CHAP. VI.
How St. David the Champion of Wales, by art of magic
slept seven years in the enchanted garden of Ormondina
the Necromancer, and how St. George escaped out of prison
in Persia, and redeemed the Champion of Wales from
his enchantment.
WE come next to speak of that magnanimous Hero, St. David of Wales, whole valiant exploits and heroic performances were nothing inferior to the rest of the six Champions, making the name of Christendom famous in those nations that acknowledge the true God: especially his actions in the Tartarian court are not to be passed over in in silence, where his prowess gained him the honour to become the Emperor’s Champion. But, upon a solemn feast-day, whereupon were kept royal tilts and tournaments in honour of the Emperor’s birth, it was St. David’s unlucky fortune to kill the count Palatine, being heir apparent to the Tartarian crown, at which the Emperor was so incensed that he would have slain him presently, but that in her honour he could not do it: Whereupon he bethought himself of a clear conveyance, which was to the enchanted garden upon the confines of that country, kept by a famous Necromancer, named Ormondia, bincing him by the oath of knighthood, to bring him from thence 'the Necromancer’s head: all which St. David promised faithfully to perform, and, with an undaunted courage, went to the place, where at the entrance in was a rock of stone, in which was enclosed a moist rich sword, nothing appeared outwardly but the hilt about the pummel thereof, in letters of gold, was thus engraven:
This sword cannot be pulled forth,
But by a Knight out of the North.
St. David verily imagining himself to be that knight of the north, courageously assayed to pull it forth
