Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XVIII CHAPTER XVII

Sacred Texts  Legends and Sagas  Index  BOOK XVIII  Previous  Next 

 CHAPTER XVII
 
 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.