the chessboard, and when thou didst slay the black man of Ysbidinongyl, and when thou didst slay the stag, and when thou didst go to fight the black man of the cromlech. And I came with the bloody head in the salver, and with the lance that streamed with blood from the point to the hand, all along the shaft; and the head was thy cousin's, and he was killed by the sorceresses of Gloucester, who also lamed thine uncle; and I am thy cousin. And there is a prediction that thou art to avenge these things." Then Peredur and Gwalchmai took counsel, and sent to Arthur and his household, to beseech them to come against the sorceresses. And they began to fight with them; and one of the sorceresses slew one of Arthur's men before Peredur's face, and Peredur bade her forbear. And the sorceress slew a man before Peredur's face a second time, and a second time he forbad her. And the third time the sorceress slew a man before the face of Peredur; and then Peredur drew his sword, and smote the sorceress on the helmet; and all her head-armour was split in two parts. And she set up a cry, and desired the other sorceresses to flee, and told them that this was Peredur, the man who had learnt Chivalry with them, and by whom they were destined to be slain. Then Arthur and his household fell upon the sorceresses, and slew the sorceresses of Gloucester every one. And thus is it related concerning the Castle of Wonders.

Or the real history of Peredur, nothing is known. It is probable that he fell in the battle of Cattraeth, in the beginning of the 6th century, as Aneurin mentions a chieftain of this name among the slain.

"Warriors marched forth,-unanimously they bounded forward ;Short-lived were they,-they had revelled over the flowing mead; The host of Mynyddawc renowned in battle;

Their life was the price of their banquet.
Caradawc, and Madawc, Pyll, and Yeuan,
Gwgawn, and Gwiawn, Gwynn, and Kynvan,
Peredur of steel arms, Gwawrdur, and Aedan.
A defence in the tumult, a shield in the conflict;
When they were slain they also slaughtered.
None to his home returned."

Peredur is frequently alluded to by the Bards of the Middle Ages, in terms illustrative of the high esteem in which his deeds of prowess then were held. Gruffydd ab Meredydd, who flourished about the end of the 13th century, in his Elegy on Tudur ap Goronwy, one of the ancestors of the House of Tudor, thus mentions him :

"O Bountiful Creator of the radiant sun and waning moon, Sad is the fall of the chief of valiant deeds,

Eagle of the battle-charge, equal to Peredur,

Tudor, assaulter of the Angles, he who never shunned the fight."

In the old Romances, as Morte d'Arthur, &c., he is celebrated, under the name of Perceval, as one of those engaged in the quest of the Sangreal, in which character he is also spoken of in the Triads, together with Bort, the son of the King of that name, and Galath, the son of Lancelot du Lac.-Tri. lxi. Myv. Ar. II. 14.

Like Owain, his exploits were sung by Chrestiens de Troyes, and they also form the subject of romantic compositions in German, and in other languages of Northern Europe. Our own Chaucer alludes

to him in his Rime of Sire Thopas, Cant. Tales, 1384—5—

"Himself drank water of the well,

As did the Knight, Sire Percivell,
So worthy under wede."

ATTENDING TOURNAMENTS.-Page 81.

WE find various instances of knights, who made it a practice to resort to Tournaments as a lucrative occupation; for, on those occasions, not only the horse and arms of the vanquished frequently became the property of the victor, but the prizes contested for were often of so valuable a nature as greatly to enrich those who were fortunate enough to win them. Sometimes they consisted of diamonds and precious stones, and sometimes even of the revenues of different domains. In the Romance of Ipomydon, "a thousand pound" is the guerdon bestowed on the successful combatant. Our Henry the VII. proposed a ring of gold, set with a ruby, and another set with a diamond, as the reward of the knights who should be victorious at a Tournament at which he was to be present. And there is a characteristic story on record of the Chevalier Bayard, who being the conqueror on one of these occasions, refused to take the prize, which was a ruby worth a hundred ducats attached to a lady's

• Mém. de Chev. I. 322.

+ Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 134.

sleeve, saying that the honour of the victory was entirely due to the sleeve, for which he had contended. The ruby was accordingly presented to the knight who had acquitted himself best after Bayard, and the lady herself resumed possession of the sleeve, declaring that after what Bayard had said, she should keep it all her life for his sake.*

WARS AND COMBATS.-Page 81.

FROM this passage we may probably infer that Evrawe was one of those knights who, during the Middle Ages, ranked themselves under the banners of such princes as were disposed to engage their services. Many of these adventurers were held in high estimation, and Froissart, in speaking of Sir John Hawkwood, who was one of the most distinguished of them, calls him "a right valiant English knight who had performed many most gallant deeds of arms." He gives the following account of Hawkwood's progress, from which an idea may be formed of the emoluments that accrued to those mercenary bands, and of the manner in which they were employed.

"He had left France at the conclusion of the peace of Bretigny, and was at that time a poor knight, who thought it would not be of any advantage to him to return home; but when he saw, that by the treaties, all men-at-arms would be forced to leave France, he put himself at the head of those free companions called late-comers, and marched into Burgundy. Several such companions, composed of English, Gascons, Bretons, Germans, and of men from every nation, were collected there. Hawkwood was one of the principal leaders, with Bricquet and Carnelle, by whom the battle of Brignais was fought, and who aided Bernard de la Salle to take the Pont du St. Esprit.

"When they had harassed the country for some time, the marquis de Montferrat made a treaty with them to assist him in his war with the lords of Milan. This marquis led them over the Alps, after he had paid them sixty thousand francs, of which Hawkwood received, for himself and his troops, ten thousand. When they had finished the war for the marquis, the greater part of them returned to France; for sir Bertrand du Guesclin, the lords de la Marche, de Beaujeu, and sir Arnold d'Andreghen, marshal of France, wished to lead them into Spain, to don Henry de Trastamare, against don Pedro, king of Spain.

"Sir John Hawkwood and his companions remained in Italy, and

Hist. of the Chev. Bayard (Lond. 1825) I. 84.

were employed by pope Urban as long as he lived, in his wars in the Milanese. Pope Gregory, successor to Urban, engaged him in the same manner. Sir John had also a profitable employment, under the lord de Coucy, against the count de Vertus and his barons; in which, some say, the lord de Coucy would have been slain, if sir John Hawkwood had not come to his assistance with five hundred combatants, which he was solely induced to do because the lord de Coucy had married one of the king of England's daughters. This sir John Hawkwood was a knight much inured to war, which he had long followed, and had gained great renown in Italy from his gallantry.

"The Romans, therefore, and Urban, who called himself pope, resolved, on Clement leaving Italy, to send for Hawkwood, and appoint him commander-in-chief of all their forces: they made him large offers of retaining him and his whole troop at a handsome subsidy, which he accepted, and acquitted himself loyally for it." -Johnes's Froissart, 4to. II. c. 97.

THEY ARE ANGELS, MY SON.-Page 82.

INCIDENTS similar to that in the text are of frequent occurrence in the old Romances. St. John of Damascus, a Greek writer of the 8th century, has a story of a youth brought up in utter ignorance of all worldly affairs, in order to evade a prophecy which existed against him. Here, however, the compliment paid by Peredur's mother to the knights, in calling them Angels, is far from being returned to her sex. For, in describing to him all the objects he meets on his first going out, and mixing with the world, the Greek writer makes the young man's father apply an appellation to the ladies, which is the very reverse of angelic.

There is another story to the same effect, in a Latin Collection of Materials for composing Sermons, by John Herolt, sirnamed Discipulus, a Dominican friar of Basil, who flourished about 1450.* From these the idea has been adopted and worked up by the Italian novelist.

POSSESS THYSELF OF IT, AND GIVE IT TO ANOTHER.-Page 83.

THE ideas of liberality entertained in the days of Chivalry were often widely at variance with every principle of justice. That the advice given to Peredur by his mother was consistent with the

*Hist. Eng. Poe. I. ccxxiv. cclxv.