become? Then the queen was nigh out of
her wit, and then she writhed and weltered as a mad woman, and might not
sleep a four or five hours. Then Sir Launcelot had a condition that
he used of custom, he would clatter in his sleep, and speak oft of his
lady, Queen Guenever. So as Sir Launcelot had waked as long as it had
pleased him, then by course of kind he slept, and Dame Elaine both. And
in his sleep he talked and clattered as a jay, of the love that had been
betwixt Queen Guenever and him. And so as he talked so loud the queen
heard him thereas she lay in her chamber; and when she heard him so
clatter she was nigh wood and out of her mind, and for anger and pain
wist not what to do. And then she coughed so loud that Sir Launcelot
awaked, and he knew her hemming. And then he knew well that he lay not
by the queen; and therewith he leapt out of his bed as he had been a
wood man, in his shirt, and the queen met him in the floor; and thus she
said: False traitor knight that thou art, look thou never abide in my
court, and avoid my chamber, and not so hardy, thou false traitor
knight that thou art, that ever thou come in my sight. Alas, said Sir
Launcelot; and therewith he took such an heartly sorrow at her words
that he fell down to the floor in a swoon. And therewithal Queen
Guenever departed. And when Sir Launcelot awoke of his swoon, he leapt
out at a bay window into a garden, and there with thorns he was all
to-scratched in his visage and his body; and so he ran forth he wist not
whither, and was wild wood as ever was man; and so he ran two year, and
never man might have grace to know him.

CHAPTER IX. How Dame Elaine was commanded by Queen Guenever to avoid the
court, and how Sir Launcelot became mad.

NOW turn we unto Queen Guenever and to the fair Lady Elaine, that when
Dame Elaine heard the queen so to rebuke Sir Launcelot, and also she
saw how he swooned, and how he leaped out at a bay window, then she said
unto Queen Guenever: Madam, ye are greatly to blame for Sir Launcelot,
for now have ye lost him, for I saw and heard by his countenance that
he is mad for ever. Alas, madam, ye do great sin, and to yourself great
dishonour, for ye have a lord of your own, and therefore it is your part
to love him; for there is no queen in this world hath such another king
as ye have. And, if ye were not, I might have the love of my lord Sir
Launcelot; and cause I have to love him for he had my maidenhood, and by
him I