, for I am Faith, and therefore beware how
thou enterest, for an thou fail I shall not help thee. Then said the
gentlewoman: Percivale, wot ye what I am? Certes, said he, nay, to my
witting. Wit ye well, said she, that I am thy sister, which am daughter
of King Pellinore, and therefore wit ye well ye are the man in the world
that I most love; and if ye be not in perfect belief of Jesu Christ
enter not in no manner of wise, for then should ye perish the ship,
for he is so perfect he will suffer no sinner in him. When Percivale
understood that she was his very sister he was inwardly glad, and said:
Fair sister, I shall enter therein, for if I be a miscreature or an
untrue knight there shall I perish.

CHAPTER III. How Sir Galahad entered into the ship, and of a fair bed
therein, with other marvellous things, and of a sword.

IN the meanwhile Galahad blessed him, and entered therein; and then next
the gentlewoman, and then Sir Bors and Sir Percivale. And when they were
in, it was so marvellous fair and rich that they marvelled; and in midst
of the ship was a fair bed, and Galahad went thereto, and found there
a crown of silk. And at the feet was a sword, rich and fair, and it
was drawn out of the sheath half a foot and more; and the sword was of
divers fashions, and the pommel was of stone, and there was in him all
manner of colours that any man might find, and everych of the colours
had divers virtues; and the scales of the haft were of two ribs of
divers beasts, the one beast was a serpent which was conversant in
Calidone, and is called the Serpent of the fiend; and the bone of him is
of such a virtue that there is no hand that handleth him shall never be
weary nor hurt. And the other beast is a fish which is not right great,
and haunteth the flood of Euphrates; and that fish is called Ertanax,
and his bones be of such a manner of kind that who that handleth them
shall have so much will that he shall never be weary, and he shall not
think on joy nor sorrow that he hath had but only that thing that he
beholdeth before him. And as for this sword there shall never man begrip
him at the handles but one; but he shall pass all other. In the name of
God, said Percivale, I shall assay to handle it. So he set his hand to
the sword, but he might not begrip it. By my faith, said he, now have I
failed. Bors set his hand thereto and failed.

Then Galahad beheld the sword and saw letters like blood that said:
Let see who shall