wondrous things are reserved for you."

Then Bors saw a dove of whitest plumage fly across the court with a
golden censer in its mouth, from which seemed to stream the most
delicious perfumes. And the tempest which had raged in the sky suddenly
ceased, while from the rent clouds the full moon poured down its white
light to the earth.

Next there came into the court four children who bore four tapers, and
an old man in their midst with a censer in one hand a spear in the
other, and that spear was called the spear of vengeance.

"Go to your cousin, Sir Lancelot," said the old man, "and tell him what
you have seen, and that if he had been as clean of sin as he should be,
the adventure which all this signifies would have been his. Tell him,
moreover, that though in worldly adventures he passes all others in
manhood and prowess, there are many his betters in spiritual worth, and
that what you have seen and done this night he was not deemed worthy
of."

Then Bors saw four meanly-dressed gentlewomen pass through his chamber,
and enter an apartment beyond which was lit up with a light like that of
midsummer. Here they knelt before an altar of silver with four pillars,
where also kneeled a man in the dress of a bishop. And as the knight
looked upward he beheld a naked sword hovering over his head, whose
blade shone like silver, yielding a flashing light that blinded him as
he gazed. As he stood thus sightless, he heard a voice which said,--

"Go hence, Sir Bors, for as yet thou art not worthy to be in this
place."

Then the door of that chamber closed, and he went backward to his bed,
where he lay and slept undisturbed till morning dawned. But when the
regent of King Pellam learned what had happened to his guest in the
night, and how he had escaped the perils of the enchanted chamber, he
greeted him joyfully, and said,--

"You are the first that ever endured so well that chamber's mysteries.
And more has been shown to your eyes than any others have seen. Go home,
worthy knight. You are chosen for great deeds in the time to come."

Sir Bors thereupon took his horse and rode away, thinking long and
deeply on all that had happened to him.

CHAPTER II.

THE MARVEL OF THE FLOATING SWORD.

Many and strange were the events that followed those we have just
related, and great trouble and woe came therefrom. For when Sir Bors
returned to Camelot and told the story of the wedding of Lancelot and
Elaine, much was the