gate, and saw the two lions; then he set hands to his sword, and drew it.  Then there came suddenly as it were a stroke upon the arm, so sore that the sword fell out of his hand, and he heard a voice that said, “O man of evil faith, wherefore believest thou more in thy armor than in thy Maker?” Then said Sir Launcelot, “Fair Lord, I thank thee of thy great mercy, that thou reprovest me of my misdeed; now see I well that thou holdest me for thy servant.”  Then he made a cross on his forehead, and came to the lions; and they made semblance to do him harm, but he passed them without hurt, and entered into the castle, and he found no gate nor door but it was open.  But at the last he found a chamber whereof the door was shut; and he set his hand thereto, to have opened it, but he might not.  Then he listened, and heard a voice which sung so sweetly that it seemed none earthly thing; and the voice said, “Joy and honor be to the Father of heaven.”  Then Sir Launcelot kneeled down before the chamber, for well he wist that there was the Sangreal in that chamber.  Then said he, “Fair, sweet Lord, if ever I did anything that pleased thee, for thy pity show me something of that which I seek.”  And with that he saw the chamber door open, and there came out a great clearness, that the house was as bright as though all the torches of the world had been there.  So he came to the chamber door, and would have entered; and anon a voice said unto him, “Stay, Sir Launcelot, and enter not.”  And he withdrew him back, and was right heavy in his mind.  Then looked he in the midst of the chamber, and saw a table of silver, and the holy vessel, covered with red samite, and many angels about it; whereof one held a candle of wax burning, and another held a cross, and the ornaments of the altar.

“O, yet methought I saw the Holy Grail,
All pall’d in crimson samite, and around
Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes”

—­The Holy Grail.

Then for very wonder and thankfulness Sir Launcelot forgot himself and he stepped forward and entered the chamber.  And suddenly a breath that seemed intermixed with fire smote him so sore in the visage that therewith he fell to the ground, and had no power to rise.  Then felt he many hands about him, which took him up and bare him out of the chamber, without any amending of his swoon, and left him there, seeming dead to all the people.  So on the morrow, when it was fair daylight, and they within were arisen, they found Sir Launcelot lying before the chamber door.  And they looked upon him and felt his pulse, to know if there were any life in him.  And they found life in him, but he might neither stand nor stir any member that he had.  So they took him and bare him into a chamber, and laid him upon a bed, far from all folk, and there he lay many days.  Then the one said he was alive, and the others said nay.  But said an old man, “He is as full of life as the mightiest of you all, and therefore I counsel