sweetly.

"Ha, Lady," saith he, "But that I dread the blame of the people, never
again would I seek to depart from this place, but here would I save my
soul and pray for yours; so would it be much recomforting to me that I
should be so nigh, and should see the sepulchre wherein your body lieth
that had so great sweetness and bounty. God grant me of your pleasure,
that at my death I may still be a-nigh, and that I may die in such
manner and in such place as that I may be shrouded and buried in this
holy chapel where this body lieth."

The night cometh on. A clerk cometh to the hermits and saith, "Never
yet did no knight cry mercy of God so sweetly, nor of His sweet Mother,
as did this knight that is in the chapel."

And the hermits make answer that knights for the most part do well
believe in God. They come to the chapel for him and bid him come
thence, for that meat is ready and he should come to eat, and after
that go to sleep and rest, for it is full time so to do. He telleth
them that as for his eating this day it is stark nought, for a desire
and a will hath taken him to keep vigil in the chapel before one of the
images of Our Lady. No wish had he once to depart thence before the
day, and he would fain that the night should last far longer than it
did. The good men durst not force him against his will; they say,
rather, that the worshipful man is of good life who will keep watch in
such manner throughout the night without drink or meat, for all that he
seemeth to be right weary.

XIII.

Lancelot was in the chapel until the morrow before the tomb. The
hermits apparelled them to do the service that they chanted each day,
mass for the soul of the Queen and her son. Lancelot heareth them with
right good will. When the masses were sung, he taketh leave of the
hermits and looketh at the coffin right tenderly. He commendeth the
body that lieth therein to God and His sweet Mother; then findeth he
without the chapel his horse accoutred ready, and mounteth forthwith,
and departeth, and looketh at the place and the chapel so long as he
may see them. He hath ridden so far that he is come nigh Cardoil, and
findeth the land wasted and desolate, and the towns burnt, whereof is
he sore grieved. He meeteth a knight that came from that part, and he
was wounded full sore. Lancelot asketh him whence he cometh, and he
saith, "Sir, from towards Cardoil. Kay the Seneschal, with two other
knights, is leading away Mess