{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart384.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart384.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart384.htm","text":"CHAPTER I\nHow Sir Launcelot came to a chapel, where he found dead,\nin a white shirt, a man of religion, of an hundred\nwinter old.\nWHEN the hermit had kept Sir Launcelot three days, the\nhermit gat him an horse, an helm, and a sword. And then\nhe departed about the hour of noon. And then he saw a\nlittle house. And when he came near he saw a chapel, and\nthere beside he saw an old man that was clothed all in\nwhite full richly; and then Sir Launcelot said: God save\nyou. God keep you, said the good man, and make you a\ngood knight. Then Sir Launcelot alighted and entered\ninto the chapel, and there he saw an old man dead, in a\nwhite shirt of passing fine cloth.\nSir, said the good man, this man that is dead ought not\nto be in such clothing as ye see him in, for in that he\nbrake the oath of his order, for he hath been more than an\nhundred winter a man of a religion. And then the good\nman and Sir Launcelot went into the chapel; and the\ngood man took a stole about his neck, and a book, and\nthen he conjured on that book; and with that they saw in\nan hideous figure and horrible, that there was no man so\nhard-hearted nor so hard but he should have been afeard.\nThen said the fiend: Thou hast travailed me greatly;\nnow tell me what thou wilt with me. I will, said the good\nman, that thou tell me how my fellow became dead, and\nwhether he be saved or damned. Then he said with an\nhorrible voice: He is not lost but saved. How may that\nbe? said the good man; it seemed to me that he lived\nnot well, for he brake his order for to wear a shirt where\nhe ought to wear none, and who that trespasseth against\nour order doth not well. Not so, said the fiend, this man\nthat lieth here dead was come of a great lineage. And\nthere was a lord that hight the Earl de Vale, that held\ngreat war against this man's nephew, the which hight\nAguarus. And so this Aguarus saw the earl was bigger\nthan he. Then he went for to take counsel of his uncle,\nthe which lieth here dead as ye may see. And then he\nasked leave, and went out of his hermitage for to maintain\nhis nephew against the mighty earl; and so it happed\nthat this man that lieth here dead did so much by his\nwisdom and hardiness that the earl was taken, and three of\nhis lords, by force of this dead man.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XV CHAPTER I","type":"page"}