rs a little one, and the more part came singing
with sweet voices and bear candles burning, and there was one behind
that carried a bell with the clapper and all at his neck.

"Ha, God," saith King Arthur, "What folk be these?"

"Sir," saith Perceval, "I know them all save the last. They be hermits
of this forest, that come to chant within yonder before the Holy Graal,
three days in the week."

III.

When the hermits came nigh the castle, the King went to meet them, and
the knights adore the crosses and bow their heads before the good men.
As soon as they were come into the holy chapel, they took the bell from
the last and smote thereon at the altar, and then set it on the ground,
and then began they the service, most holy and most glorious. The
history witnesseth us that in the land of King Arthur at this time was
there not a single chalice. The Graal appeared at the sacring of the
mass, in five several manners that none ought not to tell, for the
secret things of the sacrament ought none to tell openly but he unto
whom God hath given it. King Arthur beheld all the changes, the last
whereof was the change into a chalice. And the hermit that chanted the
mass found a brief under the corporal and declared the letters, to wit,
that our Lord God would that in such vessel should His body be
sacrificed, and that it should be set upon record. The history saith
not that there were no chalices elsewhere, but that in all Great
Britain and in the whole kingdom was none. King Arthur was right glad
of this that he had seen, and had in remembrance the name and the
fashion of the most holy chalice. Then he asked the hermit that bare
the bell, whence this thing came?

"Sir," saith he to Messire Gawain, "I am the King for whom you slew the
giant, whereby you had the sword wherewith St John was beheaded, that I
see on this altar. I made baptize me before you and all those of my
kingdom, and turn to the New Law, and thereafter I went to a hermitage
by the sea, far from folk, where I have been of a long space. I rose
one night at matins and looked under my hermitage and saw that a ship
had taken haven there. I went thither when the sea was retreated, and
found within the ship three priests and their clerks, that told me
their names and how they were called in baptism. All three were named
Gregory, and they came from the Land of Promise, and told me that
Solomon had cast three bells, one for the Saviour of the World, an