Now, my sweet gentle friend, I beg
you affectionately for leave to go; then, with your consent, I
should feel free to go." "Lancelot, fair, sweet dear friend, I
am quite willing," the damsel says; "I desire your honour and
welfare above everything everywhere." Then she gives him a
wonderful horse she has, the best horse that ever was seen, and
he leaps up without so much as saying to the stirrups "by your
leave": he was up without considering them. Then to God, who
never lies, they commend each other with good intent.
(Vv. 6729-7004.) Lancelot was so glad to be on the road that, if
I should take an oath, I could not possibly describe the joy he
felt at having escaped from his trap. But he said to himself
repeatedly that woe was the traitor, the reprobate, whom now he
has tricked and ridiculed, "for in spite of him I have escaped."
Then he swears by the heart and body of Him who made the world
that not for all the riches and wealth from Babylon to Ghent
would he let Meleagant escape, if he once got him in his power:
for he has him to thank for too much harm and shame! But events
will soon turn out so as to make this possible; for this very
Meleagant, whom he threatens and presses hard, had already come
to court that day without being summoned by any one; and the
first thing he did was to search until he found my lord Gawain.
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