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CHAPTER IX

How Balin and his brother, by the counsel of Merlin, took
King Rience and brought him to King Arthur.

THEN Merlin lodged them in a wood among leaves beside the
highway, and took off the bridles of their horses and put them to
grass and laid them down to rest them till it was nigh midnight.
Then Merlin bade them rise, and make them ready, for the king was
nigh them, that was stolen away from his host with a three score
horses of his best knights, and twenty of them rode to-fore to
warn the Lady de Vance that the king was coming; for that night
King Rience should have lain with her. Which is the king? said
Balin. Abide, said Merlin, here in a strait way ye shall meet
with him; and therewith he showed Balin and his brother where he
rode.

Anon Balin and his brother met with the king, and smote him down,
and wounded him fiercely, and laid him to the ground; and there
they slew on the right hand and the left hand, and slew more than
forty of his men, and the remnant fled. Then went they again to
King Rience and would have slain him had he not yielded him unto
their grace. Then said he thus: Knights full of prowess, slay
me not, for by my life ye may win, and by my death ye shall win
nothing. Then said these two knights, Ye say sooth and truth,
and so laid him on a horse-litter. With that Merlin was