‘Take yonder fishing-boat,’ said he to one of his knights, ‘and return to Southampton and enter the castle. Then tell Sir Murdour that the man to whom he has given his arms and his horses is no knight of France, but Sir Bevis earl of Southampton, who has come to take vengeance for the death of his father.’
The battle which decided the strife was fought upon the island, and never for a moment did Bevis lose sight of his enemy. In vain did Murdour ride from one part of the field to the other; Bevis was always there, though it was long before he was close enough to thrust at him. At last he managed to hurl him to the ground, but Murdour’s followers pressed hard on him, and Bevis could not, by his own self, take him captive.
‘To me! To me!’ he cried at last, and Ascapard strode up, cleaving the heads of all that stood in his way.
‘What shall be done with him?’ asked he, picking up the fallen knight and holding him tightly.
‘Put him in the cauldron that is boiling outside the camp,’ said Bevis. ‘For that is the death for traitors.’
So Sir Bevis got his own again, and he sent to Cologne for Josyan, and was wedded to her by his uncle the bishop in his good town of Southampton.
[From the Early English Metrical Romances.]