A few days after this, the enemy, regardless of a truce into which they had entered with King Laodegan, suddenly issued from their camp and made an attempt to surprise the city.  Cleodalis, the king’s general, assembled the royal forces with all possible despatch.  Arthur and his companions also flew to arms, and Merlin appeared at their head, bearing a standard on which was emblazoned a terrific dragon.  Merlin advanced to the gate, and commanded the porter to open it, which the porter refused to do, without the king’s order.  Merlin thereupon took up the gate, with all its appurtenances of locks, bars, bolts, etc., and directed his troops to pass through, after which he replaced it in perfect order.  He then set spurs to his horse and dashed, at the head of his little troop, into a body of two thousand pagans.  The disparity of numbers being so enormous, Merlin cast a spell upon the enemy, so as to prevent their seeing the small number of their assailants; notwithstanding which the British knights were hard pressed.  But the people of the city, who saw from the walls this unequal contest, were ashamed of leaving the small body of strangers to their fate, so they opened the gate and sallied forth.  The numbers were now more nearly equal, and Merlin revoked his spell, so that the two armies encountered on fair terms.  Where Arthur, Ban, Bohort, and the rest fought the king’s army had the advantage; but in another part of the field the king himself was surrounded and carried off by the enemy.  The sad sight was seen by Guenever, the fair daughter of the king, who stood on the city wall and looked at the battle.  She was in dreadful distress, tore her hair, and swooned away.

But Merlin, aware of what passed in every part of the field, suddenly collected his knights, led them out of the battle, intercepted the passage of the party who were carrying away the king, charged them with irresistible impetuosity, cut in pieces or dispersed the whole escort, and rescued the king.  In the fight Arthur encountered Caulang, a giant fifteen feet high, and the fair Guenever, who had already began to feel a strong interest in the handsome young stranger, trembled for the issue of the contest.  But Arthur, dealing a dreadful blow on the shoulder of the monster, cut through his neck so that his head hung over on one side, and in this condition his horse carried him about the field, to the great horror and dismay of the Pagans.  Guenever could not refrain from expressing aloud her wish that the gentle knight, who dealt with giants so dexterously, were destined to become her husband, and the wish was echoed by her attendants.  The enemy soon turned their backs and fled with precipitation, closely pursued by Laodegan and his allies.