“Thou sayst well,” said Sir Launcelot. “Thither will I go and there will I stay until thou or Sir Lionel sendest for me.”
So Sir Launcelot took horse and rode away to the castle of Sir Brasius, and there took up his inn.
But never, at any time, did anyone ever behold him to smile. For though in the earlier days of his knighthood he had a happy and jocund spirit and frequently smiled, yet now that happiness had departed from him and he never smiled. For many sad things had happened to him in his life, and those things had destroyed that happiness as a hailstorm destroys those flowers that to-day are and to-morrow are not, but are withered and dead like the grass in the fields.
Thus I have told you all those circumstances that led to Sir Launcelot’s returning to Court, and as to his withdrawing himself thence again. For so it is that though a man may think to return again into that life from which he has passed, yet he cannot do so. For the life that is lived in once and which hath been laid aside for another life, that first life is dead and cannot be revivified again by the man’s entering into it again, but remaineth dead for aye.
So it was with Sir Launcelot, for, when he had committed the sin of leaving the Lady Elaine the Fair, he had committed it, and all that befell him thereafter became colored by that evil happening. For, because of that sin he failed to behold the Holy Grail with the eyes of his body, and now, because of that sin, and of what was said concerning him and his doings, he was compelled to exile himself again from that court in which, by grace of his chivalry and force of arms, he truly belonged.
So let us take warning by this example and let us not try to return to the life which we may have left, but let us endeavor to live that other life that now presents itself to us after such a happening, whether of good or of evil.
Now followeth that which treats of the poisoning of Sir Patrice of Ireland at the feast given by Queen Guinevere; so if you would hear how Sir Launcelot saved the life of the Queen at that time, I pray you to read what followeth.
