So in the morning they bade farewell to the Blue Knight, who vowed to carry to King Arthur word of all that Gareth had achieved; and they rode on, till, in the evening, they came to a little ruined hermitage where there awaited them a dwarf, sent by the Lady Liones, with all manner of meats and other store.  In the morning, the dwarf set out again to bear word to his lady that her rescuer was come.  As he drew near the castle, the Red Knight stopped him, demanding whence he came.  “Sir,” said the dwarf, “I have been with my lady’s sister, who brings with her a knight to the rescue of my lady.”  “It is lost labour,” said the Red Knight; “even though she brought Launcelot or Tristram, I hold myself a match for them.”  “He is none of these,” said the dwarf, “but he has overthrown the knights who kept the ford, and the Blue Knight yielded to him.”  “Let him come,” said the Red Knight; “I shall soon make an end of him, and a shameful death shall he have at my hands, as many a better knight has had.”  So saying, he let the dwarf go.

Presently, there came riding towards the castle Sir Gareth and the damsel Linet, and Gareth marvelled to see hang from the trees some forty knights in goodly armour, their shields reversed beside them.  And when he inquired of the damsel, she told him how these were the bodies of brave knights who, coming to the rescue of the Lady Liones, had been overthrown and shamefully done to death by the Red Knight.  Then was Gareth shamed and angry, and he vowed to make an end of these evil practices.  So at last they drew near to the castle walls, and saw how the plain around was covered with the Red Knight’s tents, and the noise was that of a great army.  Hard by was a tall sycamore tree, and from it hung a mighty horn, made of an elephant’s tusk.  Spurring his horse, Gareth rode to it, and blew such a blast that those on the castle walls heard it; the knights came forth from their tents to see who blew so bold a blast, and from a window of the castle the Lady Liones looked forth and waved her hand to her champion.  Then, as Sir Gareth made his reverence to the lady, the Red Knight called roughly to him to leave his courtesy and look to himself; “For,” said he, “she is mine, and to have her, I have fought many a battle.”  “It is but vain labour,” said Sir Gareth, “since she loves you not.  Know, too, Sir Knight, that I have vowed to rescue her from you.”  “So did many another who now hangs on a tree,” replied the Red Knight, “and soon ye shall hang beside them.”  Then both laid their spears in rest, and spurred their horses.  At the first encounter, each smote the other full in the shield, and the girths of the saddles bursting, they were borne to the earth, where they lay for awhile as if dead.  But presently they rose, and setting their shields before them, rushed upon each other with their swords, cutting and hacking till the armour lay on the ground in fragments.  So they fought till noon and then rested; but soon they renewed the battle, and so furiously