Thereat they fell silent in a little while, and when he had thus stilled them, he turned to the Lady Vivien and said:  “This is my command that I lay upon thee:  that thou shalt go into the court of King Arthur and shalt confess thyself to him and that thou shalt fulfil whatever penance he may lay upon thee to perform because of thy transgressions.  Now wilt thou do this for to save thy life?”

And the Lady Vivien made reply:  “All shall be done according to thy command.”

Therewith Sir Percival released his hold upon her and she was free.

Then, finding herself to be thus free, she stepped back a pace or two and looked into Sir Percival his face, and she laughed.  And she said:  “Thou fool, didst thou think that I would do so mad a thing as that which thou hast made me promise?  For what mercy could I expect at the hands of King Arthur seeing that it was I who destroyed the Enchanter Merlin, who was the right adviser of King Arthur!  Go to King Arthur thyself and deliver to him thine own messages.”

[Sidenote:  The Lady Vivien escapes] So saying, in an instant, she vanished from the sight of all those who stood there.  And with her vanished that castle of crimson and ultramarine and gold—­and nothing was left but the bare rocks and the barren plain.

Then when those who were there recovered from their astonishment, upon beholding that great castle so suddenly disappear, they turned to Sir Percival and gave him worship and thanks without measure, saying to him:  “What shall we do in return for saving us from the enchantment of this sorceress?”

And Percival said:  “Ye shall do this:  ye shall go to the court of King Arthur and tell him how that young knight, Percival, whom he made a knight a year ago, hath liberated you from the enchantment of this sorceress.  And you shall seek out Sir Kay and shall say to him that, by and by, I shall return and repay him in full measure, twenty times over, that blow which he gave to the damosel Yelande, the Dumb Maiden because of her kindness to me.”

So said Sir Percival, and they said:  “It shall be done as thou dost ordain.”

Then Sir Percydes said:  “Wilt thou not come to my castle and rest thyself there for the night?  For thou must be aweary with all thy toil.”  And Sir Percival said, “I will go with thee.”  So Sir Percydes and Sir Percival rode away together to the castle of Sir Percydes.

[Sidenote:  Sir Percydes knoweth the ring that Percival wears] Now while Sir Percival and Sir Percydes sat at supper in the castle of Sir Percydes, Sir Percival chanced to lay his hand in love upon the sleeve of Sir Percydes’s arm, and that moment Sir Percydes saw the ring upon Sir Percival’s finger which the young damosel of the pavilion had given unto him in exchange for his ring.  When Sir Percydes saw that ring he cried out in great astonishment, “Where didst thou get that ring?”