, and
then suddenly his soul departed to Jesu Christ, and a great multitude of
angels bare his soul up to heaven, that the two fellows might well
behold it. Also the two fellows saw come from heaven an hand, but they
saw not the body. And then it came right to the Vessel, and took it and
the spear, and so bare it up to heaven. Sithen[27] was there never man
so hardy to say that he had seen the Sangreal.

[Footnote 27: _Sithen_ is another form of _sith_, and means _since_.]

DISSENSIONS AT KING ARTHUR'S COURT

The quest of the Holy Grail cost King Arthur many of his best knights,
and the new ones who joined him by no means took the place of those
tried and trusty men who had made his Round Table famous. Moreover,
quarrels and dissensions broke out among them, and many of them forgot
their vows and lost the high character they held in the days of Galahad.

The queen and Sir Launcelot incurred the hatred of some of the knights,
and there were many complaints made to discredit the queen with Arthur.
Finally she was accused of treason, and Arthur, broken-hearted, was
compelled to sit in judgment upon his wife as upon any other of his
subjects. The punishment for treason in those days was burning at the
stake, and the queen was condemned to death in this horrible manner.

In those times all great questions might be settled by trial of battle.
There was a possibility of saving the queen's life if some knight would
volunteer to fight her accusers. For some time she was unable to find
any volunteer, and it was only under certain trying conditions that at
last Sir Bors agreed to enter the lists. He bore himself manfully in the
fray, but would not have succeeded had not Sir Launcelot appeared in
disguise and taken the battle upon himself. By his mighty prowess,
however, Launcelot established the queen's innocence of treason and
restored her to the king.

This was only temporary relief, however, for in the combat some of the
best remaining knights were slain; among them were Sir Gareth and Sir
Gaheris, both among the closest of Launcelot's friends and both killed
by his own hand. Gawaine, their brother, one of the most powerful
knights in the court, vowed vengeance for their death and swore to
follow Launcelot to the ends of the earth. Launcelot protested that he
should never cease to mourn for Sir Gareth and that he would as soon
have slain his own nephew as to harm the man whom he made knight and
whom he loved as a