Chapter Chapter 198 · How La Cote Male Taile overthrew Sir Dagonet the king’s

. How La Cote Male Taile overthrew Sir Dagonet the king’s

fool, and of the rebuke that he had of the damosel.

Then Sir Kay ordained Sir Dagonet, King Arthur’s fool, to follow after

La Cote Male Taile; and there Sir Kay ordained that Sir Dagonet was

horsed and armed, and bade him follow La Cote Male Taile and proffer

him to joust, and so he did; and when he saw La Cote Male Taile, he

cried and bade him make him ready to joust. So Sir La Cote Male Taile

smote Sir Dagonet over his horse’s croup. Then the damosel mocked La

Cote Male Taile, and said: Fie for shame! now art thou shamed in

Arthur’s court, when they send a fool to have ado with thee, and

specially at thy first jousts; thus she rode long, and chid. And within

a while there came Sir Bleoberis, the good knight, and there he jousted

with La Cote Male Taile, and there Sir Bleoberis smote him so sore,

that horse and all fell to the earth. Then La Cote Male Taile arose up

lightly, and dressed his shield, and drew his sword, and would have

done battle to the utterance, for he was wood wroth. Not so, said Sir

Bleoberis de Ganis, as at this time I will not fight upon foot. Then

the damosel Maledisant rebuked him in the foulest manner, and bade him:

Turn again, coward. Ah, damosel, he said, I pray you of mercy to missay

me no more, my grief is enough though ye give me no more; I call myself

never the worse knight when a mare’s son faileth me, and also I count

me never the worse knight for a fall of Sir Bleoberis.

So thus he rode with her two days; and by fortune there came Sir

Palomides and encountered with him, and he in the same wise served him

as did Bleoberis to-forehand. What dost thou here in my fellowship?

said the damosel Maledisant, thou canst not sit no knight, nor

withstand him one buffet, but if it were Sir Dagonet. Ah, fair damosel,

I am not the worse to take a fall of Sir Palomides, and yet great

disworship have I none, for neither Bleoberis nor yet Palomides would

not fight with me on foot. As for that, said the damosel, wit thou well

they have disdain and scorn to light off their horses to fight with

such a lewd knight as thou art. So in the meanwhile there came Sir

Mordred, Sir Gawaine’s brother, and so he fell in the fellowship with

the damosel Maledisant. And then they came afore the Castle Orgulous,

and there was such a custom that there might no knight come by that

castle but either he must joust or be prisoner, or at the least to lose

his horse and his harness. And there came out two knights against them,

and Sir Mordred jousted with the foremost, and that knight of the

castle smote Sir Mordred down off his horse. And then La Cote Male

Taile jousted with that other, and either of them smote other down,

horse and all, to the earth. And when they avoided their horses, then

either of them took other’s horses. And then La Cote Male Taile rode

unto that knight that smote down Sir Mordred, and jousted with him. And

there Sir La Cote Male Taile hurt and wounded him passing sore, and put

him from his horse as he had been dead. So he turned unto him that met

him afore, and he took the flight towards the castle, and Sir La Cote

Male Taile rode after him into the Castle Orgulous, and there La Cote

Male Taile slew him.