"Sir," said he, "sith ye know me, help me, and [if] ye may, for Christ's sake, for I would be out of this pain at once, either to death or to life."
"Have ye no doubt," said the hermit, "ye shall live and fare right well."
And so the hermit called to him two of his servants; and so he and his servants bare him into the hermitage, and lightly unarmed him, and laid him in his bed. And then anon the hermit stanched the blood; and then he made him to drink good wine; so by that Sir Launcelot was right well refreshed, and came to himself again. For in those days it was not the guise of hermits as it now is in these days, for there were no hermits in those days but that they had been men of worship and of prowess, and those hermits held great households, and refreshed people that were in distress.
Now turn we unto King Arthur, and leave we Sir Launcelot in the hermitage.
So when the kings were come together on both parties, and the great feast should be holden, King Arthur asked the King of Northgalis and their fellowship where was that knight that bare the red sleeve: "Bring him before me, that he may have his laud and honor and the prize, as it is right."
Then spake Sir Galahalt the haut prince and the king with the hundred knights: "We suppose that knight is mischieved, and that he is never like to see you, nor none of us all, and that is the greatest pity that ever we wist of any knight."
"Alas," said King Arthur, "how may this be? is he so hurt? What is his name?"
"Truly," said they all, "we know not his name, nor from whence he came, nor whither he would."
"Alas," said the king, "these be to me the worst tidings that came to me this seven year: for I would not for all the lands I hold, to know and wit it were so that that noble knight were slain."
"Know ye him?" said they all.