{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart344.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart344.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart344.htm","text":"CHAPTER V\nHow Sir Launcelot, after that he was whole and had his\nmind, he was ashamed, and how that Elaine desired a\ncastle for him.\nAND when Sir Launcelot saw King Pelles and Elaine, he\nwaxed ashamed and said thus: O Lord Jesu, how came I\nhere? for God's sake, my lord, let me wit how I came\nhere. Sir, said Dame Elaine, into this country ye came\nlike a madman, clean out of your wit, and here have ye\nbeen kept as a fool; and no creature here knew what ye\nwere, until by fortune a maiden of mine brought me unto\nyou whereas ye lay sleeping by a well, and anon as I\nverily beheld you I knew you. And then I told my\nfather, and so were ye brought afore this holy vessel, and\nby the virtue of it thus were ye healed. O Jesu, mercy,\nsaid Sir Launcelot; if this be sooth, how many there be\nthat know of my woodness! So God me help, said\nElaine, no more but my father, and I, and Dame Brisen.\nNow for Christ's love, said Sir Launcelot, keep it in\ncounsel, and let no man know it in the world, for I am\nsore ashamed that I have been thus miscarried; for I am\nbanished out of the country of Logris for ever, that is for\nto say the country of England.\nAnd so Sir Launcelot lay more than a fortnight or\never that he might stir for soreness. And then upon a\nday he said unto Dame Elaine these words: Lady Elaine,\nfor your sake I have had much travail, care, and anguish,\nit needeth not to rehearse it, ye know how. Notwithstanding\nI know well I have done foul to you when that\nI drew my sword to you, to have slain you, upon the\nmorn when I had lain with you. And all was the cause,\nthat ye and Dame Brisen made me for to lie by you\nmaugre mine head; and as ye say, that night Galahad\nyour son was begotten. That is truth, said Dame Elaine.\nNow will ye for my love, said Sir Launcelot, go unto\nyour father and get me a place of him wherein I may\ndwell? for in the court of King Arthur may I never\ncome. Sir, said Dame Elaine, I will live and die with\nyou, and only for your sake; and if my life might not\navail you and my death might avail you, wit you well I\nwould die for your sake. And I will go to my father\nand I am sure there is nothing that I can desire of him\nbut I shall have it. And where ye be, my lord Sir\nLauncelot, doubt ye not but I will be with you with all\nthe service that I may do. So forthwithal she went to\nher father and said, Sir, my lord, Sir Launcelot, desireth\nto be here by you in some castle of yours. Well daughter,\nsaid the king, sith it is his desire to abide in these marches\nhe shall be in the Castle of Bliant, and there shall ye be\nwith him, and twenty of the fairest ladies that be in the\ncountry, and they shall all be of the great blood, and ye\nshall have ten knights with you; for, daughter, I will that\nye wit we all be honoured by the blood of Sir Launcelot.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XII CHAPTER V","type":"page"}