which I ought to hang by, he shall not be shamed in no place while
he is girt with this girdle, nor never none be so hardy to do away this
girdle; for it ought not be done away but by the hands of a maid, and
that she be a king's daughter and queen's, and she must be a maid all
the days of her life, both in will and in deed. And if she break her
virginity she shall die the most villainous death that ever died any
woman. Sir, said Percivale, turn this sword that we may see what is on
the other side. And it was red as blood, with black letters as any coal,
which said: He that shall praise me most, most shall he find me to blame
at a great need; and to whom I should be most debonair shall I be most
felon, and that shall be at one time.

Fair brother, said she to Percivale, it befell after a forty year after
the passion of Jesu Christ that Nacien, the brother-in-law of King
Mordrains, was borne into a town more than fourteen days' journey from
his country, by the commandment of Our Lord, into an isle, into the
parts of the West, that men cleped the Isle of Turnance. So befell it
that he found this ship at the entry of a rock, and he found the bed
and this sword as we have heard now. Not for then he had not so much
hardiness to draw it; and there he dwelled an eight days, and at the
ninth day there fell a great wind which departed him out of the isle,
and brought him to another isle by a rock, and there he found the
greatest giant that ever man might see. Therewith came that horrible
giant to slay him; and then he looked about him and might not flee, and
he had nothing to defend him with. So he ran to his sword, and when he
saw it naked he praised it much, and then he shook it, and therewith he
brake it in the midst. Ah, said Nacien, the thing that I most praised
ought I now most to blame, and therewith he threw the pieces of his
sword over his bed. And after he leapt over the board to fight with the
giant, and slew him.

And anon he entered into the ship again, and the wind arose, and drove
him through the sea, that by adventure he came to another ship where
King Mordrains was, which had been tempted full evil with a fiend in the
Port of Perilous Rock. And when that one saw the other they made great
joy of other, and either told other of their adventure, and how the
sword failed him at his most need When Mordrains saw the sword he
praised it much: But the breaking was not to do but by wickedness of thy
selfward, for thou a