Then he threw down his mantle so that he would be less encumbered, entered the palace with sword in hand, and found some twenty knights watching two people playing chess. He struck among them, enraged and angered by the suffering and travail that he had endured that day; he began lopping off heads and arms and shoulders, sending the men fleeing this way and that, killing indiscriminately. He was like a wolf come from the wood who suddenly attacks the sheep, slaughtering and strangling them before they have realized he was upon them. Lancelot was just like that, for he was hungry and eager to slaughter them. They were as frightened as baby lambs and could do nothing to defend themselves, for they were so afraid of being killed that they were blinded and confused. He slaughtered and wounded them at will; and in a short time he had send fourteen souls to their just rewards; he dashed through the chambers and upper rooms to see if he could find anyone else. In the master room, he found the lord of the castle and rushed at him with his sword raised, ready to split his skull, but he was so afraid of death he dared not wait to face the blow: he leapt out of a window to save his life, but fell so hard upon a pile of rocks that he broke his neck and died at once.

The Vulgate Cycle