Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK IX CHAPTER III

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 CHAPTER III
 
 How La Cote Male Taile overthrew Sir Dagonet the king's
 fool, and of the rebuke that he had of the damosel.
 
 THEN Sir Kay ordained Sir Dagonet, King Arthur's fool, to follow
 after La Cote Male Taile; and there Sir Kay ordained that Sir
 Dagonet was horsed and armed, and bade him follow La Cote Male
 Taile and proffer him to joust, and so he did; and when he saw La
 Cote Male Taile, he cried and bade him make him ready to joust. 
 So Sir La Cote Male Taile smote Sir Dagonet over his horse's
 croup. Then the damosel mocked La Cote Male Taile, and said: 
 <355>Fie for shame! now art thou shamed in Arthur's court, when
 they send a fool to have ado with thee, and specially at thy
 first jousts; thus she rode long, and chid.  And within a while
 there came Sir Bleoberis, the good knight, and there he jousted
 with La Cote Male Taile, and there Sir Bleoberis smote him so
 sore, that horse and all fell to the earth.  Then La Cote Male
 Taile arose up lightly, and dressed his shield, and drew his
 sword, and would have done battle to the utterance, for he was
 wood wroth.  Not so, said Sir Bleoberis de Ganis, as at this time
 I will not fight upon foot.  Then the damosel Maledisant rebuked
 him in the foulest manner, and bade him:  Turn again, coward. 
 Ah, damosel, he said, I pray you of mercy to missay me no more,
 my grief is enough though ye give me no more; I call myself never
 the worse knight when a mare's son faileth me, and also I count
 me never the worse knight for a fall of Sir Bleoberis.
 
 So thus he rode with her two days; and by fortune there came Sir
 Palomides and encountered with him, and he in the same wise
 served him as did Bleoberis to-forehand.  What dost thou here in
 my fellowship? said the damosel Maledisant, thou canst not sit no
 knight, nor withstand him one buffet, but if it were Sir Dagonet. 
 Ah, fair damosel, I am not the worse to take a fall of Sir
 Palomides, and yet great disworship have I none, for neither
 Bleoberis nor yet Palomides would not fight with me on foot.  As
 for that, said the damosel, wit thou well they have disdain and
 scorn to light off their horses to fight with such a lewd knight
 as thou art.  So in the meanwhile there came Sir Mordred, Sir
 Gawaine's brother, and so he fell in the fellowship with the
 damosel Maledisant.  And then they came afore the Castle
 Orgulous, and there was such a custom that there might no knight
 come by that castle but either he must joust or be prisoner, or
 at the least to lose his horse and his harness.  And there came
 out two knights against them, and Sir Mordred jousted with the
 foremost, and that knight of the castle smote Sir Mordred down
 off his horse.  And then La Cote Male Taile jousted with that
 other, and either of them <356>smote other down, horse and all,
 to the earth.  And when they avoided their horses, then either of
 them took other's horses.  And then La Cote Male Taile rode unto
 that knight that smote down Sir Mordred, and jousted with him. 
 And there Sir La Cote Male Taile hurt and wounded him passing
 sore, and put him from his horse as he had been dead.  So he
 turned unto him that met him afore, and he took the flight
 towards the castle, and Sir La Cote Male Taile rode after him
 into the Castle Orgulous, and there La Cote Male Taile slew him.