บทที่ บทที่ 446 · How Sir Launcelot armed him to assay if he might bear

. How Sir Launcelot armed him to assay if he might bear

arms, and how his wounds brast out again.

Then Sir Bors told Sir Launcelot how there was sworn a great tournament

and jousts betwixt King Arthur and the King of Northgalis, that should

be upon All Hallowmass Day, beside Winchester. Is that truth? said Sir

Launcelot; then shall ye abide with me still a little while until that

I be whole, for I feel myself right big and strong. Blessed be God,

said Sir Bors. Then were they there nigh a month together, and ever

this maiden Elaine did ever her diligent labour night and day unto Sir

Launcelot, that there was never child nor wife more meeker to her

father and husband than was that Fair Maiden of Astolat; wherefore Sir

Bors was greatly pleased with her.

So upon a day, by the assent of Sir Launcelot, Sir Bors, and Sir

Lavaine, they made the hermit to seek in woods for divers herbs, and so

Sir Launcelot made fair Elaine to gather herbs for him to make him a

bain. In the meanwhile Sir Launcelot made him to arm him at all pieces;

and there he thought to assay his armour and his spear, for his hurt or

not. And so when he was upon his horse he stirred him fiercely, and the

horse was passing lusty and fresh because he was not laboured a month

afore. And then Sir Launcelot couched that spear in the rest. That

courser leapt mightily when he felt the spurs; and he that was upon

him, the which was the noblest horse of the world, strained him

mightily and stably, and kept still the spear in the rest; and

therewith Sir Launcelot strained himself so straitly, with so great

force, to get the horse forward, that the button of his wound brast

both within and without; and therewithal the blood came out so fiercely

that he felt himself so feeble that he might not sit upon his horse.

And then Sir Launcelot cried unto Sir Bors: Ah, Sir Bors and Sir

Lavaine, help, for I am come to mine end. And therewith he fell down on

the one side to the earth like a dead corpse. And then Sir Bors and Sir

Lavaine came to him with sorrow-making out of measure. And so by

fortune the maiden Elaine heard their mourning, and then she came

thither; and when she found Sir Launcelot there armed in that place she

cried and wept as she had been wood; and then she kissed him, and did

what she might to awake him. And then she rebuked her brother and Sir

Bors, and called them false traitors, why they would take him out of

his bed; there she cried, and said she would appeal them of his death.

With this came the holy hermit, Sir Baudwin of Brittany, and when he

found Sir Launcelot in that plight he said but little, but wit ye well

he was wroth; and then he bade them: Let us have him in. And so they

all bare him unto the hermitage, and unarmed him, and laid him in his

bed; and evermore his wound bled piteously, but he stirred no limb of

him. Then the knight-hermit put a thing in his nose and a little deal

of water in his mouth. And then Sir Launcelot waked of his swoon, and

then the hermit staunched his bleeding. And when he might speak he

asked Sir Launcelot why he put his life in jeopardy. Sir, said Sir

Launcelot, because I weened I had been strong, and also Sir Bors told

me that there should be at All Hallowmass a great jousts betwixt King

Arthur and the King of Northgalis, and therefore I thought to assay it

myself whether I might be there or not. Ah, Sir Launcelot, said the

hermit, your heart and your courage will never be done until your last

day, but ye shall do now by my counsel. Let Sir Bors depart from you,

and let him do at that tournament what he may: And by the grace of God,

said the knight-hermit, by that the tournament be done and ye come

hither again, Sir Launcelot shall be as whole as ye, so that he will be

governed by me.