ncelot beheld that the Worm had as many as a thousand feet, and that
each foot was armed with a great claw like the claw of a lion, as hard
as flint, and very venomous with poison. And the Worm hissed at Sir
Launcelot. And its breath was like the odor of Death.

[Sidenote: _The Worm of Corbin cometh forth._]

Such was that dreadful terrible Worm that lay beneath the stone at
Corbin. And when the people of the town saw it thus appear before them
in the broad light of day, they shrieked aloud with the terror of that
which they beheld. For it was like to something that had come to life
out of a dreadful dream, and it did not seem possible that such a thing
should ever have been beheld by the living eyes of man.

But Sir Launcelot beholding the Worm in all its terror leaped to where
was his sword and he seized his sword in both hands and he ran at the
Worm and lashed at it a blow so mighty that it might easily have split
an oak tree. But the scales of the Worm were like adamant for hardness
wherefore the stroke of the sword pierced them not but glanced aside
without harming the creature.

Then when the Worm felt itself thus smitten, it hissed again in a manner
very terrible and loud, and it reached out toward Sir Launcelot and
strove to catch him into the embrace of a hundred of its sharp claws.
But Sir Launcelot sprang aside from the embraces of the Worm and he
smote it again and again, yet could not in any wise cut through the
scales that covered its body. And at every blow the Worm hissed more
terribly and sought to catch Sir Launcelot into its embraces.

[Sidenote: _Sir Launcelot doeth battle with the Worm._]

Thus for a long time Sir Launcelot avoided the Worm, but, by and by it
came to pass that he began to wax faint and weary with leaping from side
to side, weighed down as he was with his armor. So, at last, it befell
that the Worm catched Sir Launcelot in the hook of one of its claws, and
thereupon they who looked on at that battle beheld how in a moment it
had embraced Sir Launcelot in several hundred of its claws so that his
body was wellnigh hidden in that embrace. And the Worm, when it so held
Sir Launcelot in its embrace, tore at him with its claws and strove to
bite him with its shining teeth. And anon it catched its claws in the
armor of Sir Launcelot and it tore away the epaulier upon the left side
of Sir Launcelot's shoulder, and it tore away the iron boot that covered
his left thigh, and it cut with i