Tristram Rescues Palamides and They Arrange a Duel is an episode in which rescue and rivalry become inseparable. Tristram breaks up a nine-to-one attack on Palamides, then, despite naming him his mortal enemy, refuses to take advantage of his wounds: he promises to see him safely beyond immediate danger and sets a later day for their combat. The rescue does not end their enmity; it temporarily places a knightly obligation between its next blows.

The unequal fight

After departing, Tristram searches in vain for news of Launcelot and rides beside a forest. Near a tower and a meadow, he sees ten knights fighting. One stands against nine, performing so impressively that Tristram wonders at his feats. As he draws nearer, he recognizes the lone knight by his shield and suspects that it is Palamides. The leader of the attackers is Breuse Saunce Pité, whom the narrative identifies as a particularly malicious knight.

Tristram calls on the attackers to stop, arguing that it is shameful for so many to fight one. Breuse challenges his right to interfere and warns him to leave. Tristram answers that such a good knight should not be killed in so cowardly a fashion, and declares he will help with all his strength. The scene shifts from witnessing an unequal contest to taking responsibility for the threatened knight.

Rescue and its cost

Because the combatants are on foot, Tristram dismounts so that the attackers will not kill his horse. He takes up his sword and strikes down knights as he presses them back; the group flees with Breuse toward the tower. Tristram follows, but they escape inside and shut him out. Returning to the meadow, he finds Palamides sitting beneath a tree, badly wounded. The rescue has driven off the attackers, but it has not prevented Palamides from suffering or brought the encounter to a decisive conclusion.

Palamides thanks Tristram for saving his life. Tristram then discloses the sharp contradiction at the heart of his intervention: he has rescued the man he hates most in the world. He calls Palamides his mortal enemy and immediately proposes that they fight. Palamides declines to make the rescue itself an occasion for combat. Since Tristram is fresh and he is wounded, Palamides says it would bring Tristram no honour to fight him then; if Tristram insists, they should choose another day.

The promise and its cause

Tristram agrees and names a meeting place: the meadow by the river of Camelot, where Merlin set the Peron. The date is a fortnight later. Palamides promises not to fail him, and Tristram in turn promises not to leave him among his enemies before he is safe. The arrangement gives their rivalry a definite future appointment, while their immediate conduct is governed by the rescue and Palamides’s condition.

When Tristram asks why the ten knights attacked him, Palamides explains that he had found a dead knight with a grieving lady beside him. She identified Breuse as the man who had killed her lord. Palamides helped her mount her palfrey, promised to protect her and help bury the dead knight, and then encountered Breuse by the tower. Breuse struck him from his horse; before Palamides could recover it, Breuse killed the damsel. Palamides says that this was the cause of the battle. His fight had begun as an attempt to protect and assist others, and Tristram’s intervention continues that chain of aid even though the two rescuers are enemies.

Rivalry held in suspension

After confirming the appointed duel, Tristram says he will remain with Palamides until he is clear of his enemies. The two then ride together into the forest. At a well, they encounter an armed stranger resting beneath a tree. The knight rises, mounts, and strikes both Tristram and Palamides from their horses before riding away. The interruption changes their immediate priorities: Tristram wants to pursue the stranger, while Palamides intends to rest with a friend.

Even as they part in different directions, each reminds the other of the duel they have promised. Tristram doubts Palamides will keep the appointed day; Palamides replies that he will not fail unless sickness or captivity prevents him, and turns the doubt back on Tristram, who may be endangered in pursuit of the unknown knight. Their separation therefore leaves the promised combat unresolved, not abandoned. The episode’s central reversal is ethical rather than final: Tristram’s hatred does not prevent him from rescuing Palamides, and the debt created by that rescue delays their duel until they can meet on more equal terms.