Mordred, and an hundred thousand men besides, and that the King had
buried Sir Gawaine in the chapel at Dover Castle. 'Fair Sirs,' said
Sir Lancelot, 'show me that tomb'; and they showed it to him, and Sir
Lancelot kneeled before it, and wept and prayed, and this he did for
two days. And on the third morning he summoned before him all the
great lords and leaders of his host, and said to them, 'Fair lords, I
thank you all for coming here with me, but we come too late, and that
will be bitter grief to me as long as I shall live. But since it is
so, I will myself ride and seek my lady Guenevere in the west country,
where they say she has gone, and tarry you here, I entreat you, for
fifteen days, and if I should not return take your ships and depart
into your own country.'

[Illustration: EXCALIBUR RETURNS TO THE MERE]

Sir Bors strove to reason with him that the quest was fruitless, and
that in the west country he would find few friends; but his words
availed nothing. For seven days Sir Lancelot rode, and at last he came
to a nunnery, where Queen Guenevere was looking out from her lattice,
and was ware of his presence as he walked in the cloister. And when
she saw him she swooned, and her ladies and gentlewomen tended her.
When she was recovered, she spoke to them and said, 'You will marvel,
fair ladies, why I should swoon. It was caused by the sight of yonder
Knight who stands there, and I pray you bring him to me.' As soon as
Sir Lancelot was brought she said to her ladies, 'Through me and this
man has this war been wrought, for which I repent me night and day.
Therefore, Sir Lancelot, I require and pray you never to see my face
again, but go back to your own land, and govern it and protect it; and
take to yourself a wife, and pray that my soul may be made clean of
its ill doing.'

'Nay, Madam,' answered Sir Lancelot, 'that shall I never do; but the
same life that you have taken upon you, will I take upon me likewise.'

'If you will do so,' said the Queen, 'it is well; but I may never
believe but that you will turn to the world again.'

'Well, Madam,' answered he, 'you speak as it pleases you, but you
never knew me false to my promise, and I will forsake the world as you
have done. For if in the quest of the Sangreal I had forsaken its
vanities with all my heart and will, I had passed all Knights in the
quest, except Sir Galahad my son. And therefore, lady, since you have
taken you to perfection, I must do so also,