owned all these lands. By chance he loved my sister, who is
much older than I,--and much wickeder also, I fear. He gave her this
land to govern; but she brought into it many evil customs, and caused
the death of many of his kinsmen. When the king saw how vilely she
governed, he drove her away, and put me over this district. But he is
now dead, and she is making war on me, and has destroyed many of my
men, and turned others from me, so that I have little left but this
tower, and the few men that guard it. Even this she now threatens to
take from me, unless I can find a knight to fight her champion, who will
appear before my gates to-morrow."

"Is it so?" said Bors. "Who is this Pridam le Noire?"

"He is the most stalwart knight in this country, and has no equal among
us."

"Madam," said Bors, "you have given me shelter; in return I shall aid
you as far as I can in your trouble. You may send word that you have
found a knight who will fight with this Pridam the Black, in God's
quarrel and yours."

"Then may God's blessing rest upon you," she cried, gladly. And word was
sent out that she had found a champion who would take on himself her
quarrel.

That evening she did what lay in her power to make Bors welcome, and
sent him at bedtime to a chamber whose bed was soft as down, and spread
with silken coverings.

But in no bed would he rest, but laid himself on the floor, as he had
vowed to do till he found the Sangreal.

As he lay there asleep there came to him a vision. He seemed to see two
birds, one white as a swan, the other of smaller size, and shaped like a
raven, with plumage of inky blackness. The white bird came to him and
said, "If thou wilt give me meat and serve me, I shall give thee all the
riches of the world, and make thee as fair and white as I am." Then the
white bird departed, and the black bird came and said, "I beg that you
will serve me to-morrow, and hold me in no despite; for this I tell you,
that my blackness will avail you more than the other's whiteness." And
this bird, too, departed.

But his dream continued, and he seemed to come to a great place, that
looked like a chapel. Here he saw on the left side a chair, which was
worm-eaten and feeble. And on the right hand were two flowers of the
shape of a lily, and one would have taken the whiteness from the other
but that a good man separated them, and would not let them touch. And
out of each came many flowers and plentiful fruit. Then the go