_Of the marvels of the sword and of the scabbard._
And then beheld they the scabbard; it seemed to be of a serpent’s skin.
And thereon were letters of gold and silver. And the girdle was but
poorly to come to, and not able to sustain such a rich sword, and the
letters said: He which shall wield me, ought to be more harder than any
other, if he bear me as truly as I ought to be borne. For the body of
him which I ought to hang by, he shall not be shamed in no place while
he is gird with this girdle, nor never none be so hardy to do away this
girdle for it ought not to be done away, but by the hands of a maid,
and that she be a king’s daughter, and queen’s, and she must be a maid
all the days of her life, both in will and in deed; and if she break
her virginity, she shall die the most villainous death that ever did
any woman. Sir, said Percivale, turn this sword, that we may see what
is on the other side. And it was red as blood, with black letters as
any coal, which said, He that shall praise me most, most shall he find
me to blame at a great need, and to whom I should be most debonair
shall I be most felon, and that shall be at one time. Fair brother,
said she to Percivale, it befell about a forty year after the passion
of Jesu Christ, that Nacien, the brother-in-law of king Mordrains, was
borne into a town more than fourteen days’ journey from his country, by
the commandment of our Lord, into an isle, into the parts of the west,
that men call the Isle of Turnance. So befell it that he found this
ship at the entry of a rock, and he found the bed, and this sword, as
we have heard now. Not for then he had not so much hardiness to draw
it: and there he dwelled an eight days, and at the ninth day there fell
a great wind which departed him out of the isle, and brought him to
another isle by a rock, and there he found the greatest giant that ever
man might see. Therewith came that horrible giant to slay him, and then
he looked about him, and might not fly, and he had nothing to defend
him with. So he ran to his sword, and when he saw it naked he praised
it much, and then he shook it, and therewith he brake it in the midst.
Ah, said Nacien, the thing I most praised ought I now most to blame.
And therewith he threw the pieces of his sword over his bed. And after
he lept over the board to fight with the giant, and slew him. And anon
he entered into the ship again, and the wind arose, and drove him
through the sea, that by adventure he came to another ship where king
Mordrains was, which had been tempted full evil with a fiend in the
port of perilous rock. And when that one saw the other they made great
joy of other, and either told other of their adventure, and how the
sword failed him at his most need. When Mordrains saw the sword he
praised it much,—but the breaking was not to do but by wickedness of
thyselfward, for thou art in some sin:—and there he took the sword,
and set the pieces together, and they soldered as fair as ever they
were tofore; and there he put the sword in the sheath, and laid it down
on the bed. Then heard they a voice that said, Go out of this ship a
little while, and enter into the other, for dread ye fall in deadly
sin; for, and ye be found in deadly sin, ye may not escape but perish.
And so they went into the other ship. And as Nacien went over the
board, he was smitten with a sword on the right foot, that he fell down
noseling to the ship’s board, and therewith he said, O God, how am I
hurt. And then there came a voice and said, Take thou that for thy
forfeit that thou didst in drawing of this sword, therefore thou
receivest a wound, for thou were never worthy to handle it, as the
writing maketh mention. In the name of God, said Galahad, ye are right
wise of these works.