eir horses galloped back to
their stalls. Bevis himself, suffering great pain, went quietly back to
his room in the palace and waited to see what would come next.

When king Ermyn heard the news, and how so many of his best knights had
been put to death by his page, he was beside himself with fury, and gave
orders that Bevis should be instantly beheaded. But Josyan, his
daughter, pleaded so hard for the young page that the king agreed to
hear his story, and when he had heard it he not only forgave the youth,
but told Josyan, who was skilled in leechcraft, to heal his wounds. And
in a little while Bevis was raised to higher favour than ever by slaying
a boar which had carried away and eaten several children on the
outskirts of the city.

By this time the fame of the princess's beauty had spread far and wide,
and the king of Damascus sent an embassy to the court of king Ermyn,
praying that she should be given him to wife.

'But,' added he, 'in case you do not well consider my suit, I would have
you know that I will gather together a great army, and lay waste your
land with fire and sword. So think well before you refuse me.'

King Ermyn was little used to language of this sort, and for all answer
collected twenty thousand men, whom he commanded to be in readiness.
Next, at the request of his daughter, he dubbed Bevis a knight, and the
princess herself clad him in a richly inlaid helmet, and buckled on him
the good sword Morglay. As a parting gift she bestowed on him a swift
white horse called Arundel, and very proud was Bevis as he rode away at
the head of the army beside the commander.

* * * * *

It were too long to tell of all the deeds wrought by Sir Bevis during
the fight with the king of Damascus, whose standard-bearer, the giant
Radyson, he slew at the very outset of the battle. In the end, and owing
in a great measure to the valour of the young knight, the Damascenes
owned themselves beaten, and their king remained a captive in the hands
of Sir Bevis.

'I will spare your life on one condition only,' said the victor, 'and
that is that you shall swear fealty on my sword to king Ermyn, and
acknowledge yourself to be his vassal.'

The king's heart was sore when he heard what was demanded of him, for
never before had he been vanquished in war. Still, he saw that there was
no help for it, and he took the oath that Bevis required of him, after
which he was suffered to depart into h