Now all this while the lady had been weeping and watching what befell.  But when she saw the great danger Sir Phelot was in, she ran and clasped her arms about him, and cried out in a very loud and piercing voice upon Sir Launcelot to spare Sir Phelot and to slay him not.  But Sir Launcelot, still holding him by the hair of the head, said:  “Lady, I cannot spare him, for he has treated me more treacherously than any other knight with whom I ever had dealings.”  But the lady cried out all the more vehemently, “Sir Launcelot, thou good knight, I beseech thee, of thy knighthood, to spare him.”

[Sidenote:  Sir Launcelot spares Sir Phelot’s life] “Well,” said Sir Launcelot, “it hath yet to be said of me that I have denied anything that I was able to grant unto any lady that hath asked it of me upon my knighthood.  And yet I know not how to trust either of ye.  For thou didst not say one word in my behalf when I was in danger of being slain so treacherously just now.  As for this knight, I perceive that he is every whit as great a traitor and a coward as was his brother Sir Peris of the Sauvage Forest.  So I will spare him, but I will not trust him, lest he turn against me ere I arm myself again.  Wherefore give me hither the halter rein of your mule.”  So the lady gave Sir Launcelot the halter rein, weeping amain as she did so.  And Sir Launcelot took the halter rein and he tied the arms of Sir Phelot behind him.  Then he bade the lady of Sir Phelot to help him arm himself from head to foot, and she did so, trembling a very great deal.  Then, when she had done so, quoth Sir Launcelot:  “Now I fear the treachery of no man.”  Therewith he mounted his horse and rode away from that place And he looked not behind him at all, but rode away as though he held too much scorn of that knight and of that lady to give any more thought to them.

So after that Sir Launcelot travelled for a while through the green fields of that valley, till by and by he passed out of that valley, and came into a forest through which he travelled for a very long time.

[Sidenote:  Sir Launcelot cometh to a marish country] For it was about the slanting of the afternoon ere he came forth out of that forest and under the open sky again.  And when he came out of the forest he beheld before him a country of perfectly level marish, very lush and green, with many ponds of water and sluggish streams bordered by rushes and sedge, and with pollard willows standing in rows beside the waters.  In the midst of this level plain of green (which was like to the surface of a table for flatness) there stood a noble castle, part built of brick and part of stone, and a town of no great size and a wall about the town.  And this castle and town stood upon an island surrounded by a lake of water, and a long bridge, built upon stone buttresses, reached from the mainland to the island.  And this castle and town were a very long distance away, though they appeared very clear and distinct to the sight across the level marish, like, as it were, to a fine bit of very small and cunning carving.