celot, 'I could not be constrained to love her,
but I sorrow for her death exceedingly.'

'Truth it is,' said the king, 'that love is free and never will be
forced, for all the prayers that may be said to it. But thou wilt of
thy worship bury this fair maid, Sir Lancelot?'

'That will I do,' said the knight, 'and in all richness and solemnity.'

Thus was it done, and all the knights of the Round Table sorrowfully
followed the body of the fair Elaine to the grave.

On her tomb in letters of gold both thick and deep were set the words:

'Here lieth the body of Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat, who died of a
passing great love'

X

HOW THE THREE GOOD KNIGHTS ACHIEVED THE HOLY GRAAL

Now the time drew nigh which had been foretold by Merlin, before he had
been snared by a greater wizardry than his, and buried alive beneath
the great stone in the forest of Broceliande.

He had prophesied that, with the coming of King Arthur, the island of
Britain should grow in strength and fame, and her knights should be
more valiant and more pure in word and deed than the knights of any
other land. But that, in a little while, they would become proud, and
finding that none could withstand them, they would use their strength
evilly.

To the court of King Arthur, as he sat in London, came tidings of how
his barons warred with each other in remoter parts of his dominions,
seizing the strong castles of each other, putting one another to death,
and forsaking the ways of the Holy Church of Christ and turning to the
idolatry of the old British pagans, some of whom still lurked and
performed their evil rites in the desolate and secret places of the
forests and the hills.

The heart of the king was heavy as he sat thinking, and he wondered why
this evil was entering into the hearts of his knights and barons. He
resolved to take good counsel, and therefore commanded his clerk to
come to him and bade him write down all his thoughts.

Then he gave the letter to a trusty knight, named Sir Brewis, and bade
him take it to the Archbishop of Britain, where he sat, an old and
feeble man, in his great cathedral of St. Asaph, far on the verge of
the western sea. He was the king's kinsman, and already known for his
great sanctity as St. David. In a month the knight brought back the
answer, which was in these words:

'The time draws nigh for the trial and testing of Britain. Three good
knights shall come to you, and you must pray that the