the saddle, and put spurs to the horse, from whose nostrils
fire seemed to glare.

Away went the black horse under the moonlight, making such marvellous
strides that it seemed to leave the earth behind it in its magical
progress. With such wondrous speed did it go that in an hour it had made
a four days' journey. Then it came to the brink of a great body of
water, whose waves foamed and leaped boisterously against the shore.

When Percivale saw the heaving waves, which stretched far away under the
moonlight, he drew with all his force upon the rein; but the fiendish
brute which he rode heeded not his hand, but bore him madly to the
brink. Fear and doubt now filled the knight's mind, and with a hasty
impulse he made the sign of the cross. At this the beast roared loudly
in rage, while flame a foot long poured from its nostrils, and with a
wild rear it shook off its rider, and plunged madly into the wild
billows. And the showering drops which fell upon Percivale from the
plunge burnt like sparks of fire.

"God be thanked that I am here alive," cried the knight, fervently. "I
have ridden the foul fiend in the image of a horse, and barely have I
escaped perdition."

Then he commended himself to God, and prayed earnestly to the Lord to
save him from all such perils and temptations. He continued in prayer
all the remainder of that night until the next day dawned upon the
earth.

When sunrise came he looked needfully about him, anxious to learn
whither he had been borne by the unholy brute. To his surprise and alarm
he found himself in a wild waste, which was closed in on one side by the
sea, and on the other by a range of rough and high mountains, impassable
to human feet; a land that seemed without food or shelter, and the
lurking-place of wild beasts.

He trembled with fear on seeing this, and went forward with doubtful
steps. Not far had he gone before he saw a strange thing, for a great
serpent passed near him, bearing a young lion by the neck. Fiercely
after it came a great lion, roaring with rage, and fell upon the
serpent, which turned in defence, so that a mighty battle was waged
before the knight.

"By my faith," he cried, "the lion is the most natural beast of the two,
and it fights for its young. The lion it is my duty to help."

He drew his sword with these words and struck the serpent so fierce a
stroke that it fell dead. Then he turned his shield against the lion,
but as the latter made no show of fig