d now be disherited without reason and right? And when
Sir Bors had heard her say thus, he said, I shall comfort you. Sir,
said she, I shall tell you there was here a king that hight Aniause,
which held all this land in his keeping. So it mishapped he loved a
gentlewoman a great deal elder than I. So took he her all this land to
her keeping, and all his men to govern; and she brought up many evil
customs whereby she put to death a great part of his kinsmen. And when
he saw that, he let chase her out of this land, and betook it me, and
all this land in my demesnes. But anon as that worthy king was dead,
this other lady began to war upon me, and hath destroyed many of my
men, and turned them against me, that I have wellnigh no man left me;
and I have nought else but this high tower that she left me. And yet
she hath promised me to have this tower, without I can find a knight
to fight with her champion. Now tell me, said Sir Bors, what is that
Pridam le Noire? Sir, said she, he is the most doubted man of this
land. Now may ye send her word that ye have found a knight that shall
fight with that Pridam le Noire in God's quarrel and yours. Then that
lady was not a little glad, and sent word that she was purveyed, and
that night Bors had good cheer; but in no bed he would come, but laid
him on the floor, nor never would do otherwise till that he had met
with the quest of the Sangreal.

CHAPTER VIII

OF A VISION WHICH SIR BORS HAD THAT NIGHT, AND HOW HE FOUGHT AND
OVERCAME HIS ADVERSARY

And anon as he was asleep him befel a vision, that there came to him
two birds, the one as white as a swan, and the other was marvellous
black; but it was not so great as the other, but in the likeness of a
Raven. Then the white bird came to him, and said: An thou wouldst give
me meat and serve me I should give thee all the riches of the world,
and I shall make thee as fair and as white as I am. So the white bird
departed, and there came the black bird to him, and said: An thou
wolt, serve me to-morrow and have me in no despite though I be black,
for wit thou well that more availeth my blackness than the other's
whiteness. And then he departed. And he had another vision: him
thought that he came to a great place which seemed a chapel, and there
he found a chair set on the left side, which was wormeaten and feeble.
And on the right hand were two flowers like a lily, and the one would
have benome the other's whiteness but a good man de