Dutchmen followed after him, passing with Priamus’ knights.
Then Gawain, that good knight, encouraged his knights, saying: “Grieve not, good men, at yonder great sight; do not be abashed by yonder boys in their bright trappings. If we fight with faith, the field will be ours!”
Then they took up their reins and began to gallop, and as they got close they knocked down many noble knights. There has never been a jollier jousting on earth. Then the rich men of the Round Table ran through the thickest of the press with their strong spears, so that many a man was injured as a result of their prowess. The knaves fled the field, and only knights who were keen of heart were willing to fight. “By God,” said Sir Gawain, “this gladdens my heart, that yonder fellows are gone, for they were great in number. Now they are fewer in the field than at first, when they numbered twenty thousand.”
Then Jubeaunce of Genoa, a mighty giant, cast his spear at Sir Gerard, a good Welsh knight. He struck the Welsh knight straight to the heart. Then our knights mightily attacked their mid-guard, and in one skirmish many Saracens were destroyed, and the sovereigns of Soissons were saved forever.
By that time Sir Priamus, the good prince, rode to his pennant accompanied by royal lords. He quickly took it up, and rode with the royal company of the Round Table out of the wood, followed by his retinue. They followed behind him like sheep from the fold, going straight to the field to stand by their kind lord. Then they sent these words to the duke: “Sir, we have been your hired soldiers these past seven winters, and now we forsake you for the love of our liege lord, King Arthur. With our honor, we may go where we like, for neither reward nor gold have we received.”
“Fie on you! The devil take your bones! I care little for such soldiers!” Then the duke turned his Dutchmen on Sir Gawain and Sir Priamus. The two of them gripped their spears and went at them by the most direct route. There Sir Priamus met with the Marquess of Moses’ land and smote him clean through. Then Chastelain, a child of King Arthur’s chamber—he was a ward of Sir Gawain—he came at Sir Cheldrake, who was a noble chieftain; with his spear he smote him clean through. So that child achieved the advantage in the contest of arms. But then he was chased down, with nowhere to escape, and one of the enemy smote him through the neck. When Sir Gawain saw that, he wept with all his heart and felt as if inwardly he would burst for sorrow. When Gotlake, a good man of arms, saw the death of Chastelain the child, his mood changed and wet water ran down his cheeks.
Then Sir Gawain prepared himself and rode at a duke; Sir Dauphin the duke drove hard against him. But Sir Gawain came at him with a great spear and drove the head into his heart. He pulled it out and ran to another man, Sir Hardolf, a hardy man of arms, and slyly he slipped in the spear and Hardolf fell to the earth. That day he slew in the valley more than sixty men at arms with his own hands.
Then Sir Gawain saw the man that had slain Chastelain, his child, and swiftly with his sword ran him through. “If you had escaped without wounds, the shame would have been ours!” After that Sir Gawain turned back to the battle, rushing at the enemy, and rode straight through to the rearguard, clearing a path all the way. Sir Priamus came riding next, making his way. There they hewed and hurled and brought down many heathen knights; on the other side of the battle, Sir Florence did what he could. The lords of Lorraine and Lombardy were captured and led away by our noble knights. Such an advantage our lords achieved through chance in that war, and their reputations were raised forever after.
When Sir Florence and Sir Gawain had won the field, they sent ahead of them five score knights with their enemies and prisoners following after. Sir Gawain waited until the prisoners were through a narrow pass, of which he had great dread. So they rode until they saw the city, and that same day they captured it by assault. Sir Florence and Sir Gawain harbored their people there, and after went to the king’s tent to tell this tale truly, how they had fared that day, and how his fierce men had done. “And many of your enemies lost their lives, and many noble prisoners have yielded themselves into our hands. But Chastelain, my ward, had his head chopped off this day; yet before he died, he slew an important knight with his own hands.”
“Now thanks be to God!” said the noble king. “But I marvel at that excellent knight who stands beside you; he seems a stranger, but seems not to be a prisoner.”
C V.12
“Sir,” said Sir Gawain, “this is a good man of arms. He contested against me in the morning, and if it had not been for his help, I would have died. Now he has yielded himself to God and to me, sir king, to become a Christian in good faith. Once he is baptized into the true faith, there will not be a better nor nobler knight alive.”
So the king quickly had him christened and confirmed him as Priamus, the name he bore before, and with his own hands dubbed him a duke and made him a knight of the Round Table.
21 Arthur’s Coronation and Return Home
Then the king called for an assault on the town, and there was much raising of ladders and breaking of walls. It was a pity to see how the people suffered. Then the duchess, surrounded with noble ladies, and the Countess of Clarisin, with her maidens also, kneeled in their kirtles before the king and asked him for mercy in the name of God. “Give us good news and withdraw your people, or the city shall be lost in an assault in which many a soul shall die who never gave you grief.”
The king lifted up his visor, displaying his knightly countenance, and kneeled beside her gently, saying kind words. “No one of my party shall do wrong to you, madame; I grant pardon to you and your ladies, to your children, and to your men. But your duke must do as I say. I will make sure that you will be provided with a living.”
Then Arthur sent word throughout the town to the lords that they should cease their fighting, for the city had yielded. Therewith, the duke’s eldest son came out with keys and kneeled before the king, asking for his grace. There with the assent of his lords he ceased the fighting; the duke was sent to Dover in the company of some of the king’s finest knights, there to live out the days of his life in dole as a prisoner.
Then, with a crown on his head the king recovered the city and castle, the captains and constables acknowledged him as lord, and he ordained a dowry for the duchess and her children, and appointed wardens to rule over that land.
So he stayed in Lorraine and Lombardy, lodged as a lord in his own land, and set down laws that he thought best. At Lammas he went to Lucerne and took his leisure there. Then he moved over the mountains, performing many marvels as he went, traveling through the land of Goddard which Gareth soon would win. He looked into Lombardy and said aloud, “In yonder lovely lands I will dwell as a lord.”
That day, Sir Florence and Sir Floridas passed into the city of Urbino with five hundred good men. They went by the most direct route and laid there an ambush as they thought best. There came out of that city many hundreds of men who skirmished with our foreriders as it seemed best to them. Then the men in our ambush broke out and took the bridge, and rode to their lodgings with their banners displayed. Many folk fled from there out of fear of Sir Florence and his fierce knights. They hoisted a banner of surrender above the gates, so afraid of Sir Florence were they.
The king was waiting on a hillside, and looked to the walls and said, “I see by yonder sign that the city is taken.” Then he sent word throughout his host that upon pain of life, limb, and loss of property, no member of his party should rape maidens, or ladies, or any burgesses’ wives in that city. So when the conqueror came into the city, he entered the castle and comforted the men there with many kind words; he made a knight of his own country captain, and the commons agreed to this.
When the rulers of Milan heard that the city was taken, they sent great sums of silver and sixty good horses to King Arthur, beseeching him as a ruler to have pity on the people. They said they would be his subjects forever, rendering service and allegiance for their lands, for Placenza and Pietrasanta and for Pontremoli. For Milan, they would meekly give each year a million pieces of gold, doing homage to Arthur for all their lives. Then king accepted their offer, and sent for them to come and acknowledge him as lord.
Then he turned to Tuscany when the time seemed right, capturing many towers and winning many towns, wasting