beheld the sword and saw letters like blood that said:  Let see who shall essay to draw me out of my sheath, but if he be more hardier than any other; and who that draweth me, wit ye well he shall never fail of shame of his body, or to be wounded to the death.  By my faith, said Galahad, I would draw this sword out of the sheath, but the offending is so great that I shall not set my hand thereto.  Now sirs, said the gentlewoman, wit ye well that the drawing of this sword is warned to all men save all only to you.  Also this ship arrived in the realm of Logris; and that time was deadly war between King Labor, which was father unto the maimed king, and King Hurlame, which was a Saracen.  But then was he newly christened, so that men held him afterward one of the wyttyest men of the world.  And so upon a day it befel that King Labor and King Hurlame had assembled their folk upon the sea where this ship was arrived; and there King Hurlame was discomfit, and his men slain; and he was afeard to be dead, and fled to his ship, and there found this sword and drew it, and came out and found King Labor, the man in the world of all Christendom in whom was then the greatest faith.  And when King Hurlame saw King Labor he dressed this sword, and smote him upon the helm so hard that he clave him and his horse to the earth with the first stroke of his sword.  And it was in the realm of Logris; and so befel great pestilence and great harm to both realms.  For sithen increased neither corn, nor grass, nor well-nigh no fruit, nor in the water was no fish; wherefore men call it the lands of the two marches, the waste land, for that dolorous stroke.  And when King Hurlame saw this sword so carving, he turned again to fetch the scabbard, and so came into this ship and entered, and put up the sword in the sheath.  And as soon as he had done it he fell down dead afore the bed.  Thus was the sword proved, that none ne drew it but he were dead or maimed.  So lay he there till a maiden came into the ship and cast him out, for there was no man so hardy of the world to enter into that ship for the defence.

CHAPTER IV

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 me 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 girt 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