arm tightly, while she gazed with terror into his
face. 'How may this be? oh, say not--say not that he is--is----'

She could not say the word, but Sir Gawaine made answer.

'I say not so, but wit ye well that he is grievously wounded.'

'Alas!' cried Elaine, 'what is his hurt? Where is he? Oh, I will go to
him instantly.'

She rose, wildly ringing her slender hands.

'Truly,' said Sir Gawaine, who, though a great warrior, was a slow
talker, and had no thought of the sorrow of the poor maid, 'the man
that hurt him was one that would least have hurt him had he known. And
when he shall know it, that will be the most sorrow that he hath ever
had.'

'Ah, but say,' cried Elaine, 'where doth my lord lie wounded?'

'Truly,' replied Gawaine, 'no man knoweth where he may lie. For he went
off at a great gallop, and though I and others of King Arthur's knights
did seek him within six or seven miles of Camelot, we could not come
upon him.'

'Now, dear father,' said the maid Elaine, and the tears welled from her
eyes, 'I require you give me leave to ride and seek him that I love, or
else I know well that I shall go out of my mind, for I may never rest
until I learn of him and find him and my brother Sir Lavaine.'

So the maid Elaine made her ready, weeping sorely, and her father bade
two men-at-arms go with her to guard and guide her on her quest.

When she came to Camelot, for two days was her seeking in vain, and
hardly could she eat or sleep for her trouble. It happened that on the
third day, as she crossed a plain, she saw a knight with two horses,
riding as if he exercised them; and by his gestures she recognised him
at length, and it was her brother. She spurred her horse eagerly, and
rode towards Sir Lavaine, crying with a loud voice:

'Lavaine, Lavaine, tell me how is my lord, Sir Lancelot?'

Her brother came forward, rejoicing to see her, but he asked how she
had learned that the stranger knight was Sir Lancelot, and she told
him.

'My lord hath never told me who he was,' said Lavaine, 'but the holy
hermit who hath harboured him knew him and told me. And for days my
lord has been wandering and distraught in his fever. But now he is
better.'

'It pleaseth me greatly to hear that,' said Elaine.

When Sir Lavaine took her into the room where lay Sir Lancelot so sick
and pale in his bed, she could not speak, but suddenly fell in a swoon.
And when she came to her senses again she sighed and said:

'My lord, S