e saw the same ship come from Orient that the
good man was in the day afore, and the noble knight was ashamed with
himself, and therewith he fell in a swoon. And when he awoke he went
unto him weakly, and there he saluted this good man. And then he asked
Sir Percivale: How hast thou done sith I departed? Sir, said he, here
was a gentlewoman and led me into deadly sin. And there he told him
altogether. Knew ye not the maid? said the good man. Sir, said he, nay,
but well I wot the fiend sent her hither to shame me. O good knight,
said he, thou art a fool, for that gentlewoman was the master fiend of
hell, the which hath power above all devils, and that was the old lady
that thou sawest in thine advision riding on the serpent. Then he told
Sir Percivale how our Lord Jesu Christ beat him out of heaven for his
sin, the which was the most brightest angel of heaven, and therefore he
lost his heritage. And that was the champion that thou foughtest withal,
the which had overcome thee had not the grace of God been. Now beware
Sir Percivale, and take this for an ensample. And then the good man
vanished away. Then Sir Percivale took his arms, and entered into the
ship, and so departed from thence.

_Here endeth the fourteenth book, which is of Sir Percivale. And here
followeth of Sir Launcelot, which is the fifteenth book._

BOOK XV.

CHAPTER I. How Sir Launcelot came to a chapel, where he found dead, in a
white shirt, a man of religion, of an hundred winter old.

WHEN the hermit had kept Sir Launcelot three days, the hermit gat him
an horse, an helm, and a sword. And then he departed about the hour of
noon. And then he saw a little house. And when he came near he saw a
chapel, and there beside he saw an old man that was clothed all in white
full richly; and then Sir Launcelot said: God save you. God keep you,
said the good man, and make you a good knight. Then Sir Launcelot
alighted and entered into the chapel, and there he saw an old man dead,
in a white shirt of passing fine cloth.

Sir, said the good man, this man that is dead ought not to be in such
clothing as ye see him in, for in that he brake the oath of his order,
for he hath been more than an hundred winter a man of a religion. And
then the good man and Sir Launcelot went into the chapel; and the good
man took a stole about his neck, and a book, and then he conjured on
that book; and with that they saw in an hideous figure and horrible,
that there was