{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart400.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart400.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart400.htm","text":"CHAPTER XI\nHow Sir Bors told his dream to a priest, which he had\ndreamed, and of the counsel that the priest gave to him.\nNOW leave we him here, said the good man, and go we\nto our harbour till to-morrow; we will come here again\nto do him service. Sir, said Bors, be ye a priest? Yea\nforsooth, said he. Then I pray you tell me a dream that\nbefell to me the last night. Say on, said he. Then he\nbegan so much to tell him of the great bird in the forest,\nand after told him of his birds, one white, another black,\nand of the rotten tree, and of the white flowers. Sir, I\nshall tell you a part now, and the other deal to-morrow.\nThe white fowl betokeneth a gentlewoman, fair and rich,\nwhich loved thee paramours, and hath loved thee long;\nand if thou warn her love she shall go die anon, if thou\nhave no pity on her. That signifieth the great bird, the\nwhich shall make thee to warn her. Now for no fear that\nthou hast, ne for no dread that thou hast of God, thou\nshalt not warn her, but thou wouldst not do it for to be\nholden chaste, for to conquer the loos of the vain glory of\nthe world; for that shall befall thee now an thou warn\nher, that Launcelot, the good knight, thy cousin, shall die.\nAnd therefore men shall now say that thou art a manslayer,\nboth of thy brother, Sir Lionel, and of thy cousin, Sir\nLauncelot du Lake, the which thou mightest have saved and\nrescued easily, but thou weenedst to rescue a maid which\npertaineth nothing to thee. Now look thou whether it\nhad been greater harm of thy brother's death, or else to\nhave suffered her to have lost her maidenhood. Then\nasked he him: Hast thou heard the tokens of thy dream\nthe which I have told to you? Yea forsooth, said Sir Bors,\nall your exposition and declaring of my dream I have well\nunderstood and heard. Then said the man in this black\nclothing: Then is it in thy default if Sir Launcelot, thy\ncousin, die. Sir, said Bors, that were me loath, for wit ye\nwell there is nothing in the world but I had liefer do it\nthan to see my lord, Sir Launcelot du Lake, to die in my\ndefault. Choose ye now the one or the other, said the\ngood man.\nAnd then he led Sir Bors into an high tower, and there\nhe found knights and ladies: those ladies said he was\nwelcome, and so they unarmed him. And when he was\nin his doublet men brought him a mantle furred with\nermine, and put it about him; and then they made him\nsuch cheer that he had forgotten all his sorrow and anguish,\nand only set his heart in these delights and dainties, and\ntook no thought more for his brother, Sir Lionel, neither\nof Sir Launcelot du Lake, his cousin. And anon came\nout of a chamber to him the fairest lady than ever he saw,\nand more richer beseen than ever he saw Queen Guenever\nor any other estate. Lo, said they, Sir Bors, here is the\nlady unto whom we owe all our service, and I trow she be\nthe richest lady and the fairest of all the world, and the\nwhich loveth you best above all other knights, for she will\nhave no knight but you. And when he understood that\nlanguage he was abashed. Not for then she saluted him,\nand he her; and then they sat down together and spake\nof many things, in so much that she besought him to be\nher love, for she had loved him above all earthly men, and\nshe should make him richer than ever was man of his age.\nWhen Bors understood her words he was right evil at ease,\nwhich in no manner would not break chastity, so wist not\nhe how to answer her.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XVI CHAPTER XI","type":"page"}