The Story of the Grail and the Passing of ArthurPyle, Howard
General
The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur
Pyle, Howard
Arthur, King -- Legends; Arthurian romances -- Adaptations; Folklore -- England; Grail -- Legends; Knights and knighthood -- Folklore
But Queen Guinevere perceived the King’s danger and she shrieked out
very dolorously, “Spare the King his life, Sir Ector!” And Sir Launcelot
said to Sir Ector, “Sir, how is this? Would you slay your King? Remember
it was he who made you a knight and who made me a knight. Haply he may
forget that he made us knights, but let us not forget it.”
So with that Sir Ector put up his sword again, and he and Sir Launcelot
lifted the King and set him upon his horse once more. And the King wept
bitter tears to see how noble and knightly was Sir Launcelot, and he
said, “Ah, Launcelot, Launcelot, that this should be!”
So after that Sir Launcelot withdrew into the castle with the Queen and
the gates were closed behind him. But ever King Arthur sat still weeping
and saying, “Ah, Launcelot, Launcelot, that this should be!”
Then the friends of Sir Launcelot wist not what they should do in this
extremity, for there were they within the castle again, and could not
come out thence because of those who besieged them in that place. And
ever they were growing weaker with each assault, but the armies of King
Arthur were not growing weaker.
[Sidenote: _The Bishop of Rochester cometh to the King._]
At this extremity there came the Bishop of Rochester to the camp of King
Arthur, and the purpose of the Bishop was to make peace betwixt these
parties. So the Bishop came to where King Arthur was, and he found King
Arthur sunk in grief. For already three-and-twenty Knights of the Round
Table had lost their lives in these wars and contentions, and King
Arthur grieved for them very sorely. For there were no more knights like
those first knights foregathered about the Round Table, nor have there
ever been such knights as they were from that day to this.
Then the Bishop stood before the King, and the King looked at him
remotely as though he were a great distance away, for his eyes were
dimmed with weeping. And the Bishop said to the King, “Lord, let this
quarrel cease between you and Sir Launcelot, and let there be peace in
the land. For now is the entire land distracted with this quarrel. For
friend fighteth against friend, neighbor against neighbor;--yea, even
brother against brother. As for you, my lord, these knights are of your
Round Table and of your making; what pleasure or what honor then can it
be to you to destroy them?”
The King said to him, “Sir, this war was not of my forming or my
seeking, but of Sir Launcelot’s. For first Sir Launcelot resisted arrest
in a just cause, and then he resisted the arrest of the Queen. So he and
his fellows took the Queen away from me, and they have her in this
castle. Let them then deliver the Queen to me and there shall be peace
betwixt the friends of Sir Launcelot and my friends.”
[Sidenote: _The Bishop intercedes for the Queen._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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