'And this brotherhood so gallant, dost thou know what to them shall give Their life, and their strength and their valour--then know, by a _stone_ they live, And that stone is both pure and precious--Its name hast thou never heard? Men call it _Lapis Exilis_--by its magic the wondrous bird, 630 The Phoenix, becometh ashes, and yet doth such virtue flow From the stone, that afresh it riseth renewed from the ashes glow, And the plumes that erewhile it moulted spring forth yet more fair and bright-- And tho' faint be the man and feeble, yet the day that his failing sight Beholdeth the stone, he dies not, nor can, till eight days be gone, 635 Nor his countenance wax less youthful--If one daily behold that stone, (If a man it shall be, or a maiden 'tis the same,) for a hundred years, If they look on its power, their hair groweth not grey, and their face appears The same as when first they saw it, nor their flesh nor their bone shall fail But young they abide for ever--And this stone all men call the Grail.' 640 'And Its holiest power, and the highest shall I ween be renewed to-day, For ever upon Good Friday a messenger takes her way. From the height of the highest Heaven a Dove on her flight doth wing, And a Host, so white and holy, she unto the stone doth bring. And she layeth It down upon It; and white as the Host the Dove 645 That, her errand done, swift wingeth her way to the Heaven above. Thus ever upon Good Friday doth it chance as I tell to thee: And the stone from the Host receiveth all good that on earth may be Of food or of drink, the earth beareth as the fulness of Paradise. All wild things in wood or in water, and all that 'neath Heaven flies, 650 To that brotherhood are they given, a pledge of God's favour fair, For His servants He ever feedeth and the Grail for their needs doth care!'