n the squire fetched his horse, and brought him with
great pain unto an abbey. Then was he taken down safely, and unarmed,
and laid in a bed. There his wounds were looked to, and, as the book
telleth, he lay there long, and escaped hard with life.

"Sir," said the squire, when he came to Galahad, "that knight that
wounded Bagdemagus sendeth you greeting, and bade that ye should bear
this shield, wherethrough great adventures should befall."

"Now blessed be God," said Sir Galahad. Then he asked his arms,
mounted upon his horse, and, commending himself unto God, hung the
white shield about his neck. So he departed, and within a while came
by the hermitage, where the White Knight awaited him. Every each
saluted other courteously, and the knight told Sir Galahad the marvels
of the shield.

"Sir," said he, "at that same hour that Joseph of Arimathea came to
Sarras, there was a king in that city called Evelake, that had great
war against the Saracens, and there Joseph made this shield for him in
the name of Him that died upon the cross. Then through his good belief
he had the better of his enemies; for when King Evelake was in the
battle, there was a cloth set afore the shield, and when he was in the
greatest peril he let put away the cloth, and then his enemies saw a
figure of a man on the cross, wherethrough they all were discomfited.

"Soon afterwards Joseph departed from Sarras, and King Evelake would go
with him whether he would or nould, and they came unto this land of
Britain. Not long after this, when Joseph lay on his death-bed, King
Evelake begged of him some token that would lead him to think on the
old knight for love of whom he had left his own country. So Joseph
took this shield, and thereupon he made a cross with his own blood;
that should be Evelake's token. Then he said that no man should bear
this shield until the time that Galahad come, the last of Joseph's
lineage, that should do many marvellous deeds while bearing it about
his neck. To-day is the time they then set when ye shall have King
Evelake's shield."

So spake the White Knight, and then vanished away; and Sir Galahad rode
with the squire back to the abbey.

CHAPTER XXVII

SIR GALAHAD AT THE CASTLE OF MAIDENS

The men of the abbey made great joy of Sir Galahad, and he rested there
that night. Upon the morn he gave the order of knighthood to the
squire who had brought him the red-cross shield, and asked him his
name, and o