lives no man so strong or so valiant but he may some time be vanquished
by force, or by fraud. Sir Gawain must needs yield him; he was felled to
the ground, yet were there some to whom it cost their life ere he was
captive, and some it cost a limb, or twain, that might never more be
healed; and he himself was so sore mis-handled that all he ware, whether
it were armour or other clothing, was rent in many a place, so that the
flesh might be seen. There lived on earth no man so wise that he might
aid him in this stress, nor leech who might heal him; yet, an God will,
he shall he healed of his smart and of his shame.

They bound Sir Gawain's hands, and set him on a sorry hack, and to anger
him they led beside him Gringalet, his steed. This they did that he
might be the more sorrowful when he beheld his horse, which he had now
lost, and his own life withal! For of this would they deprive him, and
make him to die a shameful death; burn him they would, or break him upon
the wheel, that they might wreak their vengeance upon him. There were
among them knights and squires, the richest, and the most nobly born
after the lord of the land; and all had sworn an oath that they would
lead Sir Gawain to the cross-roads, at the entering in of their land for
the greater shaming of King Arthur's Court. To this had they pledged
themselves, that they would there slay him without respite or delay; and
were it not that 'twere shame to themselves, and too great dishonour to
one who bare the name of knight, they had hung him by the neck, on the
border of the two lands, to shame King Arthur; so that all his folk
who were of the knightly order, and dwelt at his court, and sought for
adventure, should shun their land when they heard the tidings of the
vengeance wrought by them upon knights-errant who would prove their
fate within those borders.

Thus it fell out that they brought Sir Gawain on the horse, sorely