Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XIII CHAPTER XI

Sacred Texts  Legends and Sagas  Index  BOOK XIII  Previous  Next 

 CHAPTER XI
 
 How Joseph made a cross on the white shield with his
 blood, and how Galahad was by a monk brought to
 a tomb.
 
 
 NOT long after that Joseph was laid in his deadly bed.
 And when King Evelake saw that he made much sorrow,
 and said:  For thy love I have left my country, and sith
 ye shall depart out of this world, leave me some token of
 yours that I may think on you.  Joseph said:  That will
 I do full gladly; now bring me your shield that I took
 you when ye went into battle against King Tolleme.
 Then Joseph bled sore at the nose, so that he might not
 by no mean be staunched.  And there upon that shield
 he made a cross of his own blood.  Now may ye see a
 remembrance that I love you, for ye shall never see this
 shield but ye shall think on me, and it shall be always as
 fresh as it is now.  And never shall man bear this shield
 about his neck but he shall repent it, unto the time that
 Galahad, the good knight, bear it; and the last of my
 lineage shall have it about his neck, that shall do many
 marvellous deeds.  Now, said King Evelake, where shall
 I put this shield, that this worthy knight may have it?
 Ye shall leave it thereas Nacien, the hermit, shall be put
 after his death; for thither shall that good knight come
 the fifteenth day after that he shall receive the order of
 knighthood: and so that day that they set is this time
 that he have his shield, and in the same abbey lieth
 Nacien, the hermit.  And then the White Knight
 vanished away.
 
 Anon as the squire had heard these words, he alighted
 off his hackney and kneeled down at Galahad's feet, and
 prayed him that he might go with him till he had made him
 knight.  Yea,[1] I would not refuse you.  Then will ye
 make me a knight? said the squire, and that order, by the
 grace of God, shall be well set in me.  So Sir Galahad
 granted him, and turned again unto the abbey where they
 came from; and there men made great joy of Sir Galahad.
 And anon as he was alighted there was a monk brought
 him unto a tomb in a churchyard, where there was such a
 noise that who that heard it should verily nigh be mad or
 lose his strength: and sir, they said, we deem it is a fiend.
 
 
 [1] Caxton ``Yf,'' for which ``Ye'' seems the easiest emendation that
 will save the sense.