{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart498.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart498.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart498.htm","text":"CHAPTER IX\nHow Sir Launcelot departed to seek the Queen Guenever, and\nhow he found her at Almesbury\nTHEN came Sir Bors de Ganis, and said: My lord Sir\nLauncelot, what think ye for to do, now to ride in this\nrealm? wit ye well ye shall find few friends. Be as be\nmay, said Sir Launcelot, keep you still here, for I will\nforth on my journey, and no man nor child shall go with\nme. So it was no boot to strive, but he departed and\nrode westerly, and there he sought a seven or eight days;\nand at the last he came to a nunnery, and then was Queen\nGuenever ware of Sir Launcelot as he walked in the\ncloister. And when she saw him there she swooned\nthrice, that all the ladies and gentlewomen had work\nenough to hold the queen up. So when she might speak,\nshe called ladies and gentlewomen to her, and said: Ye\nmarvel, fair ladies, why I make this fare. Truly, she\nsaid, it is for the sight of yonder knight that yonder\nstandeth; wherefore I pray you all call him to me.\nWhen Sir Launcelot was brought to her, then she said\nto all the ladies: Through this man and me hath all this\nwar been wrought, and the death of the most noblest\nknights of the world; for through our love that we have\nloved together is my most noble lord slain. Therefore,\nSir Launcelot, wit thou well I am set in such a plight to\nget my soul-heal; and yet I trust through God's grace\nthat after my death to have a sight of the blessed face of\nChrist, and at domesday to sit on his right side, for as\nsinful as ever I was are saints in heaven. Therefore, Sir\nLauncelot, I require thee and beseech thee heartily, for all\nthe love that ever was betwixt us, that thou never see me\nmore in the visage; and I command thee, on God's\nbehalf, that thou forsake my company, and to thy kingdom\nthou turn again, and keep well thy realm from war and\nwrack; for as well as I have loved thee, mine heart will\nnot serve me to see thee, for through thee and me is\nthe flower of kings and knights destroyed; therefore, Sir\nLauncelot, go to thy realm, and there take thee a wife,\nand live with her with joy and bliss; and I pray thee\nheartily, pray for me to our Lord that I may amend\nmy misliving. Now, sweet madam, said Sir Launcelot,\nwould ye that I should now return again unto my country,\nand there to wed a lady? Nay, madam, wit you well that\nshall I never do, for I shall never be so false to you of\nthat I have promised; but the same destiny that ye have\ntaken you to, I will take me unto, for to please Jesu, and\never for you I cast me specially to pray. If thou wilt do\nso, said the queen, hold thy promise, but I may never\nbelieve but that thou wilt turn to the world again. Well,\nmadam, said he, ye say as pleaseth you, yet wist you me\nnever false of my promise, and God defend but I should\nforsake the world as ye have done. For in the quest of\nthe Sangreal I had forsaken the vanities of the world had\nnot your lord been. And if I had done so at that time,\nwith my heart, will, and thought, I had passed all the\nknights that were in the Sangreal except Sir Galahad, my\nson. And therefore, lady, sithen ye have taken you to\nperfection, I must needs take me to perfection, of right.\nFor I take record of God, in you I have had mine earthly\njoy; and if I had found you now so disposed, I had cast\nme to have had you into mine own realm.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XXI CHAPTER IX","type":"page"}