“I will with all my heart,” said Sir Persant, “if it please him to take the order of knighthood from so simple a man as I am.”
“Sir,” said Beaumains, “I thank you for your goodwill, but the noble knight Sir Lancelot made me knight.”
“Ah,” said Sir Persant, “of a more renowned knight might ye not be made knight, for of all knights he may be called chief of knighthood; and so all the world saith that betwixt three knights is knighthood divided, Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristam, and Sir Lamorak. Therefore, God speed ye well, for if ye conquer the Red Knight, ye shall be called the fourth of the world.”
“Sir,” said Beaumains, “I would fain be of good fame and knighthood and I will tell you both who I am. Truly then, my name is Gareth of Orkney, and King Lot was my father, and my mother is King Arthur’s sister, and Sir Gawain is my brother and so Sir Agravaine and Sir Gaheris, and I am youngest of them all: And yet know not King Arthur nor Sir Gawain who I am.”
HOW THE LADY THAT WAS BESIEGED HAD WORD FROM HER SISTER
The lady that was besieged had word of her sister’s coming by the dwarf, and also how the knight had passed all the perilous passages.
“Dwarf,” said the lady, “I am glad of these things. Go thou unto my sister and greet her well and commend me unto that gentle knight and pray him to eat and to drink and make him strong, and say ye that I thank him for his courtesy and goodness.”
So the dwarf departed and told Sir Beaumains all as ye have heard and returned to the castle again. And there met him the Red Knight of the Red Lands and asked him where he had been.
“Sir,” said the dwarf, “I have been with my lady’s sister of this castle, and she hath been at King Arthur’s court and brought a knight with her.”