in a very curious story related in the Perlesvaus, which is twice referred to in texts of a professedly historical character.  The tale runs thus.  King Arthur has fallen into slothful and fainéant ways, much to the grief of Guenevere, who sees her lord’s fame and prestige waning day by day.  In this crisis she urges him to visit the Chapel of Saint Austin, a perilous adventure, but one that may well restore his reputation.  Arthur agrees; he will take with him only one squire; the place is too dangerous.  He calls a youth named Chaus, the son of Yvain the Bastard, and bids him be ready to ride with him at dawn.  The lad, fearful of over-sleeping, does not undress, but lies down as he is in the hall.  He falls asleep—­and it seems to him that the King has wakened and gone without him.  He rises in haste, mounts and rides after Arthur, following, as he thinks, the track of his steed.  Thus he comes to a forest glade, where he sees a Chapel, set in the midst of a grave-yard.  He enters, but the King is not there; there is no living thing, only the body of a knight on a bier, with tapers burning in golden candlesticks at head and foot.  Chaus takes out one of the tapers, and thrusting the golden candlestick betwixt hose and thigh, remounts and rides back in search of the King.  Before he has gone far he meets a man, black, and foul-favoured, armed with a large two-edged knife.  He asks, has he met King Arthur?  The man answers, No, but he has met him, Chaus; he is a thief and a traitor; he has stolen the golden candlestick; unless he gives it up he shall pay for it dearly.  Chaus refuses, and the man smites him in the side with the knife.  With a loud cry the lad awakes, he is lying in the hall at Cardoil, wounded to death, the knife in his side and the golden candlestick still in his hose.

He lives long enough to tell the story, confess, and be shriven, and then dies.  Arthur, with the consent of his father, gives the candlestick to the church of Saint Paul, then newly founded, “for he would that this marvellous adventure should everywhere be known, and that prayer should be made for the soul of the squire."[10]

The pious wish of the King seems to have been fulfilled, as the story was certainly well known, and appears to have been accepted as a genuine tradition.  Thus the author of the Histoire de Fulk Fitz-Warin gives a résumé of the adventure, and asserts that the Chapel of Saint Austin referred to was situated in Fulk’s patrimony, i.e., in the tract known as the Blaunche Launde, situated in Shropshire, on the border of North Wales.  As source for the tale he refers to Le Graal, le lyvre de le Seint Vassal, and goes on to state that here King Arthur recovered sa bounté et sa valur when he had lost his knighthood and fame.  This obviously refers to the Perlesvaus romance, though whether in its present, or in an earlier form, it is impossible to say.  In any case the author of the Histoire evidently thought that the Chapel in question really existed, and was to be located in Shropshire.[11] But John of Glastonbury also refers to the story, and he connects it with Glastonbury.[12]