assay to draw me out of my sheath, but if he be more
hardier than any other; and who that draweth me, wit ye well that he
shall never fail of shame of his body, or to be wounded to the death. By
my faith, said Galahad, I would draw this sword out of the sheath, but
the offending is so great that I shall not set my hand thereto. Now
sirs, said the gentlewoman, wit ye well that the drawing of this sword
is warned to all men save all only to you. Also this ship arrived in the
realm of Logris; and that time was deadly war between King Labor, which
was father unto the maimed king, and King Hurlame, which was a Saracen.
But then was he newly christened, so that men held him afterward one
of the wittiest men of the world. And so upon a day it befell that King
Labor and King Hurlame had assembled their folk upon the sea where this
ship was arrived; and there King Hurlame was discomfit, and his men
slain; and he was afeard to be dead, and fled to his ship, and there
found this sword and drew it, and came out and found King Labor, the man
in the world of all Christendom in whom was then the greatest faith. And
when King Hurlame saw King Labor he dressed this sword, and smote him
upon the helm so hard that he clave him and his horse to the earth with
the first stroke of his sword. And it was in the realm of Logris; and
so befell great pestilence and great harm to both realms. For sithen
increased neither corn, nor grass, nor well-nigh no fruit, nor in the
water was no fish; wherefore men call it the lands of the two marches,
the waste land, for that dolorous stroke. And when King Hurlame saw this
sword so carving, he turned again to fetch the scabbard, and so came
into this ship and entered, and put up the sword in the sheath. And as
soon as he had done it he fell down dead afore the bed. Thus was the
sword proved, that none ne drew it but he were dead or maimed. So lay he
there till a maiden came into the ship and cast him out, for there was
no man so hardy of the world to enter into that ship for the defence.

CHAPTER IV. Of the marvels of the sword and of the scabbard.

AND then beheld they the scabbard, it seemed to be of a serpent's skin,
and thereon were letters of gold and silver. And the girdle was but
poorly to come to, and not able to sustain such a rich sword. And the
letters said: He which shall wield me sought to be more harder than any
other, if he bear me as truly as me ought to be borne. For the body of
him