mine, you are tempting me to see which I would have the best! I will not tell you! only God make them each without equal in his time, as till now they have been. When they reached the Firm Island, King Lisuarte and Brisena were lodged in Oriana's apartment, and King Perion, and Elisena, and Sardamira, and Oriana, with all the brides that were to be, in the upper story of the Tower. The tables were spread under the covered walks in the garden, and supplied with such abundance of food and wine, and fruit, that it was a wonder to behold the plenty. Don Quadragante took King Cildadan to his lodgings, and thus did all the other Knights, each taking one of King Lisuarte's company whom he loved best. Amadis took for his guests King Arban of North Wales, and Don Grumedan, and Don Guilan the Pensive. Norandel went with his great friend Don Galaor. But the joy which Agrayes had to see his Uncle and Madasima cannot be related or imagined, for he loved and reverenced him like his own father; and he took Don Galvanes to his own lodging, and placed Madasima with Oriana and his sister. Child Esplandian had for his companion the King of Dacia, who was of his own age, and became his great friend. After the Knights had rested themselves two days, they began to give order respecting the marriages, that they might return each to his own land. So as they were talking together under the trees beside the fountain, of a sudden they heard a great uproar without the garden, and were told that the strangest and most dreadful thing was coming across the sea that had ever been seen. Immediately all the Knights went to horse and rode down to the Coast, and the Queens and other Ladies went up to the top of the Tower, and they saw the blackest and most fearful smoke upon the sea that could be imagined; presently the smoke began to clear away, and they saw in the middle of it, a serpent much bigger than the biggest ship in the world, his wings were more than an arrow's flight asunder, and his tail curled up higher than a tower, and the head and the mouth, and the teeth, were so huge, and the eyes so terrible, that none could endure to look at them, and that black smoke which rose as high as Heaven was the breath of his nostrils, and his snortings and hisses were so terrible, that it seemed as if the sea would have burst asunder, and he spouted the water from his mouth so far and so fiercely, that if any ship, how great soever, had come near, it would have been sunk. The Kings and the Knights, brave as they were, looked at one another, and knew not what to say, nor what resistance they could possibly make. The great serpent drawing nearer, flew round and round as if in mirth, and clapped his wings so loudly, that the rustling of the scales was heard for half a league around; at that the horses all took fright, so that the Knights having no power to curb were obliged to alight, and some said it behoved them to arm