d come in at the hall door, and did off
their helms and their arms, and said unto Galahad: "Sir, we have hied
right much for to be with you at this table where the holy meat shall be
departed."

Then said he: "Ye be welcome, but of whence be ye?"

So three of them said they were of Gaul, and other three said they were
of Ireland, and the other three said they were of Denmark.

Therewith a voice said: "There be two among you that be not in the quest
of the Sangreal, and therefore depart ye."

Then King Pelles and his son departed. And therewithal beseemed them
that there came a man, and four angels from heaven, clothed in likeness
of a bishop, and had a cross in his hand; and these four angels bare him
in a chair, and set him down before the table of silver whereupon the
Sangreal was; and it seemed that he had in middes of his forehead
letters the which said: "See ye here Joseph, the first bishop of
Christendom, the same which Our Lord succoured in the city of Sarras in
the spiritual place."

Then the knights marveled, for that bishop was dead more than three
hundred year tofore. "O knights," said he, "marvel not, for I was
sometime an earthly man."

With that they heard the chamber door open, and there they saw angels;
and two bare candles of wax, and the third a towel, and the fourth a
spear which bled marvelously, that three drops fell within a box which
he held with his other hand. And they set the candles upon the table,
and the third the towel upon the vessel, and the fourth the holy spear
even upright upon the vessel. And then the bishop made semblaunt[20] as
though he would have gone to the sacring[21] of the mass. And then he
did that longed[22] to a priest to do a mass. And then he went to
Galahad and kissed him, and bade him go and kiss his fellows: and so he
did anon.

[Footnote 20: _Semblaunt_ meant _show, appearance_.]

[Footnote 21: _Sacring_ is from _sacre_, an old word meaning
_consecrate_.]

[Footnote 22: That is, _belonged_.]

"Now," said he, "servants of Jesu Christ, ye shall be fed afore this
table with sweetmeats that never knights tasted."

And when he had said, he vanished away. And they set them at the table
in great dread, and made their prayers.

Then looked they and saw a man come out of the Holy Vessel, that had all
the signs of the passion of Jesu Christ, bleeding all openly, and said:
"My knights, and my servants, and my true children, which be come out of
deadly life into s