yful hymn. And, looking back, he saw that the castle had vanished.
But still above him and about him was the sound of singing, of a
sweetness indescribable, as if they sang who had gained all that they
desired.

Then Perceval rode forward till it was night; but never could he get
sight of castle or knight's hold or hermit's cell where he could be
houselled for the night. So he abode in the forest that night, and when
he had prayed he slept beside his good horse until it was day.

Just before the dawn he awoke to the sound of a great rushing wind all
about him. Yet marvel it was to see that the trees in that hoar wood
did not wave their branches, but all were still.

Then he was aware of a sweet savour which surrounded him, and anon a
gentle voice spoke out of the darkness.

'Fair White Knight,' said the voice, 'it is ordained of thee that thou
goest to the lands of the King Pellam in the north, where an evil power
seeks to turn men from the New Law which Christ brought, and to make
them cleave to the Old Law with its cruelty and evil tortures. And
there at the Castle of the Circlet thou shalt fight a battle for the
Saviour of the world. And whether thou shalt win through all, none know
as yet. But in thy purity, thy humility, is thy strength. Fare thee
well!'

Much moved at these words, Perceval knelt and prayed, and then, as the
dawn filtered through the trees, he mounted his horse and began his
long journey to the north.

On the seventh day he crossed a plain, and saw far in the north where
the smoke as of fires rose into the clouds, and here and there he saw
the fierce red gleam of flames. And he passed through a ford, and then
he entered a land all black and desolate, with the bodies of the dead
beside the way, unburied, and the houses all broken or burned. In other
places the grass and weeds grew over the hearths of desolated homes,
and wild beasts made their lairs where homely folk seemed lately to
have lived their simple happy lives.

No man or child could be seen anywhere to ask what all this might mean.
But one day, as he walked his horse beside a brook, over the long
grass, he came upon a poor half-starved peasant who had not strength to
run. And the man knelt before him, and bared his breast, and said,
'Strike, sir knight, and end my misery!'

But Perceval raised him in his arms and kissed him, and gave him bread
and wine from his scrip, and when the poor man was revived, Perceval
asked him what his