Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XV CHAPTER I

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 CHAPTER I
 
 How Sir Launcelot came to a chapel, where he found dead,
 in a white shirt, a man of religion, of an hundred
 winter old.
 
 
 WHEN the hermit had kept Sir Launcelot three days, the
 hermit gat him an horse, an helm, and a sword.  And then
 he departed about the hour of noon.  And then he saw a
 little house.  And when he came near he saw a chapel, and
 there beside he saw an old man that was clothed all in
 white full richly; and then Sir Launcelot said:  God save
 you.  God keep you, said the good man, and make you a
 good knight.  Then Sir Launcelot alighted and entered
 into the chapel, and there he saw an old man dead, in a
 white shirt of passing fine cloth.
 
 Sir, said the good man, this man that is dead ought not
 to be in such clothing as ye see him in, for in that he
 brake the oath of his order, for he hath been more than an
 hundred winter a man of a religion.  And then the good
 man and Sir Launcelot went into the chapel; and the
 good man took a stole about his neck, and a book, and
 then he conjured on that book; and with that they saw in
 an hideous figure and horrible, that there was no man so
 hard-hearted nor so hard but he should have been afeard.
 Then said the fiend:  Thou hast travailed me greatly;
 now tell me what thou wilt with me.  I will, said the good
 man, that thou tell me how my fellow became dead, and
 whether he be saved or damned.  Then he said with an
 horrible voice:  He is not lost but saved.  How may that
 be? said the good man; it seemed to me that he lived
 not well, for he brake his order for to wear a shirt where
 he ought to wear none, and who that trespasseth against
 our order doth not well.  Not so, said the fiend, this man
 that lieth here dead was come of a great lineage.  And
 there was a lord that hight the Earl de Vale, that held
 great war against this man's nephew, the which hight
 Aguarus.  And so this Aguarus saw the earl was bigger
 than he.  Then he went for to take counsel of his uncle,
 the which lieth here dead as ye may see.  And then he
 asked leave, and went out of his hermitage for to maintain
 his nephew against the mighty earl; and so it happed
 that this man that lieth here dead did so much by his
 wisdom and hardiness that the earl was taken, and three of
 his lords, by force of this dead man.