of a sad countenance, but of a great beauty, though poorly
clothed.

'Fair sir,' she said, 'my maiden hath told me who thou art, and I
sorrow that one so noble as thou seemest shall essay to overcome the
fiend knight of the Dragon. Yet if thou shouldst prevail, all men in
this tortured land will bless thee, and I not the least. For daily doth
the evil knight slay my poor knights, and cometh and casteth their
blackened and burned bodies before my hall. And many of my poor folk
hath he slain or enslaved, and others hath he caused to follow his evil
worship, and many of my rich and fair lands hath he wrested from me.'

'Therefore, fair lady,' said Perceval, 'I would seek him without delay,
for to essay the force of my body upon him, by the grace of God.'

'And shouldst thou conquer,' said the lady, 'with the fiend's death the
hallowed relics which King Pellam guarded shall return to bless this
land. Now, therefore, go ye towards the Burnt Land beyond the brook,
for that is where is the lair of the fiend that doth oppress us.'

Perceval went forward across the plain to a brook, and having forded
the water he came to a wide hollow where the ground was all baked and
burned, and the trees were charred and black. Here and there lay pieces
of armour, red and rusted, as if they had been in a fierce fire; and in
one place was the body of a knight freshly slain, and he was charred
and black.

Then, as Perceval looked about him, he saw the dark hole of a cave in a
bank beside the hollow, and suddenly therefrom issued a burst of
horrible fire and smoke, and with a cry as of a fiend a black knight
suddenly appeared before him on a great horse, whose eyes flashed as
with fire and whose nostrils jetted hot vapours.

'Ha! thou Christian!' cried the knight in a horrible voice, 'what dost
thou here? Wouldst thou have thy pretty white armour charred and
blackened and thyself killed by my dragon's power?'

Then Perceval saw how the boss of the Black Knight's shield was the
head of a dragon, its forked tongue writhing, its teeth gnashing, and
its eyes so red and fiendish that no mortal, unless by God's aid, could
look on it and live. From its mouth came a blinding flash as of
lightning and beat at Perceval, but he held up his shield of the
Throbbing Heart, and with angry shrieks the Black Knight perceived that
the lightning could not touch the shield.

Then from his side the evil knight tore his sword, and it flamed red as
if it was