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

¶ Capitulum xxvj

THenne cam the foure sones by couple / and two of them brake their speres / and soo dyd the other two / And alle this whyle syre marhaus touched hem not / Thenne sir marhaus � ranne to the duke / and smote hym with his spere that hors and man felle to the erthe / And so he serued his sones / And thenne syr Marhaus alyghte doune and bad the duke

[leaf 78r] yelde hym or els he wold slee hym / And thenne some of his sones recouerd / and wold haue set vpon syr Marhaus / thenne syr Marhaus sayd to the duke seace thy sones or els I will doo the vttermest to yow all / Thenne the duke sawe he myghte not escape the deth he cryed to his sones and charged them to yelde them to syr Marhaus / And they kneled al doune / and put the pomels of theire swerdes to the knyght / and soo he receyued them / And thenne they halp vp their fader / and soo by their comynal assente promysed to syr Marhaus neuer to be foes vnto kynge Arthur / and therupon at whytsontyde after to come he and his sones and putte them in the kynges grace Thenne syr Marhaus departed and within two dayes his damoysel brought hym where as was a grete tornement that the lady de Vawse has cryed / And who that dyd best shold haue a ryche serklet of gold worthe a thousand besauntes / And there syr Marhaus dyd so nobly that he was renomed / & had somtyme doune fourty knyghtes / and soo the serklet of gold was rewarded hym / Thenne he departed fro them with grete worship / And soo within seuen nyghtes his damoysel brought hym to an erles place / his name was the erle Fergus / that after was syre Trystrams knyghte / and this Erle was but a yonge man / and late come in to his landes / and there was a gyant fast by hym that hyȝte Taulurd / and he had another broder in Cornewaille that hyghte Taulas that syr Trystram slewe whanne he was oute of hys mynde / So this Erle maade his complaynte vnto syre Marhaus that there was a gyaunt by hym that destroyed al his londes / & how he durst nowhere ryde nor goo for hym / Syr sayd the knyghte whether vseth he to fyghte on horsbak or on foote / nay sayd the erle there maye no hors bere hym / Wel said syr marhaus thenne wille I fyghte with hym on foote / Soo on the morne syr Marhaus prayd the erle that one of his men myghte brynge hym where as the gyaūt was / and so he was / for he sawe hym sytte vnder a tree of hoolly / and many clubbes of Iron and gysarms about hym Soo thys knyghte dressid hym to the gyant puttyng his sheld afore hym / and the gyant toke an Iron clubbe in his hande / & at the fyrste stroke he clafe syre Marhaus shelde in ij pyeces / And there he was in grete peryl / for the gyant was a wyly

[leaf 78v] fyghter / but atte last syr Marhaus smote of his ryght arme aboue the elbowe / thēne the gyant fledde and the knyght after hym / and soo he drofe hym in to a water / but the gyant was soo hyghe that he myghte not wade after hym / And thenne sir Marhaus made the erle Fergus man to fetche hym stones / & with tho stones the knyghte gaf the gyaunt many sore knockes / tyl at the last he made hym falle doune in to the water / & so was he there dede / thēne syr Marhaus wēte vnto the gyants castel / and there he delyuerd xxiiij ladyes and twelue knyȝtes oute of the gyants pryson / and there he had grete rychesse withoute nombre / soo that the dayes of his lys he was neuer poure man / thenne he retorned to the erle Fergus / the whiche thanked hym gretely / and wold haue gyuen hym half his lādes but he wold none take / Soo syr Marhaus dwellyd with the erle nyghe half a yere / for he was sore brysed with the gyaunt / and at the laste he took his leue / And as he rode by the way / he mette with syr gawayne and syr Vwayne / and so by aduenture he mette with foure knyghtes of Arthurs courte / the fyrst was syr Sagramore desyrus / syr Ozanna / syr Dodynas le saueage / and syre felot of lystynoyse / and there syr Marhaus with one spere smote doune these foure knyghtes / and hurte them sore / Soo he departed to mete at his day afore sette