Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XXI CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VII

Of the opinion of some men of the death of King Arthur;
and how Queen Guenever made her a nun in Almesbury


YET some men say in many parts of England that King
Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu
into another place; and men say that he shall come again,
and he shall win the holy cross.  I will not say it shall be
so, but rather I will say: here in this world he changed
his life.  But many men say that there is written upon his
tomb this verse:   Thus leave I here Sir Bedivere with the
hermit, that dwelled that time in a chapel beside Glastonbury,
and there was his hermitage.  And so they lived in
their prayers, and fastings, and great abstinence.  And
when Queen Guenever understood that King Arthur was
slain, and all the noble knights, Sir Mordred and all the
remnant, then the queen stole away, and five ladies with
her, and so she went to Almesbury; and there she let
make herself a nun, and ware white clothes and black,
and great penance she took, as ever did sinful lady in this
land, and never creature could make her merry; but lived
in fasting, prayers, and alms-deeds, that all manner of
people marvelled how virtuously she was changed.  Now
leave we Queen Guenever in Almesbury, a nun in white
clothes and black, and there she was Abbess and ruler
as reason would; and turn we from her, and speak we of
Sir Launcelot du Lake.