his--that they will destroy thy soul!'

And Angharad laughed and said:

'What matter, so it be that I live richly while I live!'

'Nay, nay,' said Perceval, and in his voice was a great scorn, 'it is
evil to speak thus, and it belies your beauty, fair maiden. Rather a
life of poverty than one of shamefulness and dishonour. Thus is it with
all good knights and noble dames, and thus was it with our dear Lord.'

Then turning to the lady, he said:

'Lady, I think these evil witches will not hurt thee. For the little
help that I may give to thee, I will stay this night with thee.'

After he had prayed at the altar in the ruined chapel of the castle,
they led him to a bed in the hall, where he slept.

And just before the break of day there came a dreadful outcry, with
groans and shrieks and terrible screams and moanings, as if all the
evil that could be done was being done upon poor wretches out in the
dark.

Perceval leapt from his couch, and with naught upon him but his vest
and doublet, he went with his sword in hand to the gate, and there he
saw two poor serving-men struggling with a hag dressed all in armour.
Behind her came eight others. And their eyes, from between the bars of
their helms, shone with a horrible red fire, and from each point of
their armour sparks flashed, and the swords in their grisly hands
gleamed with a blue flame, so fierce and so terrible that it scorched
the eyes to look upon them.

But Perceval dashed upon the foremost witch, and with his sword beat
her with so great a stroke that she fell to the ground, and the helm on
her head was flattened to the likeness of a dish.

When she fell, the light of her eyes and her sword went out, and the
armour all seemed to wither away, and she was nothing but an old ugly
woman in rags. And she cried out:

'Thy mercy, good Perceval, son of Evroc, and the mercy of Heaven!'

'How knowest thou, hag,' said he, 'that I am Perceval?'

'By the destiny spun by the powers of the Underworld,' she said, 'and
the foreknowledge that I should suffer harm from thee. And I knew not
that thou wert here, or I and my sisters would have avoided thee. But
it is fated,' she went on, 'that thou come with us to learn all that
may be learned of the use of arms. For there are none in Britain to
compare with us for the knowledge of warfare.'

Then Perceval remembered what he had heard the trolls--the people of
the Underworld--say, though he had not understood their meanin