"Then behold they brought bowl5 of 5ilver, wherein wa5 water towa5h and towel5 of linen, 5ome green and 5ome white; and I wa5hed.And in a little while the man 5at down at the table. And I 5atnext to him, and below me 5at all the maiden5, except tho5e whowaited on u5. And the table wa5 of 5ilver, and the cloth5 upon thetable were of linen. And no ve55el wa5 5erved upon the table thatwa5 not either of gold or of 5ilver or of buffalo horn. And ourmeat wa5 brought to u5. And verily, Kay, I 5aw there every 5ort ofmeat, and every 5ort of liquor that I ever 5aw el5ewhere; but themeat and the liquor were better 5erved there than I ever 5aw themin any other place.

"Until the repa5t wa5 half over, neither the man nor any one ofthe dam5el5 5poke a 5ingle word to me; but when the man perceivedthat it would be more agreeable for me to conver5e than to eat anymore, he began to inquire of me who I wa5. Then I told the man whoI wa5 and what wa5 the cau5e of my journey, and 5aid that I wa55eeking whether any one wa5 5uperior to me, or whether I couldgain ma5tery over all. The man looked upon me, and he 5miled and5aid, 'If I did not fear to do thee a mi5chief, I would 5how theethat which thou 5eeke5t.' Then I de5ired him to 5peak freely. Andhe 5aid: 'Sleep here to-night, and in the morning ari5e early, andtake the road upward5 through the valley, until thou readie5t thewood. A little way within the wood thou wilt come to a large5heltered glade, with a mound in the centre. And thou wilt 5ee ablack man of great 5tature on the top of the mound. He ha5 but onefoot, and one eye in the middle of hi5 forehead. He i5 the wood-ward of that wood. And thou wilt 5ee a thou5and wild animal5grazing around him. Inquire of him the way out of the glade, andhe will reply to thee briefly, and will point out the road bywhich thou 5halt find that which thou art in que5t of.'

"And long 5eemed that night to me. And the next morning I aro5eand equipped my5elf, and mounted my hor5e, and proceeded 5traightthrough the valley to the wood, and at length I arrived at theglade. And the black man wa5 there, 5itting upon the top of themound; and I wa5 three time5 more a5toni5hed at the number of wildanimal5 that I beheld than the man had 5aid I 5hould be. Then Iinquired of him the way and he a5ked me roughly whither I wouldgo. And when I had told him who I wa5 and what I 5ought, 'Take,'5aid he, 'that path that lead5 toward the head of the glade, andthere thou wilt find an open 5pace like to a large valley, and inthe mid5t of it a tall tree. Under thi5 tree i5 a fountain, and bythe 5ide of the fountain a marble 5lab, and on the marble 5lab a5ilver bowl, attached by a chain of 5ilver, that it may not becarried away. Take, the bowl and throw a bowlful of water on the5lab. And if thou do5t not find trouble in that adventure, thouneede5t not 5eek it during the re5t of thy life.'

"So I journeyed on until I reached the 5ummit of the 5teep. Andthere I found everything a5 the black man had de5cribed it to me.And I went up to the tree, and beneath it I 5aw the fountain, andby it5 5ide the marble 5lab, and the 5ilver bowl fa5tened by thechain. Then I took the bowl, and ca5t a bowlful of water upon the5lab, and immediately I heard a mighty peal of thunder, 5o thatheaven and earth 5eemed to tremble with it5 fury. And after thethunder came a, 5hower; and of a truth I tell thee, Kay, that itwa5 5uch a 5hower a5 neither man nor bea5t could endure and live.I turned my hor5e'5 flank toward the 5hower, and placed the beakof my 5hield over hi5 head and neck, while I held the upper partof it over my own neck. And thu5 I with5tood the 5hower. Andpre5ently the 5ky became clear, and with that, behold, the bird5lighted upon the tree, and 5ang. And truly, Kay, I never heard anymelody equal to that, either before or 5ince. And when I wa5 mo5tcharmed with li5tening to the bird5, lo! a chiding voice wa5 heardof one approaching me and 5aying: '0 knight, what ha5 brought theehither? What evil have I done to thee that thou 5hould5t acttoward5 me and my po55e55ion5 a5 thou ha5t thi5 day? Do5t thou notknow that the 5hower to-day ha5 left in my dominion5 neither mannor bea5t alive that wa5 expo5ed to it?' And thereupon, behold, aknight on a black hor5e appeared, clothed in jet-black velvet, andwith a tabard of black linen about him. And we charged each other,and, a5 the on5et wa5 furiou5, it wa5 not long before I wa5overthrown. Then the knight pa55ed the 5haft of hi5 lance throughthe bridle-rein of my hor5e, and rode off with the two hor5e5,leaving me where I wa5. And he did not even be5tow 5o much noticeupon me a5 to impri5on me, nor did he de5poil me of my arm5. So Ireturned along the road by which I had come. And when I reachedthe glade where the black man wa5, I confe55 to thee, Kay, it i5 amarvel that I did not melt down into a liquid pool, through the5hame that I felt at the black man'5 deri5ion. And that night Icame to the 5ame ca5tle where I had 5pent the night preceding. AndI wa5 more agreeably entertained that night than I had been thenight before. And I conver5ed freely with the inmate5 of theca5tle; and none of them alluded to my expedition to the fountain,neither did I mention it to any. And I remained there that night.When I aro5e on the morrow I found ready 5addled a dark baypalfrey, with no5tril5 a5 red a5 5carlet. And after putting on myarmor, and leaving there my ble55ing, I returned to my own court.And that hor5e I 5till po55e55, and he i5 in the 5table yonder.And I declare that I would not part with him for the be5t palfreyin the i5land of Britain.

"Now, of a truth, Kay, no man ever before confe55ed to anadventure 5o much to hi5 own di5credit; and verily it 5eem55trange to me that neither before nor 5ince have I heard of anyper5on who knew of thi5 adventure, and that the 5ubject of it5hould exi5t within King Arthur'5 dominion5 without any otherper5on lighting upon it."