The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur

by Howard Pyle

So the page went to that part of the forest as the Queen had commanded, and there he found Sir Launcelot in his cell; and the cheeks of Sir Launcelot were hollow and his limbs and body were thin and shrunken from continual fasting and meditation. Then the page kneeled down before him and said, “Sir, the Queen bids you for to return to the Court of King Arthur; for all the ladies and the lords of the court desire you to return there and be the ornament of that court as you were aforetime.”

Sir Launcelot said to the page, “Return thou to the Queen and say to her that I will not return back into the world as she desires me to do. For here I dwell in peace and quietness and I repent me of all my manifold sins as it becometh me to do. For those same sins have stood as a shadow betwixt me and the Grail, so that when the Grail was present I slept, and when it was gone I awoke and found that it was gone. Wherefore I repent me of those sins. And so I will abide here and meditate upon them for all the rest of my life.”

So the page returned to Queen Guinevere and delivered these words of Sir Launcelot to her, and the Queen said, “How is this? He will not come? Then will I go myself and bring him.”

Queen Guinevere goeth to Sir Launcelot.

So she procured a great white horse, and she procured rich and gaudy raiment, such as a knight at court might wear, and with these things and with a court of knights and ladies and several pages she betook her way into the forest.

Then all that part of the forest into which she penetrated became gay and jocund with her coming. For it was as though the sunlight had suddenly burst through the leaves of the forest. All the silent woodland was made noisy with the clear sounds of talk and laughter, and of musical and merry chattering.

So the Queen came to that part of the forest where Sir Launcelot was, and Sir Launcelot came forth from his hut to meet her. And he stood afar off from her and said, “Lady, what wouldst thou here?” She said, “Launcelot, I come to thee to bring thee away from this lonely place, for the Court of the king is the fittest place for thee to be in. For thou art the greatest knight in Christendom, wherefore it ill becometh thee to hide thyself away in this desolate place.”

Then Sir Launcelot lifted up his voice and cried aloud, “Get you gone, Lady, and trouble me no more, for I know you not. Yet it was because of you that I cast aside my wife so that she died because of my neglect. Because of that sin and because of other sins that thou wottest of I slept while the Grail passed before me, and could not awake until after it was gone. So lie I here thinking of that and of other misfortunes that have visited me because of my many sins. Thus it is that here in the woodlands I endeavor to purify my soul of those sins.”

The Queen speaketh to Sir Launcelot.

Then the Queen drew nearer to him and she said to him, “Launcelot, thinkest thou that thus thy sins may be remitted unto thee? Wit thou that thy sins are like an enemy, and that the only way in which thou canst conquer those sins is to battle manfully with them and not to fly from them. Arise! shake off this sluggishness and come forth into the world again, for it awaits thee. There and there only may thy sins be remitted unto thee.”