" "Damsel," the Queen replies, "you have asked me a
question in which I see no hate or evil, but rather good intent;
the name of the knight, I know, is Lancelot of the Lake." (20)
"God, how happy and glad at heart I am!" the damsel says. Then
she leans forward and calls to him by name so loudly that all the
people hear: "Lancelot, turn about and see who is here taking
note of thee!"
(Vv. 3685-3954.) When Lancelot heard his name, he was not slow
to turn around: he turns and sees seated up there at the window
of the tower her whom he desired most in the world to see. From
the moment he caught sight of her, he did not turn or take his
eyes and face from her, defending himself with backhand blows.
And Meleagant meanwhile attacked him as fiercely as he could,
delighted to think that the other cannot withstand him now; and
they of the country are well pleased too, while the foreigners
are so distressed that they can no longer support themselves, and
many of them fall to earth either upon their knees or stretched
out prone; thus some are glad, and some distressed. Then the
damsel cried again from the window: "Ah, Lancelot, how is it that
thou dost now conduct thyself so foolishly? Once thou wert the
embodiment of prowess and of all that is good, and I do not think
God ever made a knight who could equal thee in valour and in
worth.
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