Lancelot hath no mind to disobey the King's commandment; and he
remembered that the damsel had conjured him by the thing that most he
loved; nor was there nought in the world that he loved so much as the
Queen, albeit she were dead, nor never thought he of none other thing
save her alone. Then standeth he straight upright, doth off his robe,
and cometh straight to the quarrel that is fixed in the column. He
setteth his hand thereunto and draweth it forth with a right passing
strong wrench, so sturdily that he maketh the column tremble. Then he
giveth it to the damsel.
"Sir," saith she to King Arthur, "Now is it my devoir to tell you
plainly of my errand; nor might none of the knights here within have
drawn forth the quarrel save only he; and you held me in covenant how
he that should draw it forth should do that which I shall require of
him, and that he might do it, nor will I pray nor require of him nought
that is not reason. Needs must he go to the Chapel Perilous the
swiftest he may, and there will he find a knight that lieth shrouded in
the midst of the chapel. He will take of the cloth wherein he is
shrouded and a sword that lieth at his side in the coffin, and will
take them to the Castle Perilous; and when he shall there have been, he
shall return to the castle where he slew the lion in the cavern wherein
are the two griffons, and the head of one of them shall he take and
bring to me at Castle Perilous, for a knight there lieth sick that may
not otherwise be healed."