Launcelot, "I will not take your yielding unto me, but so that ye yield you unto Sir Kay the seneschal; on that covenant I will save your lives and else not."
"Fair knight," said they, "that were we loath to do; for as for Sir Kay we chased him hither, and had overcome him had not ye been; therefore to yield us unto him it were no reason."
"Well, as to that," said Sir Launcelot, "advise you well, for ye may choose whether ye will die or live, for and [if] ye be yielden it shall be unto Sir Kay."
"Fair knight," then they said, "in saving our lives we will do as thou commandest us."
"Then shall ye," said Sir Launcelot, "on Whitsunday next coming go unto the court of King Arthur, and there shall ye yield you unto Queen Guenever, and put you all three in her grace and mercy, and say that Sir Kay sent you thither to be her prisoners."
"Sir," they said, "it shall be done by the faith of our bodies, and we be living."
And there they swore, every knight upon his sword. And so Sir Launcelot suffered them so to depart. And then Sir Launcelot knocked at the gate with the pommel of his sword, and with that came his host, and in they entered, Sir Kay and he.
"Sir," said his host, "I wend ye had been in your bed."