uncelot was the chiefest of all the knights who ever came unto King
Arthur's court, then it is hard to say whether Sir Tristram of Lyonesse or
Sir Percival of Gales was second unto him in renown_.

_And I pray that it shall be given unto all of ye to live as brave and
honorable and pure a life as he did; and that you, upon your part, may
claim a like glory and credit in the world in which you dwell by such noble
behavior as he exhibited_.

[Illustration: Sir Percival of Gales]

Prologue.

The father of Sir Percival was that king hight Pellinore who fought so
terrible a battle with King Arthur as has been told in the Book of King
Arthur. For it was after that fight that King Arthur obtained his famous
sword Excalibur, as was therein told.

Now, King Pellinore was one of those eleven kings who, in the beginning of
King Arthur's reign, were in rebellion against King Arthur as hath been
told in the book aforesaid, and he was one of the last of all those kings
to yield when he was overcome. So King Arthur drove him from town to town
and from place to place until, at last, he was driven away from the
habitations of men and into the forests like to a wild beast.

[Sidenote: King Pellinore fleeth to the wilderness] Now, King Pellinore
took with him into the wilderness his wife and his four sons; to wit,
Lamorack and Aglaval and Dornar and Percival. Of these, Percival was but
three years of age; the others, excepting Dornar, being nigh to the estate
of manhood. Thereafter that noble family dwelt in the forest like hunted
animals, and that was a very great hardship for the lady who had been
queen; and, likewise, it was greatly to the peril of the young child,
Percival.

Now, Percival was extraordinarily beautiful and his mother loved him above
all her other sons. Wherefore she feared lest the young child should die of
those hardships in the wilderness.

So one day King Pellinore said: "Dear love, I am now in no wise prepared
for to defend thee and this little one. Wherefore, for a while, I shall put
ye away from me so that ye may remain in secret hiding until such time as
the child shall have grown in years and stature to the estate of manhood
and may so defend himself.

"Now of all my one-time possessions I have only two left to me. One of
these is a lonely castle in this forest (unto which I am now betaking my
way), and the other is a solitary tower at a great distance from this, and
in a very desolate part of t