The Story of the Champions of the Round Table | Page 6

entered that meadow she beheld that a very
wonderful lady was there, and this lady bare the child Launcelot in her
arms. And the lady sang to Launcelot, and the young child looked up
into her face and laughed and set his hand against her cheek. All this
Queen Helen beheld; and she likewise beheld that the lady was of a
very extraordinary appearance, being clad altogether in green that
glistered and shone with a wonderful brightness. And she beheld that
around the neck of the lady was a necklace of gold, inset with opal
stones and emeralds; and she perceived that the lady's face was like
ivory--very white and clear--and that her eyes, which were very bright,
shone like jewels set into ivory. And she saw that the lady was very
wonderfully beautiful, so that the beholder, looking upon her, felt a
manner of fear--for that lady was Fay.

(And that lady was the Lady of the Lake, spoken of aforetime in the
Book of King Arthur, wherein it is told how she aided King Arthur to
obtain that wonderful, famous sword yclept Excalibur, and how she
aided Sir Pellias, the Gentle Knight, in the time of his extremity, and
took him into the lake with her. Also divers other things concerning her
are told of therein.)
Then the Queen came near to where the lady was, and she said to her,
"Lady, I pray you give me my child again!" Upon this the Lady of the
Lake smiled very strangely and said: "Thou shalt have thy child again,
lady, but not now; after a little thou shalt have him again." Then Queen
Helen cried out with great agony of passion: "Lady, would you take my
child from me? Give him to me again, for he is all I have left in the
world. Lo, I have lost house and lands and husband, and all the other
joys that life has me to give, wherefore, I beseech you, take not my
child from me." To this the Lady of the Lake said: "Thou must endure
thy sorrow a while longer; for it is so ordained that I must take thy
child; for I take him only that I may give him to thee again, reared in
such a wise that he shall make the glory of thy house to be the glory of
the world. For he shall become the greatest knight in the world, and
from his loins shall spring a greater still than he, so that the glory of the
House of King Ban shall be spoken of as long as mankind shall last."
But Queen Helen cried out all the more in a great despair: "What care I
for all this? I care only that I shall have my little child again! Give him
to me!"
[Sidenote: The Lady of the Lake taketh Launcelot into the Lake]
Therewith she would have laid hold of the garments of the Lady of the
Lake in supplication, but the Lady of the Lake drew herself away from
Queen Helen's hand and said: "Touch me not, for I am not mortal, but
Fay." And thereupon she and Launcelot vanished from before Queen
Helen's eyes as the breath vanishes from the face of a mirror.
For when you breathe upon a mirror the breath will obscure that which
lieth behind; but presently the breath will disappear and vanish, and
then you shall behold all things entirely clear and bright to the sight
again. So the Lady of the Lake vanished away, and everything behind

her where she had stood was clear and bright, and she was gone.
Then Queen Helen fell down in a swoon, and lay beside the lake of the
meadow like one that is dead; and when Foliot came he found her so
and wist not what to do for her. There was his lord who was dead and
his lady who was so like to death that he knew not whether she was
dead or no. So he knew not what to do but sat down and made great
lamentation for a long while.
[Sidenote: The Lady Helen taketh to a Nunnery] What time he sat thus
there came that way three nuns who dwelt in an abbey of nuns which
was not a great distance away from that place. These made great pity
over that sorrowful sight, and they took away from there the dead King
and the woeful Queen, and the King they buried in holy ground, and
the Queen they let live with them and she was thereafter known as the
"Sister of Sorrows."
[Sidenote: How Launcelot dwelt in the lake] Now Launcelot dwelt for
nigh seventeen years with the Lady Nymue of the Lake in that
wonderful, beautiful valley covered over with the appearance of