It was as well for Lancelot that he had always shown courtesy to girls and women, and saved many of them from harm. For while Gawain and all the knights of Arthur's court could not find him, a girl dressed in simple clothes and riding on a mule searched up and down, over hill and dale until she came upon the tower.
Lancelot had freed her once from a knight who wanted to marry her against her will, and struck off the knight's head. Now that she had heard Lancelot was in trouble, the girl had resolved she would not rest until she had discovered him.
Lancelot lay in his room at the top of the tower, full of sorrow and bemoaning his ill treatment and bad luck. When he heard the girl's voice calling him, he thought it must be a dream, and went on:
'Almost a year, stuck in this tower - and where's Gawain, 
I
should like to know? Well, nobody cares about me, that's for sure.'
'Lancelot, Lancelot,' the girl cried, 'how can I get you out?'
Then Lancelot realised it was no dream.
'I have plenty of rope,' he said, 'from the awful food they send up once a day.'
The girl found a strong pick-axe, which she tied to the rope Lancelot let down. Though he was so weak, he set to work and had soon made the window large enough to crawl through, and lowered himself on the rope to the ground.
The girl put him on her mule and took him by many secret ways to her own home, where slowly his strength returned.
'My sweet, gentle friend, thank you. I owe you my freedom and much more besides,' he told her.
She dressed him in fine clothes and gave him armour and a wonderful horse with white feet and red ears. The year was almost over. He must ride to Camelot.
