{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart206.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart206.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart206.htm","text":"CHAPTER XII\nHow Sir Palomides followed the Questing Beast, and smote\ndown Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorak with one spear.\nAND this meanwhile there came Sir Palomides, the good knight,\nfollowing the Questing Beast that had in shape a head like a\nserpent's head, and a body like a leopard, buttocks like a lion,\nand footed like an hart; and in his body there was such a noise\nas it had been the noise of thirty couple of hounds questing, and\nsuch a noise that beast made wheresomever he went; and this beast\never more Sir Palomides followed, for it was called his quest.\nAnd right so as he followed this beast it came by Sir Tristram,\nand soon after came Palomides. And to brief this matter he smote\ndown Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorak both with one spear; and so he\ndeparted after the beast Galtisant, that was called the Questing\nBeast; wherefore these two knights were passing wroth that Sir\nPalomides would not fight on foot with them. Here men may\nunderstand that be of worship, that he was never formed <371>that\nall times might stand, but sometime he was put to the worse by\nmal-fortune; and at sometime the worse knight put the better\nknight to a rebuke.\nThen Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorak gat Sir Kehydius upon a shield\nbetwixt them both, and led him to a forester's lodge, and there\nthey gave him in charge to keep him well, and with him they abode\nthree days. Then the two knights took their horses and at the\ncross they departed. And then said Sir Tristram to Sir Lamorak:\nI require you if ye hap to meet with Sir Palomides, say him that\nhe shall find me at the same well where I met him, and there I,\nSir Tristram, shall prove whether he be better knight than I.\nAnd so either departed from other a sundry way, and Sir Tristram\nrode nigh thereas was Sir Kehydius; and Sir Lamorak rode until he\ncame to a chapel, and there he put his horse unto pasture. And\nanon there came Sir Meliagaunce, that was King Bagdemagus' son,\nand he there put his horse to pasture, and was not ware of Sir\nLamorak; and then this knight Sir Meliagaunce made his moan of\nthe love that he had to Queen Guenever, and there he made a woful\ncomplaint. All this heard Sir Lamorak, and on the morn Sir\nLamorak took his horse and rode unto the forest, and there he met\nwith two knights hoving under the wood-shaw. Fair knights, said\nSir Lamorak, what do ye hoving here and watching? and if ye be\nknights-errant that will joust, lo I am ready. Nay, sir knight,\nthey said, not so, we abide not here to joust with you, but we\nlie here in await of a knight that slew our brother. What knight\nwas that, said Sir Lamorak, that you would fain meet withal?\nSir, they said, it is Sir Launcelot that slew our brother, and if\never we may meet with him he shall not escape, but we shall slay\nhim. Ye take upon you a great charge, said Sir Lamorak, for Sir\nLauncelot is a noble proved knight. As for that we doubt not,\nfor there nis none of us but we are good enough for him. I will\nnot believe that, said Sir Lamorak, for I heard never yet of no\nknight the days of my life but Sir Launcelot was too big for him.\n<372>","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK IX CHAPTER XII","type":"page"}