Sir Owain’s horse.  When his preparations were complete, he returned to the Countess, who, by then, was recovered from her swoon; and she saw that all her trouble had been in vain, and that the time was come when she must part with her son.  “Thou wilt ride forth, my son?” she asked.  “Yea, with your leave,” he answered.  “Hear, then, my counsel,” said she; “go thy way to Arthur’s court, for there are the noblest and truest knights.  And wheresoever thou seest a church, fail not to say thy prayers, and whatsoever woman demands thy aid, refuse her not.”

So, bidding his mother farewell, Peredur mounted his horse, and took in his hand a long, sharp-pointed stake.  He journeyed many days till, at last, he had come to Caerleon, where Arthur held his court, and dismounting at the door, he entered the hall.  Even as he did so, a stranger knight, who had passed in before him, seized a goblet and, dashing the wine in the face of Queen Guenevere, held the goblet aloft and cried:  “If any dare dispute this goblet with me or venture to avenge the insult done to Arthur’s Queen, let him follow me to the meadow without, where I will await him.”

And for sheer amazement at this insolence, none moved save Peredur, who cried aloud:  “I will seek out this man and do vengeance upon him.”  Then a voice exclaimed:  “Welcome, goodly Peredur, thou flower of knighthood”; and all turned in surprise to look upon a little misshapen dwarf, who, a year before, had craved and obtained shelter in Arthur’s court, and since then had spoken no word.  But Kay the Seneschal, in anger that a mere boy, and one so strangely equipped as Peredur, should have taken up the Queen’s quarrel when proven knights had remained mute, struck the dwarf, crying:  “Thou art ill-bred to remain mute a year in Arthur’s court, and then to break silence in praise of such a fellow.”  Then Peredur, who saw the blow, cried, as he left the hall:  “Knight, hereafter ye shall answer to me for that blow.”  Therewith, he mounted his piebald and rode in haste to the meadow.  And when the knight espied him, he cried to him:  “Tell me, youth, saw’st thou any coming after me from the court?” “I am come myself,” said Peredur.  “Hold thy peace,” answered the knight angrily, “and go back to the court and say that, unless one comes in haste, I will not tarry, but will ride away, holding them all shamed.”  “By my faith,” said Peredur, “willingly or unwillingly, thou shalt answer to me for thine insolence; and I will have the goblet of thee, ay, and thy horse and armour to boot.”  With that, in a rage, the knight struck Peredur a violent blow between the neck and the shoulder with the butt-end of his lance.  “So!” cried Peredur, “not thus did my mother’s servants play with me; and thus will I play with thee”; and drove at him with his pointed stake that it entered the eye of the knight, who forthwith fell dead from his horse.  Then Peredur dismounted and began wrenching at the fastenings of the dead man’s