Anon they heard the knelling of a little vesper bell, and Sir Bors said, “Yonder is the bell of the Hermit of the Forest. Let us go thitherward and mayhap we may hear news of Sir Launcelot.” So they went in that direction and by and by they came to the chapel of the Hermit of the Forest. And they looked within the chapel door and they beheld the Hermit and another anchorite kneeling in prayer. And there were little birds within the chapel and they hopped about there upon the floor and about those two kneeling figures and were not afraid of either of them.
The knights companion find Sir Launcelot.
So, by and by, those two ended their prayers, and they arose. Then those knights beheld the face of the anchorite and they saw that it was the face of Sir Launcelot. For though the face of Sir Launcelot was covered with a beard and though it was very thin and peaked from fasting, yet they knew it for his face. For Sir Launcelot had eaten no meat and but little food of any sort, but had deprived himself of food for the betterment of his soul.
Then Sir Bors spake and he said, “Sir Launcelot, is it thou who art here?” And Sir Launcelot said, “Aye, it is indeed I whom thou beholdest.” Sir Bors said, “Sir, this life does not beseem thee to lead, wherefore place upon thee thine armor and come forth with us into the world again. For thy life is certes of value to that world.” “Nay,” said Sir Launcelot, “I will not leave this place, for here I dwell in peace and amity with the world. Why then should I again go forth into strife as of old?” Quoth Sir Bors, “Sir, this life thou art leading is but the neglect of duty, for the duty of every knight is to be within the world and to do the work of the world, be that work to battle or to labor. Why then shouldst thou rest here in this hermitage and without action of any sort?”
“Messire,” said Sir Launcelot, “were there a call for me to go forth into the world, then would I go. For my duty would then demand of me to assume again the armor of my knighthood. But there is no such call, nor am I any longer young, as one time I was. Wherefore, now hath come my time for rest, and so I remain here in quiet within the woodlands.”
The knights companion become recluses.
Sir Bors said, “Sir, we are your knights and your followers, wherefore if you remain here within the forest, so also do we remain with you. For your life shall be our life and your fare shall be our fare until the end.” And Sir Launcelot said, “Let it be that way.”
So all those knights remained there within the forest and all of them assumed the holy orders of hermits. Thus they remained there for three years and in that time they dwelt in great peace and concord. And they disturbed none of those things that were living within the forest, so that the wild creatures of the forest presently grew tame to them. For they could lay their hands upon the haunches of the wild doe of the forest and it would not flee away from them, for the wild thing wist that they meant it no harm.
Thus they lived there in solitude and they cultivated their plots of pulse and barley, and the fame of their virtues and of their holiness spread far and wide, so that many people came thither from the world for the sake of their prayers and of their benediction.
Now one night as he slept Sir Launcelot had a dream, and the dream came to him in the second watch of the night. And the dream of Sir Launcelot was this: