it they might go without danger.  Go we thither, said the gentlewoman, and there shall we see adventures, for so is Our Lord’s will.  And when they came thither they found the ship rich enough, but they found neither man nor woman therein.  But they found in the end of the ship two fair letters written, which said a dreadful word and a marvellous:  Thou man, which shall enter into this ship, beware thou be in steadfast belief, for I am Faith, and therefore beware how thou enterest, for an thou fail I shall not help thee.  Then said the gentlewoman:  Percivale, wot ye what I am?  Certes, said he, nay, to my witing.  Wit ye well, said she, that I am thy sister, which am daughter of King Pellinore, and therefore wit ye well ye are the man in the world that I most love; and if ye be not in perfect belief of Jesu Christ enter not in no manner of wise, for then should ye perish the ship, for he is so perfect he will suffer no sinner in him.  When Percivale understood that she was his very sister he was inwardly glad, and said:  Fair sister, I shall enter therein, for if I be a miscreature or an untrue knight there shall I perish.

CHAPTER III

How sir Galahad entered into the ship, and of A fair bed therein, with other marvellous things, and of A sword

In the meanwhile Galahad blessed him, and entered therein; and then next the gentlewoman, and then Sir Bors and Sir Percivale.  And when they were in, it was so marvellous fair and rich that they marvelled; and in middes of the ship was a fair bed, and Galahad went thereto, and found there a crown of silk.  And at the feet was a sword, rich and fair, and it was drawn out of the sheath half a foot and more; and the sword was of divers fashions, and the pommel was of stone, and there was in him all manner of colours that any man might find, and every each of the colours had divers virtues; and the scales of the haft were of two ribs of divers beasts, the one beast was a serpent which was conversant in Calidone, and is called the serpent of the fiend; and the bone of him is of such a virtue that there is no hand that handleth him shall never be weary nor hurt.  And the other beast is a fish which is not right great, and haunteth the flood of Euphrates; and that fish is called Ertanax, and his bones be of such a manner of kind that who that handleth them shall have so much will that he shall never be weary, and he shall not think on joy nor sorrow that he hath had, but only that thing that he beholdeth before him.  And as for this sword there shall never man begrip him at the handles but one, but he shall pass all other.  In the name of God, said Percivale, I shall essay to handle it.  So he set his hand to the sword, but he might not begrip it.  By my faith, said he, now have I failed.  Bors set his hand thereto and failed.  Then Galahad