_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 thou 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’s health; and yet I trust,
through God’s grace, that after my death to have a sight of the blessed
face of Christ, and at doomsday 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 mis-living. Now, sweet madam, said Sir
Launcelot, would ye that I should 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
Sancgreal 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 Sancgreal,
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.