[Sidenote:  Sir Tristram does battle with the white knight] So therewith Sir Tristram went back into his pavilion and several went with him.  These put his helmet upon his head and they armed him for battle in all ways.  After that Sir Tristram came forth and mounted his horse and took his spear in hand and made himself in all ways ready for battle, and all that while the white knight awaited his coming very calmly and steadfastly.  Then Sir Tristram took ground for battle, and the white knight did so likewise.  So being in all ways prepared, each launched forth against the other with such amazing and terrible violence that those who beheld that encounter stood as though terrified with the thunder of the onset.

Therewith the two knights met in the midst of the course, and each knight smote the other directly in the centre of the shield.  In that encounter the spear of each knight broke all to small pieces, even to the truncheon which he held in his fist.  And so terrible was the blow that each struck the other that the horse of each fell back upon his haunches, and it was only because of the great address of the knight-rider that the steed was able to recover his footing.  As for Sir Tristram, that was the most terrible buffet he ever had struck him in all his life before that time.

Then straightway Sir Tristram voided his saddle and drew his sword and dressed his shield.  And he cried out:  “Ha, Sir Knight!  I demand of you that you descend from your horse and do me battle afoot.”

“Very well,” said the white knight, “thou shalt have thy will.”  And thereupon he likewise voided his horse and drew his sword and dressed his shield and made himself in all ways ready for battle as Sir Tristram had done.

Therewith they two came together and presently fell to fighting with such ardor that sparks of fire flew from every stroke.  And if Sir Tristram struck hard and often, the white knight struck as hard and as often as he, so that all the knights of Cornwall who stood about marvelled at the strength and fierceness of the knights-combatant.  Each knight gave the other many sore buffets so that the armor was here and there dinted and here and there was broken through by the edge of the sword so that the red blood flowed out therefrom and down over the armor, turning its brightness in places into an ensanguined red.  Thus they fought for above an hour and in all that time neither knight gave ground or gained any vantage over the other.

[Sidenote:  Sir Tristram falls in the battle] Then after a while Sir Tristram grew more weary of fighting than ever he had been in all of his life before, and he was aware that this was the greatest knight whom he had ever met.  But still he would not give ground, but fought from this side and from that side with great skill and address until of a sudden, he slipped upon some of that blood that he himself had shed, and because of his great weariness, fell down upon his knees, and could not for the instant rise again.