Then with his red wet sword he rove His breast in sunder, where it clove Life, and no pulse against it strove, So sure and strong the deep stroke drove Deathward: and Balen, seeing him dead, Rode thence, lest folk would say he had slain Those three; and ere three days again Had seen the sun’s might wax and wane, Far forth he had spurred and sped. And riding past a cross whereon Broad golden letters written shone, Saying, “No knight born may ride alone Forth toward this castle,” and all the stone Glowed in the sun’s glare even as though Blood stained it from the crucified Dead burden of one that there had died, An old hoar man he saw beside Whose face was wan as woe. “Balen the Wild,” he said, “this way Thy way lies not: thou hast passed to-day Thy bands: but turn again, and stay Thy passage, while thy soul hath sway Within thee, and through God’s good power It will avail thee:” and anon His likeness as a cloud was gone, And Balen’s heart within him shone Clear as the cloudless hour. Nor fate nor fear might overcast The soul now near its peace at last. Suddenly, thence as forth he past, A mighty and a deadly blast Blown of a hunting-horn he heard, As when the chase hath nobly sped. “That blast is blown for me,” he said, “The prize am I who am yet not dead,” And smiled upon the word. As toward a royal hart’s death rang That note, whence all the loud wood sang With winged and living sound that sprang Like fire, and keen as fire’s own fang Pierced the sweet silence that it slew. But nought like death or strife was here: Fair semblance and most goodly cheer They made him, they whose troop drew near As death among them drew. A hundred ladies well arrayed And many a knight well weaponed made That kindly show of cheer: the glade Shone round them till its very shade Lightened and laughed from grove to lawn To hear and see them: so they brought Within a castle fair as thought Could dream that wizard hands had wrought The guest among them drawn. All manner of glorious joy was there: Harping and dancing, loud and fair, And minstrelsy that made of air Fire, so like fire its raptures were. Then the chief lady spake on high: “Knight with the two swords, one of two Must help you here or fall from you: For needs you now must have ado And joust with one hereby. “A good knight guards an island here Against all swords that chance brings near, And there with stroke of sword and spear Must all for whom these halls make cheer Fight, and redeem or yield up life.” “An evil custom,” Balen said, “Is this, that none whom chance hath led Hither, if knighthood crown his head, May pass unstirred to strife.”