HOW GALAHAD GAT HIM A SHIELD
Now Sir Galahad was yet without shield, and so he rode four days
without any adventure. After even-song of the fourth day he came to a
white abbey, and there he was received with great reverence, and led to
a chamber wherein he was ware of two knights of the Round Table, the
one King Bagdemagus and the other Sir Uwaine. They went unto him and
made of him great solace; and they told him that within this place was
a shield that no man might bear about his neck without great harm to
himself, unless he were the worthiest knight of the world.
[Illustration: Sir Galahad]
"Ah, sir," said King Bagdemagus to Galahad, "I shall to-morrow assay
this strange adventure, and if I may not achieve it ye shall take it
upon you, for I am sure ye shall not fail."
"Sir," said Galahad, "I agree right well thereto, for I have no shield."
So on the morn they arose and heard mass. Then King Bagdemagus asked
where the adventurous shield was. Anon a monk led him behind an altar,
where the shield hung as white as any snow, but in the midst was a red
cross. The monk counselled him to be well advised before taking it,
and King Bagdemagus answered:
"Well, I wot well that I am not the best knight of the world, but yet
shall I assay to bear it."
And so, bidding Sir Galahad to abide there still, till it was known how
he sped, King Bagdemagus bore the red cross shield out of the
monastery, took with him a squire, the which should bring tidings unto
Sir Galahad how he sped, and rode away.
Two miles off they came into a fair valley afore a hermitage, and there
they saw a goodly knight in white armour, horse and all. He came as
fast as his horse might run, with his spear in the rest, and King
Bagdemagus dressed his spear against him, and brake it upon the White
Knight. The other struck him so hard that he brake the mails, and
thrust him through the right shoulder, for the shield covered him not
at that time, and so he bare him from his horse.
Therewith the White Knight alighted and took the white shield from King
Bagdemagus, saying, "Knight, thou hast done thyself great folly, for
this shield ought not to be borne but by him that shall have no peer
that liveth." Then he came to the squire, and said, "Bear this shield
unto the good knight Sir Galahad, that thou left in the abbey, and
greet him well from me."
The squire first went unto Bagdemagus, and asked him whether he were
sore wounded or not. "Yea, forsooth," said he, "I shall escape hard
from death." Then the squire fetched his horse, and brought him with
great pain unto an abbey. Then was he taken down safely, and unarmed,
and laid in a bed. There his wounds were looked to, and, as the book
telleth, he lay there long, and escaped hard with life.
"Sir," said the squire, when he came to Galahad, "that knight that
wounded Bagdemagus sendeth you greeting, and bade that ye should bear
this shield, wherethrough great adventures should befall."
"Now blessed be God," said Sir Galahad. Then he asked his arms,
mounted upon his horse, and, commending himself unto God, hung the
white shield about his neck. So he departed, and within a while came
by the hermitage, where the White Knight awaited him. Every each
saluted other courteously, and the knight told Sir Galahad the marvels
of the shield.
"Sir," said he, "at that same hour that Joseph of Arimathea came to
Sarras, there was a king in that city called Evelake, that had great
war against the Saracens, and there Joseph made this shield for him in
the name of Him that died upon the cross. Then through his good belief
he had the better of his enemies; for when King Evelake was in the
battle, there was a cloth set afore the shield, and when he was in the
greatest peril he let put away the cloth, and then his enemies saw a
figure of a man on the cross, wherethrough they all were discomfited.
"Soon afterwards Joseph departed from Sarras, and King Evelake would go
with him whether he would or nould, and they came unto this land of
Britain. Not long after this, when Joseph lay on his death-bed, King
Evelake begged of him some token that would lead him to think on the
old knight for love of whom he had left his own country. So Joseph
took this shield, and thereupon he made a cross with his own blood;
that should be Evelake's token. Then he said that no man should bear
this shield until the time that Galahad come, the last of Joseph's
lineage, that should do many marvellous deeds while bearing it about
his neck. To-day is the time they then set when ye shall have King
Evelake's shield."
So spake the White Knight, and then vanished away; and Sir Galahad rode
with the squire back to the abbey.