refore I will make here
avow, that to-morn, without longer abiding, I shall labour in the quest
of the Sangreal, that I shall hold me out a twelvemonth and a day, or
more if need be, and never shall I return again unto the court till I
have seen it more openly than it hath been seen here; and if I may not
speed I shall return again as he that may not be against the will of our
Lord Jesu Christ.

When they of the Table Round heard Sir Gawaine say so, they arose up
the most part and made such avows as Sir Gawaine had made. Anon as King
Arthur heard this he was greatly displeased, for he wist well they might
not again-say their avows. Alas, said King Arthur unto Sir Gawaine,
ye have nigh slain me with the avow and promise that ye have made; for
through you ye have bereft me the fairest fellowship and the truest of
knighthood that ever were seen together in any realm of the world; for
when they depart from hence I am sure they all shall never meet more in
this world, for they shall die many in the quest. And so it forthinketh
me a little, for I have loved them as well as my life, wherefore it
shall grieve me right sore, the departition of this fellowship: for I
have had an old custom to have them in my fellowship.

CHAPTER VIII. How great sorrow was made of the king and the queen and
ladies for the departing of the knights, and how they departed.

AND therewith the tears fell in his eyes. And then he said: Gawaine,
Gawaine, ye have set me in great sorrow, for I have great doubt that
my true fellowship shall never meet here more again. Ah, said Sir
Launcelot, comfort yourself; for it shall be unto us a great honour and
much more than if we died in any other places, for of death we be siker.
Ah, Launcelot, said the king, the great love that I have had unto you
all the days of my life maketh me to say such doleful words; for never
Christian king had never so many worthy men at his table as I have had
this day at the Round Table, and that is my great sorrow.

When the queen, ladies, and gentlewomen, wist these tidings, they had
such sorrow and heaviness that there might no tongue tell it, for those
knights had held them in honour and chierte. But among all other Queen
Guenever made great sorrow. I marvel, said she, my lord would suffer
them to depart from him. Thus was all the court troubled for the love
of the departition of those knights. And many of those ladies that loved
knights would have gone with their lovers;