little right would he have had to
marvel had he known the reason. And when the Child was offered him, he
set Him upon the altar and thereafter began his sacrament. And King
Arthur set him on his knees before the chapel and began to pray to God
and to beat his breast. And he looked toward the altar after the
preface, and it seemed him that the holy hermit held between his hands
a man bleeding from His side and in His palms and in His feet, and
crowned with thorns, and he seeth Him in His own figure. And when he
had looked on Him so long and knoweth not what is become of Him, the
King hath pity of Him in his heart of this that he had seen, and the
tears of his heart come into his eyes. And he looketh toward the altar
and thinketh to see the figure of the man, and seeth that it is changed
into the shape of the Child that he had seen tofore.

VII.

When the mass was sung, the voice of a holy angel said "Ite, missa
est". The Son took the Mother by the hand, and they evanished forth of
the chapel with the greatest company and the fairest that might ever be
seen. The flame that was come down through the window went away with
this company. When the hermit had done his service and was divested of
the arms of God, he went to King Arthur that was still without the
chapel. "Sir," saith he to the King, "Now may you well enter herein
and well might you have been joyous in your heart had you deserved so
much as that you might have come in at the beginning of the mass."

King Arthur entered into the chapel without any hindrance. "Sir," saith
the hermit to the King, "I know you well, as did I also King Uther
Pendragon your father. On account of your sins and your deserts might
you not enter here while mass was being sung. Nor will you to-morrow,
save you shall first have made amends of that you have misdone towards
God and towards the saint that is worshipped herewithin. For you are
the richest King of the world and the most adventurous, wherefore ought
all the world to take ensample of you in well-doing and in largesse and
in honour; whereas you are now an ensample of evil-doing to all rich
worshipful men that be now in the world. Wherefore shall right sore
mishap betide you and you set nor back your doing to the point whereat
you began. For your court was the sovran of all courts and the most
adventurous, whereas now is it least of worth. Well may he be sorry
that goeth from honour to shame, but never may he have rep