with our blades of steel for the sake of our lady-loves." Erec
replies: "You have spoken well." Then they take a little rest,
Erec looking toward his lady as she softly prays for him. While
he sat and looked on her, great strength was recruited within
him. Her love and beauty inspired him with great boldness. He
remembered the Queen, to whom he pledged his word that he would
avenge the insult done him, or would make it greater yet. "Ah!
wretch," says he, "why do I wait? I have not yet taken vengeance
for the injury which this vassal permitted when his dwarf struck
me in the wood." His anger is revived within him as he summons
the knight: "Vassal," quoth he, "I call you to battle anew. Too
long we have rested; let us now renew our strife." And he
replies: "That is no hardship to me." Whereupon, they again
fall upon each other. They were both expert fencers. At his
first lunge the knight would have wounded Erec had he not
skilfully parried. Even so, he smote him so hard over the shield
beside his temple that he struck a piece from his helmet.
Closely shaving his white coif, the sword descends, cleaving the
shield through to the buckle, and cutting more than a span from
the side of his hauberk. Then he must have been well stunned, as
the cold steel penetrated to the flesh on his thigh. May God
protect him now! If the blow had not glanced off, it would have
cut right through his body. But Erec is in no wise dismayed: he
pays him back what is owing him, and. attacking him boldly,
smites him upon the shoulder so violently a blow that the shield
cannot withstand it, nor is the hauberk of any use to prevent the
sword from penetrating to the bone. He made the crimson blood
flow down to his waist-band. Both of the vassals are hard
fighters: they fight with honours even, for one cannot gain from
the other a single foot of ground. Their hauberks are so torn