HOW THE THREE KNIGHTS, WITH PERCIVALE'S SISTER, CAME UNTO THE SAME
FOREST, AND OF AN HART AND FOUR LIONS, AND OTHER THINGS
Then began he to weep right tenderly, and said: Long have I abiden
your coming, but for God's love hold me in your arms, that my soul may
depart out of my body in so good a man's arms as ye be. Gladly, said
Galahad. And then one said on high, that all heard: Galahad, well hast
thou avenged me on God's enemies. Now behoveth thee to go to the
maimed king as soon as thou mayest, for he shall receive by thee
health which he hath abiden so long. And therewith the soul departed
from the body, and Galahad made him to be buried as him ought to be.
Right so departed the three knights, and Percivale's sister with them.
And so they came into a waste forest, and there they saw afore them a
white hart which four lions led. Then they took them to assent for to
follow after for to know whither they repaired; and so they rode after
a great pace till that they came to a valley, and thereby was an
hermitage where a good man dwelled, and the hart and the lions entered
also. So when they saw all this they turned to the chapel, and saw the
good man in a religious weed and in the armour of Our Lord, for he
would sing mass of the Holy Ghost; and so they entered in and heard
mass. And at the secrets of the mass they three saw the hart become a
man, the which marvelled them, and set him upon the altar in a rich
siege; and saw the four lions were changed, the one to the form of a
man, the other to the form of a lion, and the third to an eagle, and
the fourth was changed unto an ox. Then took they their siege where
the hart sat, and went out through a glass window, and there was
nothing perished nor broken; and they heard a voice say: In such a
manner entered the Son of God in the womb of a maid Mary whose
virginity ne was perished ne hurt. And when they heard these words
they fell down to the earth and were astonied; and therewith was a
great clereness. And when they were come to theirself again they went
to the good man and prayed him that he would say them truth. What
thing have ye seen? said he. And they told him all that they had seen.
Ah lords, said he, ye be welcome; now wot I well ye be the good
knights the which shall bring the Sangreal to an end; for ye be they
unto whom Our Lord shall shew great secrets. And well ought Our Lord
be signified to an hart, for the hart when he is old he waxeth young
again in his white skin. Right so cometh again Our Lord from death to
life, for He lost earthly flesh that was the deadly flesh, which He
had taken in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary; and for that cause
appeared Our Lord as a white hart without spot. And the four that were
with Him is to understand the four evangelists which set in writing a
part of Jesu Christ's deeds that He did sometime when He was among you
an earthly man; for wit ye well never erst ne might no knight know the
truth, for ofttimes or this Our Lord showed Him unto good men and unto
good knights, in likeness of an hart, but I suppose from henceforth ye
shall see no more. And then they joyed much, and dwelled there all
that day. And upon the morrow when they had heard mass they departed
and commended the good man to God: and so they came to a castle and
passed by. So there came a knight armed after them and said: Lords,
hark what I shall say to you.