{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart500.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart500.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart500.htm","text":"CHAPTER XI\nHow Sir Launcelot went with his seven fellows to Almesbury,\nand found there Queen Guenever dead, whom they\nbrought to Glastonbury\nTHEN Sir Launcelot rose up or day, and told the\nhermit. It were well done, said the hermit, that ye made\nyou ready, and that you disobey not the avision. Then\nSir Launcelot took his eight fellows with him, and on foot\nthey yede from Glastonbury to Almesbury, the which is\nlittle more than thirty mile. And thither they came\nwithin two days, for they were weak and feeble to go.\nAnd when Sir Launcelot was come to Almesbury within\nthe nunnery, Queen Guenever died but half an hour afore.\nAnd the ladies told Sir Launcelot that Queen Guenever\ntold them all or she passed, that Sir Launcelot had been\npriest near a twelvemonth, And hither he cometh as fast\nas he may to fetch my corpse; and beside my lord, King\nArthur, he shall bury me. Wherefore the queen said in\nhearing of them all: I beseech Almighty God that I may\nnever have power to see Sir Launcelot with my worldly\neyen; and thus, said all the ladies, was ever her prayer\nthese two days, till she was dead. Then Sir Launcelot\nsaw her visage, but he wept not greatly, but sighed. And\nso he did all the observance of the service himself, both\nthe dirige, and on the morn he sang mass. And there\nwas ordained an horse bier; and so with an hundred\ntorches ever brenning about the corpse of the queen, and\never Sir Launcelot with his eight fellows went about the\nhorse bier, singing and reading many an holy orison, and\nfrankincense upon the corpse incensed. Thus Sir Launcelot\nand his eight fellows went on foot from Almesbury\nunto Glastonbury.\nAnd when they were come to the chapel and the\nhermitage, there she had a dirige, with great devotion.\nAnd on the morn the hermit that sometime was Bishop of\nCanterbury sang the mass of Requiem with great devotion.\nAnd Sir Launcelot was the first that offered, and then also\nhis eight fellows. And then she was wrapped in cered\ncloth of Raines, from the top to the toe, in thirtyfold,\nand after she was put in a web of lead, and then in a coffin\nof marble. And when she was put in the earth Sir Launcelot\nswooned, and lay long still, while the hermit came\nand awaked him, and said: Ye be to blame, for ye\ndisplease God with such manner of sorrow-making. Truly,\nsaid Sir Launcelot, I trust I do not displease God, for He\nknoweth mine intent. For my sorrow was not, nor is not\nfor any rejoicing of sin, but my sorrow may never have\nend. For when I remember of her beauty, and of her\nnoblesse, that was both with her king and with her, so\nwhen I saw his corpse and her corpse so lie together, truly\nmine heart would not serve to sustain my careful body.\nAlso when I remember me how by my default, mine orgule\nand my pride, that they were both laid full low, that were\npeerless that ever was living of Christian people, wit you\nwell, said Sir Launcelot, this remembered, of their kindness\nand mine unkindness, sank so to mine heart, that I\nmight not sustain myself. So the French book maketh\nmention.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XXI CHAPTER XI","type":"page"}