Then Sir Tristram leaped up and
catched Sir Kay around the body and dragged him down from off his horse
very violently upon the ground, and with that the sword of Sir Kay fell
down out of his hands and lay in the grass. Then Sir Tristram lifted up Sir
Kay very easily and ran with him to the well of water and soused him
therein several times until Sir Kay cried out, "Fellow, spare me or I
strangle!" Upon that Sir Tristram let go Sir Kay, and Sir Kay ran to his
horse and mounted thereon and rode away from that place with might and
main, all streaming with water like to a fountain.
And all that while those swineherds roared with great laughter, ten times
louder than they had laughed when Sir Tristram had soused Sir Dagonet into
the well.
Then Sir Tristram beheld the sword of Sir Kay where it lay in the grass and
forthwith he ran to it and picked it up. And when he held it in his hands
he loved it with a great passion of love, wherefore he hugged it to his
bosom and kissed the pommel thereof.
But when the swineherds beheld the sword in Sir Tristram's hands, they
said, "That is no fit plaything for a madman to have," and they would have
taken it from him, but Sir Tristram would not permit them, for he would not
give them the sword, and no one dared to try to take it from him.
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