{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart401.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart401.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart401.htm","text":"CHAPTER XII\nHow the devil in a woman's likeness would have had Sir\nBors to have lain by her, and how by God's grace he\nescaped.\nALAS, said she, Bors, shall ye not do my will? Madam,\nsaid Bors, there is no lady in the world whose will I will\nfulfil as of this thing, for my brother lieth dead which was\nslain right late. Ah Bors, said she, I have loved you long\nfor the great beauty I have seen in you, and the great\nhardiness that I have heard of you, that needs ye must lie\nby me this night, and therefore I pray you grant it me.\nTruly, said he, I shall not do it in no manner wise. Then\nshe made him such sorrow as though she would have died.\nWell Bors, said she, unto this have ye brought me, nigh\nto mine end. And therewith she took him by the hand,\nand bade him behold her. And ye shall see how I shall\ndie for your love. Ah, said then he, that shall I never see.\nThen she departed and went up into an high battlement,\nand led with her twelve gentlewomen; and when\nthey were above, one of the gentlewomen cried, and said:\nAh, Sir Bors, gentle knight have mercy on us all, and\nsuffer my lady to have her will, and if ye do not we must\nsuffer death with our lady, for to fall down off this high\ntower, and if ye suffer us thus to die for so little a thing\nall ladies and gentlewomen will say or you dishonour.\nThen looked he upward, they seemed all ladies of great\nestate, and richly and well beseen. Then had he of them\ngreat pity; not for that he was uncounselled in himself\nthat liefer he had they all had lost their souls than he his,\nand with that they fell adown all at once unto the earth.\nAnd when he saw that, he was all abashed, and had thereof\ngreat marvel. With that he blessed his body and his\nvisage. And anon he heard a great noise and a great cry,\nas though all the fiends of hell had been about him; and\ntherewith he saw neither tower, nor lady, nor gentlewoman,\nnor no chapel where he brought his brother to. Then\nheld he up both his hands to the heaven, and said: Fair\nFather God, I am grievously escaped; and then he took\nhis arms and his horse and rode on his way.\nThen he heard a clock smite on his right hand; and\nthither he came to an abbey on his right hand, closed\nwith high walls, and there was let in. Then they supposed\nthat he was one of the quest of the Sangreal, so they led\nhim into a chamber and unarmed him. Sirs, said Sir\nBors, if there be any holy man in this house I pray you\nlet me speak with him. Then one of them led him unto\nthe Abbot, which was in a chapel. And then Sir Bors\nsaluted him, and he him again. Sir, said Bors, I am a\nknight-errant; and told him all the adventure which he\nhad seen. Sir Knight, said the Abbot, I wot not what ye\nbe, for I weened never that a knight of your age might\nhave been so strong in the grace of our Lord Jesu Christ.\nNot for then ye shall go unto your rest, for I will not\ncounsel you this day, it is too late, and to-morrow I shall\ncounsel you as I can.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XVI CHAPTER XII","type":"page"}