rancing music before or since. So charmed was I with listening, that
I noticed not at first a low rumbling which seemed to come nearer and
nearer.

'And suddenly I heard a voice approaching me, and I looked round just
as a big knight in sky-blue armour rode swiftly up the valley.

'"O knight," cried he, "what ill have I done to thee, that thou usest
me so evilly? Knowest thou not that the storm which thou hast sent by
evil magic hath slain my best flocks on the hills, and beaten to death
all my men that were without shelter?"

'He came at me furiously. I put my lance in rest and spurred towards
him, and we came together with so great an onset that I was carried far
beyond the crupper of my horse.

'Then the knight, taking no further notice of me, passed the shaft of
his lance through the bridle of my horse, and so rode swiftly away. And
it moved me to anger to think he despised me so much as not even to
despoil me of my sword.

'Very depressed of spirit was I as I took my way back to the castle of
Sir Dewin. And as I passed through the wood I came to a glade, in the
midst of which was a green mound. And as I passed it I heard laughter,
which seemed to come from the earth. And I heard a voice sneering and
mocking me. And I guessed it was the voice of a troll or moundman whom
I could not see, who lived in the hillock, and I wonder I did not go
mad with the shame of his derision.

'And I had not the spirit to go to try to break into the mound, lest he
should work magic and more disaster upon me. So I left that glade, with
the sound of his hoarse laughter ringing in my ears.

'I reached the castle of Sir Dewin, and well entertained was I, and
rested for the remainder of that day. And full of courtesy was Sir
Dewin and his household, for none of them referred to my encounter, and
to the fact that I had come back without a horse. And when I rose next
day, there was a dark bay palfrey, ready saddled, waiting in the
courtyard for me. That horse I still possess, though the sight of him
ever brings back the memory of my defeat.

'Verily it seems strange to me that neither before nor since have I
ever heard of any person besides myself who knew of this adventure, and
that the subject of it should exist within the bounds of the lands of
King Arthur, without any other person lighting upon it.'

'It would be well, indeed,' said Sir Owen, 'to go to try to discover
that valley and that fountain.'

'Well, indeed,' said Sir K