{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart103.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart103.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart103.htm","text":"CHAPTER III\nHow four queens found Launcelot sleeping, and how by\nenchantment he was taken and led into a castle.\nNOW leave we these knights prisoners, and speak we of Sir\nLauncelot du Lake that lieth under the apple-tree sleeping. Even\nabout the noon there came by him four queens of great estate;\nand, for the heat should not annoy them, there rode four knights\nabout them, and bare a cloth of green silk on four spears,\nbetwixt them and the sun, and the queens rode on four white\nmules. Thus as they rode they heard by them a great horse grimly\nneigh, then were they ware of a sleeping knight, that lay all\narmed under an apple-tree; anon as these queens looked on his\nface, they knew it was Sir Launcelot. Then they began for to\nstrive for that knight, everych one said they would have him to\nher love. We shall not strive, said <179>Morgan le Fay, that was\nKing Arthur's sister, I shall put an enchantment upon him that he\nshall not awake in six hours, and then I will lead him away unto\nmy castle, and when he is surely within my hold, I shall take the\nenchantment from him, and then let him choose which of us he will\nhave unto paramour.\nSo this enchantment was cast upon Sir Launcelot, and then they\nlaid him upon his shield, and bare him so on horseback betwixt\ntwo knights, and brought him unto the castle Chariot, and there\nthey laid him in a chamber cold, and at night they sent unto him\na fair damosel with his supper ready dight. By that the\nenchantment was past, and when she came she saluted him, and\nasked him what cheer. I cannot say, fair damosel, said Sir\nLauncelot, for I wot not how I came into this castle but it be by\nan enchantment. Sir, said she, ye must make good cheer, and if\nye be such a knight as it is said ye be, I shall tell you more\nto-morn by prime of the day. Gramercy, fair damosel, said Sir\nLauncelot, of your good will I require you. And so she departed.\nAnd there he lay all that night without comfort of anybody. And\non the morn early came these four queens, passingly well beseen,\nall they bidding him good morn, and he them again.\nSir knight, the four queens said, thou must understand thou art\nour prisoner, and we here know thee well that thou art Sir\nLauncelot du Lake, King Ban's son, and because we understand your\nworthiness, that thou art the noblest knight living, and as we\nknow well there can no lady have thy love but one, and that is\nQueen Guenever, and now thou shalt lose her for ever, and she\nthee, and therefore thee behoveth now to choose one of us four.\nI am the Queen Morgan le Fay, queen of the land of Gore, and here\nis the queen of Northgalis, and the queen of Eastland, and the\nqueen of the Out Isles; now choose one of us which thou wilt have\nto thy paramour, for thou mayest not choose or else in this\nprison to die. This is an hard case, said Sir Launcelot, that\neither I must die or else choose one of you, yet had I liefer to\ndie in this prison with worship, than to have one of you to my\nparamour maugre my <180>head. And therefore ye be answered, I\nwill none of you, for ye be false enchantresses, and as for my\nlady, Dame Guenever, were I at my liberty as I was, I would prove\nit on you or on yours, that she is the truest lady unto her lord\nliving. Well, said the queens, is this your answer, that ye will\nrefuse us. Yea, on my life, said Sir Launcelot, refused ye be of\nme. So they departed and left him there alone that made great\nsorrow.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK VI CHAPTER III","type":"page"}