“Now put me in the barge,” said the king.  And there received him three queens with great mourning, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head.  And the queen said, “Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long?  Alas! this wound on your head hath caught over-much cold.”  And then they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld them go from him.  Then he cried:  “Ah, my lord Arthur, will ye leave me here alone among mine enemies?” “Comfort thyself,” said the king, “for in me is no further help; for I will to the Isle of Avalon, to heal me of my grievous wound.”  And as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost sight of the barge, he wept and wailed; then he took the forest, and went all that night, and in the morning he was ware of a chapel and a hermitage.

Then went Sir Bedivere thither; and when he came into the chapel, he saw where lay an hermit on the ground, near a tomb that was newly graven.  “Sir,” said Sir Bedivere, “what man is there buried that ye pray so near unto?” “Fair son,” said the hermit, “I know not verily.  But this night there came a number of ladies, and brought hither one dead, and prayed me to bury him.”  “Alas!” said Sir Bedivere, “that was my lord, King Arthur.”  Then Sir Bedivere swooned; and when he awoke he prayed the hermit he might abide with him, to live with fasting and prayers.  “Ye are welcome,” said the hermit.  So there bode Sir Bedivere with the hermit; and he put on poor clothes, and served the hermit full lowly in fasting and in prayers.

Thus of Arthur I find never more written in books that be authorized, nor more of the very certainty of his death; but thus was he led away in a ship, wherein were three queens; the one was King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgane le Fay; the other was Viviane, the Lady of the Lake; and the third was the queen of North Galis.  And this tale Sir Bedivere, knight of the Table Round, made to be written.

Yet some men say that King Arthur is not dead, but hid away into another place, and men say that he shall come again and reign over England.  But many say that there is written on his tomb this verse: 

    “Hie facet Arthurus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus.” 
        Here Arthur lies, King once and King to be.

And when Queen Guenever understood that King Arthur was slain, and all the noble knights with him, she stole away, and five ladies with her; and so she went to Almesbury, and made herself a nun, and ware white clothes and black, and took great penance as ever did sinful lady, and lived in fasting, prayers, and alms-deeds.  And there she was abbess and ruler of the nuns.

     “And when she came to Almesbury she spake
    There to the nuns, and said, ’Mine enemies
    Pursue me, but, O peaceful Sisterhood,
    Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask
    Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time
    To tell you;’ and her beauty, grace and power
    Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared
    To ask it.”