Sir Bors meets a White Knight.

Here he came to a cross-road and as he approached that cross-road he was aware of a solitary knight who was there and waiting. And this knight was clad all in white armor, and he sat upon a white horse, and he was the knight whom Sir Bors had seen in his dream; and when Sir Bors drew nigh he saluted him, saying, “Greeting, Sir Bors, whither goest thou?”

Then Sir Bors said, “Messire, who art thou who knowest me and I know not thee? For I beheld thee last night, but in a dream.” The White Knight said, “It matters not who I am, but wit you this, that I know you very well, and I know that you seek the Holy Grail. Sir Galahad shall achieve that Grail, and you and Sir Percival, who am the next purest knight to him, shall find it with him. Here have I been waiting for you for some while, and at last you have come. So come now with me.” And Sir Bors said, “I will do so.”

So after that they two rode together side by side. And anon the sun sank and the moon arose, very still and bright, and ever they two rode on in that way side by side together.

And Sir Bors spoke no word to the White Knight and the White Knight spoke no word to Sir Bors, but ever they rode in silence all bathed by the white moonlight; their shadows, black and obscure, following them.

So at last they came to where there was a wide and stony waste without a blade of grass or a tree growing upon it, but only a great stretch of round hard stones of various sizes spread thick all over the earth before them. Then the White Knight said to Sir Bors, “Yonder is our road; let us go thither.”

So they two rode straight forward as that knight had directed they should do, and all about them lay the white and silent moonlight, like to a bath of pure and limpid silver. So anon and after a considerable while Sir Bors heard a great roaring, though far away from where they were. Then the White Knight drew rein and said, “Hearken, Sir Bors, hear ye that sound, and wit ye what it is?” Sir Bors said, “What is that sound?” The White Knight said, “That is the sea breaking upon the beach. Thither it is we go.”

They come to the sea.

So by and by they came to where there was a little cove of the sea, and beyond the cove the great waves burst upon the beach. So the White Knight rode down to the shores of that cove, and Sir Bors followed, and at that place there was a hard and level beach of pure white sand, and some rocks were beyond that sand.

Here Sir Bors beheld that there was a boat beside the rocks, and the boat rested against the shore, and it was hung within with pure white linen. And within the middle of the boat was a couch, and on the couch there was a knight lying asleep. And Sir Bors perceived that that knight was Sir Percival.