, "I will remain here to-night, and if you are in trouble, I will
do you what service I can; but harm shall you not receive from me." So
they went to rest. And with the break of day, Peredur heard a dreadful
outcry. And he hastily arose, and went forth in his vest and his
doublet, with his sword about his neck, and he saw a sorceress overtake
one of the watch, who cried out violently. Peredur attacked the
sorceress, and struck her upon the head with his sword, so that he
flattened her helmet and her headpiece like a dish upon her head. "Thy
mercy, goodly Peredur, son of Evrawc, and the mercy of Heaven." "How
knowest thou, hag, that I am Peredur?" "By destiny, and the
foreknowledge that I should suffer harm from thee. And thou shalt take a
horse and armour of me; and with me thou shalt go to learn chivalry and
the use of thy arms." Said Peredur, "Thou shalt have mercy, if thou
pledge thy faith thou wilt never more injure the dominions of the
Countess." And Peredur took surety of this, and with permission of the
Countess, he set forth with the sorceress to the palace of the
sorceresses. And there he remained for three weeks, and then he made
choice of a horse and arms, and went his way.

And in the evening he entered a valley, and at the head of the valley he
came to a hermit's cell, and the hermit welcomed him gladly, and there he
spent the night. And in the morning he arose, and when he went forth,
behold a shower of snow had fallen the night before, and a hawk had
killed a wild fowl in front of the cell. And the noise of the horse
scared the hawk away, and a raven alighted upon the bird. And Peredur
stood, and compared the blackness of the raven, and whiteness of the
snow, and the redness of the blood, to the hair of the lady that best he
loved, which was blacker than jet, and to her skin which was whiter than
the snow, and to the two red spots upon her cheeks, which were redder
than the blood upon the snow appeared to be.

Now Arthur and his household were in search of Peredur. "Know ye," said
Arthur, "who is the knight with the long spear that stands by the brook
{72} up yonder?" "Lord," said one of them, "I will go and learn who he
is." So the youth came to the place where Peredur was, and asked him
what he did thus, and who he was. And from the intensity with which he
thought upon the lady whom best he loved, he gave him no answer. Then
the youth thrust at Peredur with his lance, and Peredur turn