This time, however, after a dreadful crashing and smashing, the black knight threw the red one to the ground. Leaping from his horse he rushed to his fallen foe, drawing his sword. Before he reached him, however, the red knight vanished. They mounted and rode on, and once again the same thing happened, and the girls began to feel afraid, though they struggled against it, while the big knight cursed wickedly.
Then suddenly an old man stood before them. As they gazed at him, they saw it was none other than Merlin.
Lifting one hand, he stayed the big knight.
“Ride no farther, rash knight,” he said, in a deep voice. “My magic has prevailed, and thou goest but to thy doom.”
The knight answered with a short, contemptuous laugh.
“Out of the way, old fool,” he ordered. “Thinkest thou to stop me when I have laid two of thy knights low this very half hour?”
“Leave these damsels here with me, and thou shalt go free with thy life,” answered Merlin. “One awaiteth thee who wilt surely slay thee. Yet would I liefer that he and the Princess Guinevere should not meet—for that meeting reads darkly in the book of Fate.”
“Out of my way, or ’twill be the worse for thee!” shouted the knight fiercely. With the words he put spurs to his horse and charged upon Merlin. But the old man had disappeared.
Once again he drove the horses with the girls upon them before him. And the day darkened.
Then, in the path, Rose, who sat in front of Ruth on the leading horse, saw a new champion sitting on a great black horse. But he himself looked to be no more than a youth, slender and wearing no armour, though on his arm was a shield and in his hand a sword that shone in the shadow like a streak of lightning in a black sky.