Then Queen Guinevere began weeping, and she said, “Ah, Launcelot, Launcelot! Thou art not to me as thou one time wert. For one time thou wert ever ready to come to me, but now thou keepest thyself afar off from me. That which thou sayst is thy excuse for not being with me, and is not the cause of that absence.” Then she said of a sudden to him, “Go! Get thee away from this court, for thou bringest nothing but disturbance to my soul.”
Then Sir Launcelot said very bitterly, “Lady, it would have been well for both of us if thou hadst permitted me to remain where I was in the forest, and not have tempted me to quit my sanctuary.”
Then the Queen cried out upon him, “How now! What is this thou sayst? I went to thee to save thee and not to tempt thee. If thou longest for thy husks again, return to them. At any rate, get thee gone from me, and never come near to me again. For thou bringest naught but sorrow and great tribulation to me.”
Sir Launcelot departeth again from the court.
So Sir Launcelot bowed and withdrew from where he was, and his heart was filled with a great despair. So he came to where Sir Bors and Sir Lionel were and he told them all that had passed. And he cried out to them, “What now shall I do who have sacrificed my sanctuary and have got naught by that sacrifice?”
Then quoth Sir Bors, “It would have been well for thee, if thou hadst never quitted that safe sanctuary within the forest. But as thou now hast quitted it, so mayst thou not return to it again. For so wouldst thou strive to walk backward into that which hath passed. No man may do that in the life which he leads.
“As for the anger of the Queen, soon will she forget that anger, and as soon as she forgets it, then will she desire to see thee again. For so hath she done several times before, and so will she do again.”
Said Sir Launcelot, “I will go to my castle of Joyous Gard and there will I abide until her anger against me hath grown cold again.”
He departeth to the castle of Sir Brasius.
“Not so,” said Sir Bors, “the Queen spake truly in this; that thy place is in the field, and neither in the hermit’s cell, nor enclosed in the walls of that castle. But get thee to the castle of Sir Brasius the Good Knight, and there abide for a little while, seeking such adventures as may be found around about. For when the Queen’s mind changes toward thee, then wilt thou easily be found at that place, and either I or Sir Ector will come to seek thee.”