Bab Bab 498 · How Sir Launcelot departed to seek the Queen Guenever, and

. How Sir Launcelot departed to seek the Queen Guenever, and

how he found her at Almesbury.

Then came Sir Bors de Ganis, and said: My lord Sir Launcelot, what

think ye for to do, now to ride in this realm? wit ye well ye shall

find few friends. Be as be may, said Sir Launcelot, keep you still

here, for I will forth on my journey, and no man nor child shall go

with me. So it was no boot to strive, but he departed and rode

westerly, and there he sought a seven or eight days; and at the last he

came to a nunnery, and then was Queen Guenever ware of Sir Launcelot as

he walked in the cloister. And when she saw him there she swooned

thrice, that all the ladies and gentlewomen had work enough to hold the

queen up. So when she might speak, she called ladies and gentlewomen to

her, and said: Ye marvel, fair ladies, why I make this fare. Truly, she

said, it is for the sight of yonder knight that yonder standeth;

wherefore I pray you all call him to me.

When Sir Launcelot was brought to her, then she said to all the ladies:

Through this man and me hath all this war been wrought, and the death

of the most noblest knights of the world; for through our love that we

have loved together is my most noble lord slain. Therefore, Sir

Launcelot, wit thou well I am set in such a plight to get my soul-heal;

and yet I trust through God’s grace that after my death to have a sight

of the blessed face of Christ, and at domesday to sit on his right

side, for as sinful as ever I was are saints in heaven. Therefore, Sir

Launcelot, I require thee and beseech thee heartily, for all the love

that ever was betwixt us, that thou never see me more in the visage;

and I command thee, on God’s behalf, that thou forsake my company, and

to thy kingdom thou turn again, and keep well thy realm from war and

wrack; for as well as I have loved thee, mine heart will not serve me

to see thee, for through thee and me is the flower of kings and knights

destroyed; therefore, Sir Launcelot, go to thy realm, and there take

thee a wife, and live with her with joy and bliss; and I pray thee

heartily, pray for me to our Lord that I may amend my misliving. Now,

sweet madam, said Sir Launcelot, would ye that I should now return

again unto my country, and there to wed a lady? Nay, madam, wit you

well that shall I never do, for I shall never be so false to you of

that I have promised; but the same destiny that ye have taken you to, I

will take me unto, for to please Jesu, and ever for you I cast me

specially to pray. If thou wilt do so, said the queen, hold thy

promise, but I may never believe but that thou wilt turn to the world

again. Well, madam, said he, ye say as pleaseth you, yet wist you me

never false of my promise, and God defend but I should forsake the

world as ye have done. For in the quest of the Sangreal I had forsaken

the vanities of the world had not your lord been. And if I had done so

at that time, with my heart, will, and thought, I had passed all the

knights that were in the Sangreal except Sir Galahad, my son. And

therefore, lady, sithen ye have taken you to perfection, I must needs

take me to perfection, of right. For I take record of God, in you I

have had mine earthly joy; and if I had found you now so disposed, I

had cast me to have had you into mine own realm.