“Moreover, each gave to the king his heard, shaved clean from his face, and my master has used the eleven beards to trim his mantle.  One place on the mantle is still vacant, and Rience demands that you send your beard at once to fill the vacant place or he will come with sword and spear, lay waste your land and take your beard and your head with it.”

Then was Arthur terribly enraged, and would have killed the messenger on the spot, but that he remembered the knightly usage and spared the herald.

“Now this is the most insulting message ever sent from one man to another.  Return to your king and tell him that my beard is yet too young to trim a mantle with, and that, moreover, neither I nor any of my lieges owe him homage.  On the other hand I demand homage from him, and unless he render it, I will assemble my knights and take both his head and his kingdom.”

The messenger departed, and soon Arthur heard that Rience had invaded the kingdom with a great host, and had slain large numbers of people.  Arthur then hurriedly summoned his barons, knights and men-at-arms to meet him at Camelot for council.

When Arthur and his followers had gathered at Camelot a damsel richly clothed in a robe of fur rode among them, and as she came before the king she let fall the mantle from her shoulders, and lo! there was girt at her side a noble sword.

Arthur wondered, and said, “Why do you come before me in this unseemly manner, girt with a great sword?”

The damsel answered, “I am girt with this great sword against my will and may not remove it until it is drawn from its scabbard, a thing that can be done only by a knight, and that a passing good one, without treachery or villainy of any sort.  I have been with King Rience, and many of his knights have tried to draw the sword from its scabbard, but no one succeeded.  I have heard that here you have many good knights, and perchance one may be found who can pull the blade.”

“This is marvelous,” said Arthur.  “I will myself make the first attempt, not because I think myself the best knight, but to give my knights an example.”

Then Arthur seized the sword by the scabbard and the hilt and pulled at it eagerly, but it would not move.

“Sir,” said the damsel, “you need not pull the half so hard, for he who is fit can pull it with little strength.”

Then one after another the knights all tried, but none could draw the sword.

“Alas,” said the maiden, “I had thought that in this court there would be found at least one man of gentle blood on both his father’s and his mother’s side, himself without treason or guile.”

There was then at the court a poor knight born in Northumberland who had been in prison for slaying the king’s cousin, but who had been released at the request of the barons, for he was known to be a good man and well born.

Balin, for that was the knight’s name, wished to try the sword, but was afraid to come forward because of his appearance.  As the damsel was departing from the court, Balin called to her and said: