elot and Elaine.] When Lancelot, entirely recovered, was
about to leave Elaine after claiming his own shield, she timidly confessed
her love, hoping that it was returned. Gently and sorrowfully Lancelot
repulsed her, and, by her father's advice, was even so discourteous as to
leave her without a special farewell. Unrequited love soon proved too much
for the "lily maid of Astolat," who pined away very rapidly. Feeling that
her end was near, she dictated a farewell letter to Lancelot, which she
made her father promise to put in her dead hand. She also directed that her
body should be laid in state on a barge, and sent in charge of a mute
boatman to Camelot, where she was sure she would receive a suitable burial
from the hands of Lancelot.

In the meanwhile the hero of the tournament had been sought everywhere by
Gawain, who was the bearer of the diamond won at such a cost. Coming to
Astolat before Lancelot was cured, Gawain had learned the name of the
victor, which he immediately proclaimed to Guinevere. The queen, however,
hearing a vague rumor that Lancelot had worn the colors of the maiden of
Astolat, and was about to marry her, grew so jealous that when Lancelot
reappeared at court she received him very coldly, and carelessly flung his
present (a necklace studded with the diamonds he had won at various
tournaments) into the river flowing beneath the castle walls.

"She seized,
And, thro' the casement standing wide for heat,
Flung them, and down they flash'd, and smote the stream.
Then from the smitten surface flash'd, as it were,
Diamonds to meet them, and they passed away."
TENNYSON, _Lancelot and Elaine_.

[Illustration: ELAINE--Rosenthal.]

[Sidenote: The funeral barge.] As he leaned out of the window to trace them
in their fall, Lancelot saw a barge slowly drifting down the stream. Its
peculiar appearance attracted his attention, and as it passed close by him
he saw that it bore a corpse. A moment later he had recognized the features
of the dead Elaine. The mute boatman paused at the castle steps, and Arthur
had the corpse borne into his presence. The letter was found and read aloud
in the midst of the awestruck court. Arthur, touched by the girl's love,
bade Lancelot fulfill her last request and lay her to rest. Lancelot then
related the brief story of the maiden, whose love he could not return, but
whose death he sincerely m