to put to naught the power of witches and wizards.

Tod ever bade them treat the young lord with reverence. 'For this is he
who shall do great deeds,' he said. 'He shall be a stainless knight,
who shall gain from evil the greatest strength, and, if God wills, he
shall beat down the evil powers in this land.'

But the lad knew not what he meant, though he was very content to have
the trolls for his friends.

One day Perceval was in the forest far up the mountain, and he looked
over the blue distance far below across the moor, and saw a man riding
on a wide road which he had never noticed before. And the man rode very
fast, and as he went the sun seemed to flash from him as if he was
clothed in glass. Perceval wondered what he was, and resolved to go
across the moor to the road he had seen.

When he reached the road he found it was very broad, and banked on
either side, and went straight as the flight of a wild duck right
across the moor, and never swerved by the hills or pools, but went over
everything in its way. And as he stood marvelling what mighty men had
builded it, he heard a strange rattling sound behind him, and, turning,
he saw three men on horseback, and the sun shone from them as he had
seen it shine from the first horseman.

The foremost checked his horse beside Perceval, and said:

'Tell me, good soul, sawest thou a knight pass this way either this day
or yesterday?'

'I know not what a knight is,' answered Perceval.

'Such a one as I,' said the horseman, smiling good-naturedly, for it
was Sir Owen, one of King Arthur's knights.

'If ye will tell me what I ask, I will tell you,' said Perceval.

[Illustration: YOUNG PERCEVAL QUESTIONS SIR OWEN]

'I will answer gladly,' said Sir Owen, smiling, yet wondering at the
fearless and noble air of this youth in so wild a waste.

'What is this?' asked Perceval, and pulled the skirt of the hauberk.

'It is a dress made of rings of steel,' answered Sir Owen, 'which I put
on to turn the swords of those I fight.'

'And what is it to fight?'

'What strange youth art thou?' asked Sir Owen. 'To fight is to do
battle with spears or swords, so that you would slay the man that would
slay you.'

'Ah, as I would have slain the buck that would have gored me,' said
Perceval, nodding his head.

Many other questions the youth asked eagerly, as to the arms they bore
and the accoutrements and their uses. And at length he said:

'Sirs, I thank you for your courte