hat hardly could he wait till the ships were
ready to take him and his knights and army across to Britain.

When they arrived at Dover, Sir Lancelot sought out the tomb of Sir
Gawaine, and there with much weeping he prayed long and earnestly for
the repose of the soul of that dead warrior, his once dear friend. All
the other knights prayed likewise for the soul of Gawaine, and Sir
Lancelot gave one hundred pounds for masses to be said, and the others
gave according to their means.

Then word was brought him of the daylong dreadful battle in the west,
and how King Arthur was gone, mortally wounded, none knew whither, and
how all the knights of the Round Table were dead.

Silent was Sir Lancelot at this news, but men saw how his stern face
paled; and for a time he walked apart and would suffer none to speak to
him. Then he came to his knights, and all could see how his looks had
changed. Grief was deeply lined upon his face, and he had the air of an
aged and weary man.

'My fair lords,' he said, 'I thank you all for your coming with me, but
we came too late. But now I go alone to find the body of my dear lord,
and if I may, I will see my lady, Queen Gwenevere. And do ye all go
back into your country, for now we have no place in this.'

Thus Sir Lancelot fared forth, and would suffer none to go with him.
First he went to Amesbury, and in the convent there he saw Queen
Gwenevere. Few but very sad were the words they spake. Sir Lancelot
offered to give her a home in Brittany, away from the trouble and the
ruin of the land, but she would not.

'My lord is dead,' she said, weeping, 'and this dear kingdom may not
long stand, but while I live I will stay on its dear soil.'

Then Sir Lancelot fared far west through the wastelands, and came to
the battlefield; and there he wept sorely to see the long lines of
dead. Many were the dead knights of the Round Table whom he found
unburied, and these with his own hands he laid in the grave, and he
procured a priest to say prayers over them.

Further he went beside the shores of the Endless Waters, until one day
he found a black barge, and stepping therein he was taken without sail
or oars far over the wide sea, until the twilight. Then, raising his
sorrowing eyes, he was aware of a fair green island with a valley
between two sweet hills, and there was a chapel, and all about it were
trees all laden with blossoms.

A little bell began to ring just as the barge lightly touched th