he saw, coming from the church, thirty
tall knights, each a foot higher than he, each in black armour, and
each with sword uplifted, as they rushed towards him.

Their feet and their armour made no sound as they pressed forwards, and
a thin blue flame licked about each naked sword.

They came upon him, but Sir Lancelot, with a prayer to God, dressed his
shield and sword and stood firm, though his flesh quaked and his tongue
clave to the roof of his mouth. They mowed and gnashed at him, and
heaved their swords about him; then suddenly their vizors went up and
he looked into their faces. And at that he was sore adread, for he knew
they were dead men.

But he would not be overcome, and said in a loud voice:

'In the name of God, avaunt ye!'

He made a step forward, and they scattered before him, but followed
closely behind. Then he went into the chapel, where he saw no light but
a dim lamp burning upon the altar. It was an old, old chapel, with dust
upon its floor like a thick carpet, the walls and windows were holed
and broken, and the timber of the seats was rotten.

He went up to the high altar, and saw before it a trestle, and upon it
was a dead man, all covered with a cloth of silk. Sir Lancelot stooped
down, and with his sword cut a piece of that cloth away.

With that his blood seemed turned to water, and his feet seemed eager
to run towards the door, for with a mighty roar the earth shook beneath
him, and the walls of the chapel rocked. But he looked for the sword
which he must take, and saw it under the trestle, and picked it up and
went out of the chapel.

The ghosts of the knights pressed about him as he walked, and strove to
tear the sword from his grasp. But he would not suffer them to take it,
and when he reached the gate they could no further go, and so left him.

At the gate there came running up to him a fair damsel, crying to him:

'O brave knight, give me the sword and the cloth, that I may take them
at once to my mistress, the lady of Sir Meliot, for he is at the point
of death, and she is waiting in sorrow and tears beside him.'

But Sir Lancelot remembered the words of the phantom beggar, and made
reply:

'Fair damsel, I shall take them myself to the lady of Sir Meliot, for
these things I may not give to any until the dawning.'

The damsel would have torn the sword and the cloth full hastily from
his hands, but he was aware of her intent, and hindered her, and bade
her in the name of Go