His heart now stays
where the Queen remains; he has not the power to lead it away, for it
finds such pleasure in the Queen that it has no desire to leave her:
so his body goes, and his heart remains. But enough of his body stays
behind to spot and stain the sheets with the blood which has fallen from
his fingers. Full of sighs and tears, Lancelot leaves in great distress.
He grieves that no time is fixed for another meeting, but it cannot
be. Regretfully he leaves by the window through which he had entered so
happily. He was so badly wounded in the fingers that they were in sorry,
state; yet he straightened the bars and set them in their place again,
so that from neither side, either before or behind, was it evident that
any one had drawn out or bent any of the bars. When he leaves the room,
he bows and acts precisely as if he were before a shrine; then he goes
with a heavy heart, and reaches his lodgings without being recognised by
any one. He throws himself naked upon his bed without awaking any one,
and then for the first time he is surprised to notice the cuts in his
fingers; but he is not at all concerned, for he is very sure that the
wound was caused by dragging the window bars from the wall. Therefore he
was not at all worried, for he would rather have had both arms dragged
from his body than not enter through the window. But he would have been
very angry and distressed, if he had thus injured and wounded himself
under any other circumstances.

(Vv. 4755-5006.) In the morning, within her curtained room, the Queen
had fallen into a gentle sleep; she had not noticed that her sheets
were spotted with blood, but she supposed them to be perfectly white
and clean and presentable. Now Meleagant, as soon as he was dressed and
ready, went to the room where the Queen lay. He finds her awake, and he
sees the sheets spotted with fresh drops of blood, whereupon he nudges
his companions and, suspicious of some mischief, looks at the bed of Kay
the seneschal, and sees that his sheets are blood-stained too, for you
must know that in the night his wounds had begun to bleed afresh. Then
he said: "Lady, now I have found the evidence that I desired. It is very
true that any man is a fool to try to confine a woman: he wastes his
efforts and his pains. He who tries to keep her under guard loses her
sooner than the man who takes no thought of her. A fine watch, indeed,
has been kept by my father, who is guarding you on my behalf! He
ha