where is Balin and Balan and Pellinore? said King Arthur. As for
Pellinore, said Merlin, he will meet with you soon; and as for
Balin he will not be long from you; but the other brother will
depart, ye shall see him no more. By my faith, said Arthur, they
are two marvellous knights, and namely Balin passeth of prowess
of any knight that ever I found, for much beholden am I unto him;
would God he would abide with me. Sir, said Merlin, look ye keep
well the scabbard of Excalibur, for ye shall lose no blood while
ye have the scabbard upon you, though ye have as many wounds upon
you as ye may have. So after, for great trust, Arthur betook the
scabbard to Morgan le Fay his sister, and she loved another
knight better than her husband King Uriens or King Arthur, and
she would have had Arthur her brother slain, and therefore she
let make another scabbard like it by enchantment, and gave the
scabbard Excalibur to her love; and the knight's name was called
Accolon, that after had near slain King Arthur. After this
Merlin told unto King Arthur of the prophecy that there should be
a great battle beside Salisbury, and Mordred his own son should
be against him. Also he told him that Bagdemegus was his cousin,
and germain unto King Uriens.



CHAPTER XII

How a sorrowful knight came before Arthur, and how Balin
fetched him, and how that knight was slain by a knight invisible.

WITHIN a day or two King Arthur was somewhat sick, and he let
pitch his pavilion in a meadow, and there he <66>laid him down on