Then Galahad held up his hands toward heaven and said:  “Lord, I thank thee, for now I see that that hath been my desire many a day.  Now, blessed Lord, would I not longer live, if it might please thee, Lord.”

And therewith the good man took Our Lord’s body betwixt his hands, and proffered it to Galahad, and he received it right gladly and meekly.  “Now wottest thou what I am?” said the good man.

“Nay,” said Galahad.  “I am Joseph of Arimathie, the which Our Lord hath sent here to thee to bear thee fellowship; and wottest thou wherefore that he hath sent me more than any other?  For thou hast resembled me in two things; in that thou hast seen the marvels of the Sangreal, in that thou hast been a clean maiden, as I have been and am.”

And when he had said these words Galahad went to Percivale and kissed him, and commended him to God; and so he went to Sir Bors and kissed him, and commended him to God, and said:  “Fair lord, salute me to my lord, Sir Launcelot, my father, and as soon as ye see him, bid him remember of this unstable world.”

And therewith he kneeled down tofore the table and made his prayers, and then suddenly his soul departed to Jesu Christ, and a great multitude of angels bare his soul up to heaven, that the two fellows might well behold it.  Also the two fellows saw come from heaven an hand, but they saw not the body.  And then it came right to the Vessel, and took it and the spear, and so bare it up to heaven.  Sithen[27] was there never man so hardy to say that he had seen the Sangreal.

[Footnote 27:  Sithen is another form of sith, and means since.]

DISSENSIONS AT KING ARTHUR’S COURT

The quest of the Holy Grail cost King Arthur many of his best knights, and the new ones who joined him by no means took the place of those tried and trusty men who had made his Round Table famous.  Moreover, quarrels and dissensions broke out among them, and many of them forgot their vows and lost the high character they held in the days of Galahad.

The queen and Sir Launcelot incurred the hatred of some of the knights, and there were many complaints made to discredit the queen with Arthur.  Finally she was accused of treason, and Arthur, broken-hearted, was compelled to sit in judgment upon his wife as upon any other of his subjects.  The punishment for treason in those days was burning at the stake, and the queen was condemned to death in this horrible manner.

In those times all great questions might be settled by trial of battle.  There was a possibility of saving the queen’s life if some knight would volunteer to fight her accusers.  For some time she was unable to find any volunteer, and it was only under certain trying conditions that at last Sir Bors agreed to enter the lists.  He bore himself manfully in the fray, but would not have succeeded had not Sir Launcelot appeared in disguise and taken the battle upon himself.  By his mighty prowess, however, Launcelot established the queen’s innocence of treason and restored her to the king.