Then was there peace betwixt the earl and this Aguarus, and great
surety that the earl should never war against him. Then this dead man
that here lieth came to this hermitage again; and then the earl made
two of his nephews for to be avenged upon this man. So they came on a
day, and found this dead man at the sacring of his mass, and they abode
him till he had said mass. And then they set upon him and drew out
swords to have slain him; but there would no sword bite on him more
than upon a gad of steel, for the high Lord which he served He him
preserved. Then made they a great fire, and did off all his clothes,
and the hair off his back. And then this dead man hermit said unto
them: Ween you to burn me? It shall not lie in your power nor to perish
me as much as a thread, an there were any on my body. No? said one of
them, it shall be assayed. And then they despoiled him, and put upon
him this shirt, and cast him in a fire, and there he lay all that night
till it was day in that fire, and was not dead, and so in the morn I
came and found him dead; but I found neither thread nor skin tamed, and
so took him out of the fire with great fear, and laid him here as ye
may see. And now may ye suffer me to go my way, for I have said you the
sooth. And then he departed with a great tempest.
Then was the good man and Sir Launcelot more gladder than they were
to-fore. And then Sir Launcelot dwelled with that good man that night.
Sir, said the good man, be ye not Sir Launcelot du Lake? Yea, sir, said
he. What seek ye in this country? Sir, said Sir Launcelot, I go to seek
the adventures of the Sangreal. Well, said he, seek it ye may well, but
though it were here ye shall have no power to see it no more than a
blind man should see a bright sword, and that is long on your sin, and
else ye were more abler than any man living. And then Sir Launcelot
began to weep. Then said the good man: Were ye confessed sith ye
entered into the quest of the Sangreal? Yea, sir, said Sir Launcelot.
Then upon the morn when the good man had sung his mass, then they
buried the dead man. Then Sir Launcelot said: Father, what shall I do?
Now, said the good man, I require you take this hair that was this holy
man’s and put it next thy skin, and it shall prevail thee greatly. Sir,
and I will do it, said Sir Launcelot. Also I charge you that ye eat no
flesh as long as ye be in the quest of the Sangreal, nor ye shall drink
no wine, and that ye hear mass daily an ye may do it. So he took the
hair and put it upon him, and so departed at evensong-time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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