entures, rode southwards till he came to Camelot. And
there he told the king and such knights as there were, how the two
stainless knights had achieved the Holy Graal, and how their souls had
been taken up with the sacred vessel.

All the court mourned for the two knights, and the king commanded a
history to be written of what Sir Bors had told. It was so done, and
the book richly adorned with many coloured letters, was kept in the
great treasure-chest in the castle of Sarum.

Ever after Sir Bors was a silent man, for he could not forget the holy
and terrible sight he had seen. Of the doom which was coming in due
time upon the dear and fair land of Britain, as was prophesied by St.
Joseph, he told no man, but kept the words fast locked in his heart.

XI

OF THE PLOTS OF SIR MORDRED; AND HOW SIR LANCELOT SAVED THE QUEEN

After the quest of the Sangreal was completed, and all the knights that
were left alive had returned to the court of King Arthur, there was
great joy among the people, and the king and Queen Gwenevere were
passing glad of the remnant that had come home again.

Especially did the queen make much of Sir Lancelot and of Sir Bors his
cousin, for they were the two most noble and courteous knights of the
Round Table, and none thought of them but as men peerless and beyond
compare.

Sir Mordred, who was the king's nephew, was jealous of the two knights,
and went about privily among such knights as were his familiars, and
spoke sneering words concerning Sir Lancelot and the queen and Sir
Bors. Once Sir Mordred said such words in the hearing of his brother
Sir Gawaine; but that knight so heavily and wrathfully took him to
task, that Sir Mordred knew that Sir Gawaine envied not the two
knights, and could never be brought to think other than friendly
thoughts of them.

Therefore Sir Mordred hated the two knights more than ever. Of a slight
frame was Mordred, but tall, with dark hair, sallow face, and deep-set
grey eyes beside a thin long nose. Few loved him, for he was never
cheery nor very friendly, and ever seemed to sneer with his thin lips
and his cold wolfish eyes.

In a little while strange dark rumours began to go about the court, and
it was whispered that so proud had Sir Lancelot become of his fame and
prowess, that he harboured evil thoughts against the king, and that he
aimed to make a kingdom for himself out of the countries that lay about
his own lands of Joyous Gard in the northern