Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XXI CHAPTER IX

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 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.