What is your name,fair young man?said the damosel.My name is,said he,La Cote Male Taile.Well mayest thou be called so,said the damosel,the knight with the evil-shapen coat;but an thou be so hardy to take upon thee to bear that shield and to follow me,wit thou well thy skin shall be as well hewn as thy coat.As for that,said La Cote Male Taile,when I am so hewn I will ask you no salve to heal me withal.And forthwithal there came into the court two squires and brought him great horses,and his armour,and his spears,and anon he was armed and took his leave.Iwould not by my will,said the king,that ye took upon you that hard adventure.Sir,said he,this adventure is mine,and the first that ever I took upon me,and that will I follow whatsomever come of me.Then that damosel departed,and La Cote Male Taile fast followed after.And within a while he overtook the damosel,and anon she missaid him in the foulest manner.
CHAPTER III
How La Cote Male Taile overthrew Sir Dagonet the king's fool,and of the rebuke that he had of the damosel.
THEN Sir Kay ordained Sir Dagonet,King Arthur's fool,to follow after La Cote Male Taile;and there Sir Kay ordained that Sir Dagonet was horsed and armed,and bade him follow La Cote Male Taile and proffer him to joust,and so he did;and when he saw La Cote Male Taile,he cried and bade him make him ready to joust.
So Sir La Cote Male Taile smote Sir Dagonet over his horse's croup.Then the damosel mocked La Cote Male Taile,and said:
Fie for shame!now art thou shamed in Arthur's court,when they send a fool to have ado with thee,and specially at thy first jousts;thus she rode long,and chid.And within a while there came Sir Bleoberis,the good knight,and there he jousted with La Cote Male Taile,and there Sir Bleoberis smote him so sore,that horse and all fell to the earth.Then La Cote Male Taile arose up lightly,and dressed his shield,and drew his sword,and would have done battle to the utterance,for he was wood wroth.Not so,said Sir Bleoberis de Ganis,as at this time I will not fight upon foot.Then the damosel Maledisant rebuked him in the foulest manner,and bade him:Turn again,coward.
Ah,damosel,he said,I pray you of mercy to missay me no more,my grief is enough though ye give me no more;I call myself never the worse knight when a mare's son faileth me,and also I count me never the worse knight for a fall of Sir Bleoberis.
So thus he rode with her two days;and by fortune there came Sir Palomides and encountered with him,and he in the same wise served him as did Bleoberis to-forehand.What dost thou here in my fellowship?said the damosel Maledisant,thou canst not sit no knight,nor withstand him one buffet,but if it were Sir Dagonet.
Ah,fair damosel,I am not the worse to take a fall of Sir Palomides,and yet great disworship have I none,for neither Bleoberis nor yet Palomides would not fight with me on foot.As for that,said the damosel,wit thou well they have disdain and scorn to light off their horses to fight with such a lewd knight as thou art.So in the meanwhile there came Sir Mordred,Sir Gawaine's brother,and so he fell in the fellowship with the damosel Maledisant.And then they came afore the Castle Orgulous,and there was such a custom that there might no knight come by that castle but either he must joust or be prisoner,or at the least to lose his horse and his harness.And there came out two knights against them,and Sir Mordred jousted with the foremost,and that knight of the castle smote Sir Mordred down off his horse.And then La Cote Male Taile jousted with that other,and either of them smote other down,horse and all,to the earth.And when they avoided their horses,then either of them took other's horses.And then La Cote Male Taile rode unto that knight that smote down Sir Mordred,and jousted with him.
And there Sir La Cote Male Taile hurt and wounded him passing sore,and put him from his horse as he had been dead.So he turned unto him that met him afore,and he took the flight towards the castle,and Sir La Cote Male Taile rode after him into the Castle Orgulous,and there La Cote Male Taile slew him.
CHAPTER IV
How La Cote Male Taile fought against an hundred knights,and how he escaped by the mean of a lady.
AND anon there came an hundred knights about him and assailed him;and when he saw his horse should be slain he alighted and voided his horse,and put the bridle under his feet,and so put him out of the gate.And when he had so done he hurled in among them,and dressed his back unto a lady's chamber-wall,thinking himself that he had liefer die there with worship than to abide the rebukes of the damosel Maledisant.And in the meantime as he stood and fought,that lady whose was the chamber went out slily at her postern,and without the gates she found La Cote Male Taile's horse,and lightly she gat him by the bridle,and tied him to the postern.And then she went unto her chamber slily again for to behold how that one knight fought against an hundred knights.And when she had beheld him long she went to a window behind his back,and said:Thou knight,thou fightest wonderly well,but for all that at the last thou must needs die,but,an thou canst through thy mighty prowess,win unto yonder postern,for there have I fastened thy horse to abide thee:but wit thou well thou must think on thy worship,and think not to die,for thou mayst not win unto that postern without thou do nobly and mightily.When La Cote Male Taile heard her say so he gripped his sword in his hands,and put his shield fair afore him,and through the thickest press he thrulled through them.
And when he came to the postern he found there ready four knights,and at two the first strokes he slew two of the knights,and the other fled;and so he won his horse and rode from them.
And all as it was it was rehearsed in King Arthur's court,how he slew twelve knights within the Castle Orgulous;and so he rode on his way.