t pass by without great
danger; how that fifteen knights of the kingdom had already lost their
lives in adventuring to suppress the same."

Saint George no sooner heard thereof, and what wrongs his country
received by this infectious dragon, than he purposed to put the
adventure to trial, and either to free the land from so great a danger,
or to finish his days in the attempt. So, taking leave of all present,
he rode forward with as noble a spirit as he did in Africa, when he
combated the mighty green dragon.

So, coming to the middle of the plain, he there saw his dreadful enemy,
crouching on the ground in a deep cave. The monster, by a strange
instinct knowing that his death drew nigh, made such a hideous yelling,
that it seemed as if the sky was bursting with thunder, and the earth
rocking with an earthquake. Then, bounding forth from his den, and
espying the aged Champion, he ran with a fury so great against him as if
he would devour both knight and steed, armour and all, in a moment. But
the brave Saint George, knowing well how to deal with dragons, and all
such-like monsters, quickly wheeled his horse out of his way, and with
such force did the monster rush on that he drove his sting full three
feet into the ground. Returning again, however, with furious rage, he
made at the Knight, and would have carried both him and his charger to
the ground, but that Saint George, thrusting his spear at his throat,
the monster, to avoid it, threw himself back, and fell happily over,
with his back on the turf and his feet in the air, wriggling about all
the time his long forked tail. Whereat the noble Champion taking
advantage, leaped from his horse, and, throwing down his sword, seized
him in his arms before he could rise, and pressed his huge body so
tightly in his arms, and held him there, that he squeezed the very life
out of him; but alas! the dragon's sting annoyed the good Knight in such
sort, that the dragon being no sooner slain and weltering in his
venomous gore, than Saint George likewise took his death's wound by the
deep strokes of the dragon's sting, which he received in divers parts of
his body, and bled in such abundance that his strength began to enfeeble
and grow weak: yet, retaining his true nobleness of mind, he valiantly
returned victor to the city of Coventry, where all the inhabitants stood
without the gates to receive him in great royalty, and to give him the
honour that belonged to so worthy a con