[Sidenote:  Sir Launcelot perceives three knights at feast] So by and by he entered into the country around about Camelot, which is a very smooth and fertile country, full of fair rivers and meadows with many cots and hamlets, and with fair hedge-bordered highways, wonderfully pleasant to journey in.  So travelling he came to a very large meadow where were several groves of trees standing here and there along by a river.  And as he went through this meadow he saw before him a long bridge, and at the farther side of the bridge were three pavilions of silk of divers colors, which pavilions had been cast in the shade of a grove of beech-trees.  In front of each pavilion stood a great spear thrust in the earth, and from the spear hung the shield of the knight to whom the pavilion belonged.  These shields Sir Launcelot read very easily, and so knew the knights who were there.  To wit:  that they were Sir Gunther, Sir Gylmere, and Sir Raynold, who were three brothers of the Court of King Arthur.  As Sir Launcelot passed their pavilions, he saw that the three knights sat at feast in the midmost pavilion of the three, and that a number of esquires and pages waited upon them and served them, for those knights were of very high estate, and so they were established as high lords should be.

[Sidenote:  The three knights bid Sir Launcelot come to feast with them] [Sidenote:  Sir Launcelot overthrows Sir Gunther] Now when those knights perceived Sir Launcelot they thought it was Sir Kay because of the armor he wore, and Sir Gunther, who was the eldest of the three brothers, cried out:  “Come hither, Sir Kay, and eat with us!” But to this Sir Launcelot made no reply, but rode on his way.  Then said Sir Gunther:  “Meseems Sir Kay hath grown very proud this morning.  Now I will go and bring him back with me, or else I will bring down his pride to earth.”  So he made haste and donned his helmet and ran and took his shield and his spear, and mounted his horse and rode after Sir Launcelot at a hard gallop.  As he drew nigh to Sir Launcelot he cried out:  “Stay, Sir Knight!  Turn again, and go with me!” “Why should I go with you?” said Sir Launcelot.  Quoth Sir Gunther:  “Because you must either return with me or do battle with me.”  “Well,” said Sir Launcelot, “I would rather do battle than return against my will.”  And at that Sir Gunther was astonished, for Sir Kay was not wont to be so ready for a battle.  So Sir Launcelot set his shield and spear and took his stand, and Sir Gunther took his stand.  Then, when they were in all ways prepared, each set spur to his horse and rushed together with terrible speed.  So each knight struck the other in the midst of his shield, but the onset of Sir Launcelot was so terrible that it was not to be withstood, wherefore both Sir Gunther and his horse were overthrown in such a cloud of dust that nothing at all was to be seen of them until that cloud lifted.

At this both Sir Raynold and Sir Gylmere were astonished beyond measure, for Sir Gunther was reckoned to be a much better knight than Sir Kay, wherefore they wist not how it was that Sir Kay should have overthrown him in that fashion.