Le Morte Darthur / by Syr Thomas Malory ; the original edition of William Caxton now reprinted and edited with an introduction and glossary by H. Oskar Sommer ; with an essay on Malory's prose style by Andrew Lang

[leaf 227v]

¶ Capitulum xxv

NOw leue we of sire Lamorak / and speke of sire Gawayns bretheren & specially of syr Agrauayne and syre Mordred as they rode on theire aduentures they mette with a Knyghte fleynge sore wounded / and they asked hym what tydynges / Faire Knyghtes said he here cometh a knyght after me that wylle slee me / With that came sire Dynadan rydynge to them by aduenture / but he wold promyse them no help But sir Agrauayne and sire Mordred promysed hym to rescowe hym / There with alle came that knyght streyght vnto them And anone he proferd to Iuste / That sawe syre Mordred and rode to hym but he strake Mordred ouer his hors tayle

¶ That sawe sire Agrauayn and streyghte he rode toward that knyght / And ryghte soo as he serued Mordred soo he serued Agrauayne / and said to them / Syrs wete ye wel bothe that I am Breuse saunce pyte that hath done this to yow / And yet he rode ouer Agrauayne fyue or syxe tymes /

¶ Whan Dynadan sawe this / he muste nedes Iuste with hym for shame / And so Dynadan and he encountred to gyders / that with pure strengthe sir Dynadan smote hym ouer his hors tayle / Thenne he took his hors and fledde / for he was on foot one of the valyauntest knyghtes in Arthurs dayes / and a grete destroyer of alle good knyghtes / Thenne rode sir Dynadan vnto sir Mordred and vnto sir Agrauayne / Syre knyght said they alle wel haue ye done / and wel haue ye reuenged vs / wherfor we praye yow telle vs youre name / Faire sirs ye ouȝte to knowe my name the whiche is called sire Dynadan / Whanne they vnderstood that it was Dynadan / they were more wroth than they were before / for they hated hym oute of mesure by cause of sir Lamorak / For Dynadan had suche a custome that he loued alle good Knyghtes that were valyaunt / and he hated al tho that were destroyers of good knyghtes / And there were none that hated Dynadan but tho that euer were called murtherers Thenne spack the hurt knyght that Breuse saunce pyte hadde chaced / his name was Dalan / and said yf thou be Dynadan / thow slewest my fader / Hit may wel be so said Dynadan / but thenne it was in my defence and at his request / By my hede said Dalan thow shalt dye therfore / and there with he dressid

[leaf 228r] his spere and his shelde / And to make the shorter tale syre Dynadan smote hym doune of his hors that his neck was nyȝ broken / And in the same wyse he smote syre Mordred and sir Agrauayne / And after in the quest of the Sancgreal cowardly and felloynsly they slewe Dynadan / the whiche was grete dammage / for he was a grete bourder and a passyng good knyght

¶ And soo sire Dynadan rode to a Castel that hyght Beale valet / And there he fonde sire Palomydes that was not yet hole of the wound that syr Lamorak gaf hym / And there Dynadan told Palomydes all the tydynges that he herd and sawe of syre Tristram / and how he was gone with kynge Marke / and with hym he hath alle his wyll and desyre / There with syre Palomydes waxed wrothe / for he loued la Beale Isoud / And thenne he wyste wel that syre Tristram enioyed her