ssuredly slain Sir Launcelot,
wherefore he wept aloud with a great passion of grief, smiting his hands
together and crying, "Woe is me! For I have slain my dear lord!"
Thereupon he kneeled down beside Sir Launcelot and fell to feeling his
heart. And he perceived that the heart still beat but very faintly, and
so he wist that Sir Launcelot was not dead but only in a deadly swoon.

So Sir Lavaine turned Sir Launcelot where that the wind blew upon him
and after a while Sir Launcelot opened his eyes again. Then with his
sight all swimming he beheld Sir Lavaine kneeling beside him weeping,
and he said, speaking in a voice very weak and faint, "Lavaine, am I yet
alive?" And Sir Lavaine said, "Yea, Lord." Sir Launcelot said, "Then
bear me away from this place." And Sir Lavaine said, "Whither shall I
take you?" Sir Launcelot said: "Listen, Friend, bear me away into the
forest to the westward of here. For after a while to the westward of
this place you shall find a forest path that runs across your way. And
you shall take that path toward the right hand and so you will come
after another while to the hut of an hermit of the forest. Bring me to
that holy man; for if any one can cure me of this hurt he alone can do
so." Sir Lavaine said: "Lord, how shall I take you such a journey as
that, so that you shall not die?" Sir Launcelot replied: "I know not how
you shall take me, but this I know: that if you take me not to that
place I shall certes die here before your eyes in this forest."

[Sidenote: _Sir Lavaine beareth Sir Launcelot thence._]

So Sir Lavaine, weeping, made a litter of straight young trees and he
laid his cloak upon the litter and he bound the litter to the horses.
Then he lifted Sir Launcelot and laid him upon the litter as though it
were a little child whom he laid there. Thereafter he took the foremost
horse by the bridle, and so, led away into the forest whither Sir
Launcelot had bidden him to go.

So in that wise they travelled in the forest for a great while and by
and by night descended and the full moon arose all white and shining
into the sky. And it rose ever higher and higher and it shone down upon
the forest woodlands so that here it was all bright and there it was all
agloom with shadow; and anon Sir Lavaine, as he led the horses in that
wise, would walk in that silver silent light and anon he would be lost
in those shadows. And all that while Sir Launcelot lay so still that
several times Sir Lavaine t