The next day, when Gawain and the knight had risen and dressed and been to Mass, the knight sat gazing from a window at the meadow and the fields beyond. Gawain was busy chatting to the young girl, for he never missed a chance to talk and joke with ladies.
Along the river at the foot of the meadow a dead knight was floating on a bier. Three girls walked beside him, weeping bitterly, and behind them came a crowd. At the front rode a tall knight leading a beautiful lady by her horse's rein.
The knight knew at once it was the Queen, and for as long as she could be
seen he fixed his eyes on her with delight. 
Then she was gone, and at once
he was ready to fling himself from the window and die. Gawain and the girl
had to hold on to him to stop him.
'Mind you,' said the girl, 'he is right to want to die after the disgrace of riding on the cart. News of it must be known everywhere, I'm sure.'
Yet although she teased him, the girl gave the knight a new horse and lance and the two knights thanked her and rode off after the crowd they had seen.
They could not find the procession, however, and after the fields they entered a wood and followed a beaten track through the trees. At about six o'clock they come to a cross-roads and there they meet a young girl on a horse. She can tell them the way to the land where the Queen has gone, she says, but whoever will find it must first endure great suffering and pain.
'Meleagant, the tall and powerful son of the King of Gorre, has taken her into his father's kingdom,' the girl tells them. 'The people of Gorre can come and go as they please, but anyone from another country who enters that land is trapped and can never return. Unless the King, Bademagu, gives you permission, there are only two ways into the land of Gorre, and both are very dangerous. The first lies that way - it is called the Water-bridge, because there is as much water above the bridge as beneath it. The bridge itself, which is very thin and narrow, lies exactly in the middle. This choice is certainly not a good one, yet the other is still worse. It is called the Sword-bridge because it is made of the sharp blade of a sword. No man has ever crossed it. It lies down that path there. Now I have told you all I know.'
Which of the two perilous passage-ways to the Land of Gorre would you choose?
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