Ah,said the lady,I trow ye like not my meat.Yes,truly,said Sir Bors,God thank you,madam,but I may eat none other meat this day.Then she spake no more as at that time,for she was loath to displease him.Then after supper they spake of one thing and other.
With that came a squire and said:Madam,ye must purvey you to-morn for a champion,for else your sister will have this castle and also your lands,except ye can find a knight that will fight to-morn in your quarrel against Pridam le Noire.Then she made sorrow and said:Ah,Lord God,wherefore granted ye to hold my land,whereof I should now be disherited without reason and right?And when Sir Bors had heard her say thus,he said:I shall comfort you.Sir,said she,I shall tell you there was here a king that hight Aniause,which held all this land in his keeping.So it mishapped he loved a gentlewoman a great deal elder than I.So took he her all this land to her keeping,and all his men to govern;and she brought up many evil customs whereby she put to death a great part of his kinsmen.And when he saw that,he let chase her out of this land,and betook it me,and all this land in my demesnes.But anon as that worthy king was dead,this other lady began to war upon me,and hath destroyed many of my men,and turned them against me,that I have well-nigh no man left me;and I have nought else but this high tower that she left me.And yet she hath promised me to have this tower,without I can find a knight to fight with her champion.
Now tell me,said Sir Bors,what is that Pridam le Noire?Sir,said she,he is the most doubted man of this land.Now may ye send her word that ye have found a knight that shall fight with that Pridam le Noire in God's quarrel and yours.Then that lady was not a little glad,and sent word that she was purveyed,and that night Bors had good cheer;but in no bed he would come,but laid him on the floor,nor never would do otherwise till that he had met with the quest of the Sangreal.
CHAPTER VIII
Of an advision which Sir Bors had that night,and how he fought and overcame his adversary.
AND anon as he was asleep him befell a vision,that there came to him two birds,the one as white as a swan,and the other was marvellous black;but it was not so great as the other,but in the likeness of a Raven.Then the white bird came to him,and said:An thou wouldst give me meat and serve me I should give thee all the riches of the world,and I shall make thee as fair and as white as Iam.So the white bird departed,and there came the black bird to him,and said:An thou wolt,serve me to-morrow and have me in no despite though I be black,for wit thou well that more availeth my blackness than the other's whiteness.And then he departed.
And he had another vision:him thought that he came to a great place which seemed a chapel,and there he found a chair set on the left side,which was worm-eaten and feeble.And on the right hand were two flowers like a lily,and the one would have benome the other's whiteness,but a good man departed them that the one touched not the other;and then out of every flower came out many flowers,and fruit great plenty.Then him thought the good man said:Should not he do great folly that would let these two flowers perish for to succour the rotten tree,that it fell not to the earth?Sir,said he,it seemeth me that this wood might not avail.Now keep thee,said the good man,that thou never see such adventure befall thee.
Then he awaked and made a sign of the cross in midst of the forehead,and so rose and clothed him.And there came the lady of the place,and she saluted him,and he her again,and so went to a chapel and heard their service.
And there came a company of knights,that the lady had sent for,to lead Sir Bors unto battle.Then asked he his arms.And when he was armed she prayed him to take a little morsel to dine.Nay,madam,said he,that shall Inot do till I have done my battle,by the grace of God.
And so he leapt upon his horse,and departed,all the knights and men with him.And as soon as these two ladies met together,she which Bors should fight for complained her,and said:Madam,ye have done me wrong to bereave me of my lands that King Aniause gave me,and full loath I am there should be any battle.Ye shall not choose,said the other lady,or else your knight withdraw him.
Then there was the cry made,which party had the better of the two knights,that his lady should rejoice all the land.Now departed the one knight here,and the other there.Then they came together with such a raundon that they pierced their shields and their hauberks,and the spears flew in pieces,and they wounded either other sore.Then hurtled they together,so that they fell both to the earth,and their horses betwixt their legs;and anon they arose,and set hands to their swords,and smote each one other upon the heads,that they made great wounds and deep,that the blood went out of their bodies.
For there found Sir Bors greater defence in that knight more than he weened.For that Pridam was a passing good knight,and he wounded Sir Bors full evil,and he him again;but ever this Pridam held the stour in like hard.That perceived Sir Bors,and suffered him till he was nigh attaint.And then he ran upon him more and more,and the other went back for dread of death.So in his withdrawing he fell upright,and Sir Bors drew his helm so strongly that he rent it from his head,and gave him great strokes with the flat of his sword upon the visage,and bade him yield him or he should slay him.
Then he cried him mercy and said:Fair knight,for God's love slay me not,and I shall ensure thee never to war against thy lady,but be alway toward her.Then Bors let him be;then the old lady fled with all her knights.
CHAPTER IX
How the lady was returned to her lands by the battle of Sir Bors,and of his departing,and how he met Sir Lionel taken and beaten with thorns,and also of a maid which should have been devoured.