Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XXI CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER IX

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.