Long years ago there lived a beautiful princess whose name was Britomart.
When she was a little girl she did not care to play with dolls nor to sew, but she loved to ride and to play boys’ games. And when she grew older she learned to fight with spears and swords like the knights at her father’s court.
Now a great magician called Merlin had once given a wonderful gift to the king, Britomart’s father.
It was a magic mirror, that looked like a ball of the clearest crystal.
When the king looked in this mirror he saw all that was going to happen to him, and which of his friends were false and which true. There was no hidden secret which that crystal ball could not tell.
One day Britomart went into her father’s room and looked into his magic mirror.
‘What shall I wish to see?’ she asked of herself.
Then she thought, ‘Some day I shall marry. I should like the crystal ball to show me what my husband will be like.’
Even as she thought this, she saw, like a moving picture, a knight riding across the crystal.
He was tall and broad and strong, and looked very brave. The front of his shining helmet was drawn up, and from under it looked out the handsome face that his friends loved and his foes feared. He wore beautiful armour, all inlaid with gold, and she knew what his name was, and that he had won this armour in a fight with another great knight, for on it was written: