{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart382.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart382.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart382.htm","text":"CHAPTER IX\nHow Sir Percivale promised her help, and how he required\nher of love, and how he was saved from the fiend.\nTHEN Sir Percivale promised her all the help that he\nmight; and then she thanked him. And at that time the\nweather was hot. Then she called unto her a gentlewoman\nand bade her bring forth a pavilion; and so she\ndid, and pight it upon the gravel. Sir, said she, now may\nye rest you in this heat of the day. Then he thanked\nher, and she put off his helm and his shield, and there he\nslept a great while. And then he awoke and asked her if\nshe had any meat, and she said: Yea, also ye shall have\nenough. And so there was set enough upon the table,\nand thereon so much that he had marvel, for there was all\nmanner of meats that he could think on. Also he drank\nthere the strongest wine that ever he drank, him thought,\nand therewith he was a little chafed more than he ought\nto be; with that he beheld the gentlewoman, and him\nthought she was the fairest creature that ever he saw.\nAnd then Sir Percivale proffered her love, and prayed her\nthat she would be his. Then she refused him, in a\nmanner, when he required her, for the cause he should be\nthe more ardent on her, and ever he ceased not to pray\nher of love. And when she saw him well enchafed, then\nshe said: Sir Percivale, wit you well I shall not fulfil your\nwill but if ye swear from henceforth ye shall be my true\nservant, and to do nothing but that I shall command you.\nWill ye ensure me this as ye be a true knight? Yea, said\nhe, fair lady, by the faith of my body. Well, said she,\nnow shall ye do with me whatso it please you; and now\nwit ye well ye are the knight in the world that I have\nmost desire to.\nAnd then two squires were commanded to make a bed\nin midst of the pavilion. And anon she was unclothed\nand laid therein. And then Sir Percivale laid him down\nby her naked; and by adventure and grace he saw his\nsword lie on the ground naked, in whose pommel was a\nred cross and the sign of the crucifix therein, and bethought\nhim on his knighthood and his promise made to-forehand\nunto the good man; then he made a sign of the cross in\nhis forehead, and therewith the pavilion turned up-so-\ndown, and then it changed unto a smoke, and a black\ncloud, and then he was adread and cried aloud:","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XIV CHAPTER IX","type":"page"}