Jesu Christ.  Therefore, I ensure you in what place I may find you without keeping I shall take you as he that sometime was my man.  And so she departed from Sir Percivale and left him sleeping, the which was sore travailed of his advision.  And on the morn he arose and blessed him, and he was passing feeble.  Then was Sir Percivale ware in the sea, and saw a ship come sailing toward him; and Sir Percivale went unto the ship and found it covered within and without with white samite.  And at the board stood an old man clothed in a surplice, in likeness of a priest.  Sir, said Sir Percivale, ye be welcome.  God keep you, said the good man.  Sir, said the old man, of whence be ye?  Sir, said Sir Percivale, I am of King Arthur’s court, and a knight of the Table Round, the which am in the quest of the Sangreal; and here am I in great duresse, and never like to escape out of this wilderness.  Doubt not, said the good man, an ye be so true a knight as the order of chivalry requireth, and of heart as ye ought to be, ye should not doubt that none enemy should slay you.  What are ye? said Sir Percivale.  Sir, said the old man, I am of a strange country, and hither I come to comfort you.  Sir, said Sir Percivale, what signifieth my dream that I dreamed this night?  And there he told him altogether:  She which rode upon the lion betokeneth the new law of holy church, that is to understand, faith, good hope, belief, and baptism.  For she seemed younger than the other it is great reason, for she was born in the resurrection and the passion of our Lord Jesu Christ.  And for great love she came to thee to warn thee of thy great battle that shall befall thee.  With whom, said Sir Percivale, shall I fight?  With the most champion of the world, said the old man; for as the lady said, but if thou quit thee well thou shalt not be quit by losing of one member, but thou shalt be shamed to the world’s end.  And she that rode on the serpent signifieth the old law, and that serpent betokeneth a fiend.  And why she blamed thee that thou slewest her servant, it betokeneth nothing; the serpent that thou slewest betokeneth the devil that thou rodest upon to the rock.  And when thou madest a sign of the cross, there thou slewest him, and put away his power.  And when she asked thee amends and to become her man, and thou saidst thou wouldst not, that was to make thee to believe on her and leave thy baptism.  So he commanded Sir Percivale to depart, and so he leapt over the board and the ship, and all went away he wist not whither.  Then he went up unto the rock and found the lion which always kept him fellowship, and he stroked him upon the back and had great joy of him.

CHAPTER VIII

How sir Percivale saw A ship coming to him-ward, and how the lady of the ship told him of her DISHERITANCE