“So my will is this:  that if this child groweth in that lonely place to manhood, and if he be weak in body or timid in spirit, thou shalt make of him a clerk of holy orders.  But if when he groweth, he shall prove to be strong and lusty of frame and high of spirit, and shall desire to undertake deeds of knighthood, thou then shalt not stay him from his desires, but shall let him go forth into the world as he shall have a mind to do.

“And if a time should come when he desireth to go thus into the world behold! here is a ring set with a very precious ruby; let him bring that ring to me or to any of our sons wheresoever he may find us, and by that ring we shall know that he is my son and their brother, and we will receive him with great gladness.”

[Sidenote:  Percival’s mother taketh him to the mountains] And King Pellinore’s lady said, “It shall be done as thou dost ordain.”  So it was that King Pellinore betook himself to that lonely castle where King Arthur found him and fought with him; and Percival’s mother betook herself to that dwelling-place in the mountains of which King Pellinore had spoken—­which was a single tower that reached up into the sky, like unto a finger of stone.

There she abided with Percival for sixteen years, and in all that time Percival knew naught of the world nor of what sort it was, but grew altogether wild and was entirely innocent like to a little child.

In the mean time, during those years, it happened very ill to the house of King Pellinore.  For though King Arthur became reconciled to King Pellinore, yet there were in King Arthur’s court many who were bitter enemies to that good, worthy knight.  So it came about that first King Pellinore was slain by treachery, and then Sir Aglaval and Sir Dornar were slain in the same way, so that Sir Lamorack alone was left of all that noble family.

(And it was said that Sir Gawaine and his brothers were implicated in those murders—­they being enemies unto King Pellinore—­and great reproach hath always clung to them for the treacherous, unknightly way in which those noble knights of the house of Pellinore were slain.)

[Sidenote:  Percival’s mother grieveth for the death of her dear ones] Now the news of those several deaths was brought to that lonely tower of the mountain wilderness and to Sir Percival’s mother; and when she heard how her husband and two of her sons were dead she gave great outcry of grief, and smote her hands together and wept with great passion.  And she cried out:  “Mefeareth it will be the time of Lamorack next to be slain.  As for Percival; never shall I be willing for him to go out into that cruel world of wicked murderers.  For if he should perish also, my heart would surely break.”