At last Gamelyn realised that his brother had played him false, and began to wonder how he might free himself from his present plight.

Now in the house there was an old steward named Adam, and on the second day Gamelyn said to him, “Methinks, Adam, I have fasted over-long.  If you can get the keys and set me free, you shall have half of all my lands.”  Adam hesitated, for he feared his master; but pity for Gamelyn was too strong for him.  At night, when all were asleep, he crept into his master’s room, took his bunch of keys and set Gamelyn free.  “They shall not bind me so easily again,” said Gamelyn.

When he had eaten food and drunk wine, he declared himself ready to take vengeance on his brother immediately.  But Adam restrained him.  “I know a trick worth two of that,” he said.  “Next Sunday there is to be a great feast in the hall.  Many abbots and other churchmen will come to it.  You shall stand against the post in your fetters, but I will leave them unlocked so that you can free yourself whenever you wish.  When they are feasting, ask each one of them to take pity on you and release you.  If one of them does so, then you will be free and I shall escape blame; but if they all refuse, I will provide a good staff for you and another for myself, and we two will fight them all.  When I give the signal, cast away the fetters and come to me, and I will have the staves ready.”  Gamelyn agreed very heartily.

When Sunday came, Gamelyn was standing fettered against the post.  The guests arrived and were served with a sumptuous feast, but Gamelyn was given no food or drink.  When the meal was nearly over, he called to them to release him, but to all his pleadings they returned only rough words and curses.  Then Adam looked at Gamelyn and saw that he was furious at their unkindness, so he brought the staves to the door and beckoned to Gamelyn, who at once rushed to his side, and both laid about them heartily.  Abbots and priors, monks and canons fell right and left before their blows.  Some fell under the table, some in the fire, and many bones were broken.  The guests who had come there riding merrily on horses were taken home that night in carts and waggons.

When he had finished with all the others, Gamelyn went to his brother, who had been standing helpless in his place, felled him with the staff so that his backbone was injured, and put him in the fetters where he himself had been.

The servants, either for love or fear, did all that Gamelyn and Adam commanded them, and brought them the best the house could provide.

When the sheriff near by heard of all this beating and wounding, he determined to take Gamelyn and to make him pay the penalty.  He sent to Gamelyn’s castle four-and-twenty young men, who were only too glad to have the opportunity of showing their valour.  They demanded admission to the house, but the porter would not let them in.  He rushed to Gamelyn and told him that the sheriff’s men were outside.  Gamelyn and Adam slipped out by a side door and, before anyone knew what was happening, Adam had felled two and Gamelyn three of them.  The rest were too frightened to resist, and took to their heels.