"No, in truth, please God! but the body of the Queen lieth in the
coffin before us and in the other is the head of her son, until such
time as the King shall be ended, unto whom God grant long life! But
the Queen bade at her death that his body should be set beside her own
when he shall end. Hereof have we the letters and her seal in this
chapel, and this place made she be builded new on this wise or ever she
died."
XI.
When Lancelot heareth that it is the Queen that lieth in the coffin, he
is so straitened in his heart and in his speech that never a word may
he say. But no semblant of grief durst he make other than such as
might not be perceived, and right great comfort to him was it that
there was an image of Our Lady at the head of the coffin. He knelt
down the nighest he might to the coffin, as it had been to worship the
image, and set his race and his mouth to the stone of the coffin, and
sorroweth for her right sweetly.
"Ha, Lady," saith he, "But that I dread the blame of the people, never
again would I seek to depart from this place, but here would I save my
soul and pray for yours; so would it be much recomforting to me that I
should be so nigh, and should see the sepulchre wherein your body lieth
that had so great sweetness and bounty. God grant me of your pleasure,
that at my death I may still be a-nigh, and that I may die in such
manner and in such place as that I may be shrouded and buried in this
holy chapel where this body lieth."
The night cometh on. A clerk cometh to the hermits and saith, "Never
yet did no knight cry mercy of God so sweetly, nor of His sweet Mother,
as did this knight that is in the chapel."
And the hermits make answer that knights for the most part do well
believe in God. They come to the chapel for him and bid him come
thence, for that meat is ready and he should come to eat, and after
that go to sleep and rest, for it is full time so to do. He telleth
them that as for his eating this day it is stark nought, for a desire
and a will hath taken him to keep vigil in the chapel before one of the
images of Our Lady. No wish had he once to depart thence before the
day, and he would fain that the night should last far longer than it
did. The good men durst not force him against his will; they say,
rather, that the worshipful man is of good life who will keep watch in
such manner throughout the night without drink or meat, for all that he
seemeth to be right weary.
XIII.
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