Chapter First
How Queen Guinevere visited Sir Launcelot in the forest; how Sir Launcelot returned to Court as aforetime, and how he fled once more from the Court.
NOW it hath been told how that after the quest of the Grail all those knights who had not died in that quest, or who were able to return did return to the Court of King Arthur.
Sir Launcelot dwelleth in the forest.
But Sir Launcelot of the Lake did not return with the other knights, for he abided in the forest not very far distant from the habitation of the Hermit of the Forest. There he lived a recluse in pious meditation, considering of his sins and repenting of them.
Several knights had seen him at that place where he was dwelling and they knew him, and they brought away from that place news of him and of the life he led. That news became known at the Court of King Arthur, and there was much talked of, and King Arthur said, “What a pity it is that so great and so noble a knight as Sir Launcelot should thus deny himself to the world. For in the world he is the greatest knight of the world, but out of the world he is as any other man.”
Queen Guinevere sendeth for Sir Launcelot.
All these things Queen Guinevere heard and she meditated upon them as she sat thoughtfully in her bower. So one day she called to her a page, and she said to him that he should ride to such and such a part of the forest, and that there he would find Sir Launcelot. And the Queen said to the page that he was then to tell Sir Launcelot to return to the Court of the King. And she said to the page to tell Sir Launcelot that all the court spake of him continually, and that all desired that he should return to them.