to rest. And with the break of day, Peredur heard a dreadful outcry.
And he hastily arose, and went forth in his vest and his doublet,
with his sword about his neck, and he saw a sorceress overtake one of
the watch, who cried out violently. Peredur attacked the sorceress,
and struck her upon the head with his sword, so that he flattened her
helmet and her head-piece like a dish upon her head. "Thy mercy,
goodly Peredur, son of Evrawc, and the mercy of Heaven." "How
knowest thou, hag, that I am Peredur?" "By destiny, and the
foreknowledge that I should suffer harm from thee. And thou shalt
take a horse and armour of me; and with me thou shalt go to learn
chivalry and the use of thy arms." Said Peredur, "Thou shalt have
mercy, if thou pledge thy faith thou wilt never more injure the
dominions of the Countess." And Peredur took surety of this, and
with permission of the Countess, he set forth with the sorceress to
the palace of the sorceresses. And there he remained for three
weeks, and then he made choice of a horse and arms, and went his way.

And in the evening he entered a valley, and at the head of the valley
he came to a hermit's cell, and the hermit welcomed him gladly, and
there he spent the night. And in the morning he arose, and when he
went forth, behold a shower of snow had fallen the night before, and
a hawk had killed a wild fowl in front of the cell. And the noise of
the horse scared the hawk away, and a raven alighted upon the bird.
And Peredur stood, and compared the blackness of the raven and the
whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood, to the hair of
the lady that best he loved, which was blacker than jet, and to her
skin which was whiter than the snow, and to the two red spots upon
her cheeks, which were redder than the blood upon the snow appeared
to be.