_A true knight is one who fearlessly offers himself in defence of
the helpless, particularly women and children._
There was a rich king who had a daughter that he loved better than
anything else in the world. She was very beautiful and everybody in
the kingdom loved her dearly. Though she was the king’s daughter,
yet she always thought of and helped the poorest of his subjects.
One day there came from the mountains a dragon with his mouth wide
open to devour everything. The dragon’s breath was like fire, and
his scales rattled as if they were made of tin. He was dreadful
to behold. The king’s soldiers and knights were sent for to kill
or drive away the dragon, but nothing could be done. Every time a
knight went out to fight the dragon, the terrible monster knocked
him down with a blow of his tail, and devoured him, armor and all.
The dragon demanded that every morning a young girl should be tied
to a tree by the river where he could find her and eat her. There
was great grief in the kingdom over this, but everybody knew it had
to be done, or the dragon would come into the town and eat every
one.
When the king’s daughter heard of the demand of the dragon and
the grief of the people, she said, “Let me go. If the dragon must
devour a young woman every day, he shall take me the very first
morning.”
All the people begged her not to go, but she insisted. The high
priest decided to take a pigeon into the court yard and set it
free. If it flew to the East the king’s daughter was to go to the
dragon.
When the pigeon was set free it flew to the East for a great
distance. Finally it came to a knight on his horse. The pigeon lit
on the knight’s shoulder and cooing tried to tell the knight of the
trouble. Then it flew in the direction it wanted the knight to go.
The knight understood and followed the pigeon.
He found the princess tied to a tree and the dragon close by. He
told the princess not to be afraid for he was going to kill the
dragon. She kept very still and the dragon lashed his tail in a
fury as the knight came near to where he was.
Now, this knight knew that no ordinary methods would conquer the
dragon. All the other knights who had attacked the dragon had been
slain by its poisonous fangs. He quickly called for some pitch. The
people ran to their houses and brought him a bucket full of pitch.
He made a large ball of it, and put it on the end of his spear.
When the dragon came near with its mouth open he thrust the ball of
pitch down its throat so that it was not able to open its mouth or
use its poisonous fangs. The dragon was choked by the ball of pitch.
While the dragon was choking and trying to get the pitch out of his
mouth the knight thrust his sword into him and killed him.
The princess was then untied and taken to the palace where there
was great rejoicing. The king rewarded the knight by calling him
St. George and giving him a gold cross.