ly Ghost may not enter
in thee. Now take heed, in all the world men shall not find one knight
to whom Our Lord hath given so much of grace as He hath given you, for
He hath given you fairness with seemliness, He hath given thee wit,
discretion to know good from evil, He hath given thee prowess and
hardiness, and given thee to work so largely that thou hast had at all
days the better wheresomever thou came; and now Our Lord will suffer
thee no longer, but that thou shalt know Him whether thou wilt or nylt.
And why the voice called thee bitterer than wood, for where overmuch sin
dwelleth, there may be but little sweetness, wherefore thou art likened
to an old rotten tree.

Now have I shewed thee why thou art harder than the stone and bitterer
than the tree. Now shall I shew thee why thou art more naked and barer
than the fig tree. It befell that Our Lord on Palm Sunday preached
in Jerusalem, and there He found in the people that all hardness was
harboured in them, and there He found in all the town not one that would
harbour him. And then He went without the town, and found in midst
of the way a fig tree, the which was right fair and well garnished of
leaves, but fruit had it none. Then Our Lord cursed the tree that bare
no fruit; that betokeneth the fig tree unto Jerusalem, that had leaves
and no fruit. So thou, Sir Launcelot, when the Holy Grail was brought
afore thee, He found in thee no fruit, nor good thought nor good will,
and defouled with lechery. Certes, said Sir Launcelot, all that you
have said is true, and from henceforward I cast me, by the grace of God,
never to be so wicked as I have been, but as to follow knighthood and to
do feats of arms.

Then the good man enjoined Sir Launcelot such penance as he might do
and to sewe knighthood, and so assoiled him, and prayed Sir Launcelot to
abide with him all that day. I will well, said Sir Launcelot, for I have
neither helm, nor horse, nor sword. As for that, said the good man, I
shall help you or to-morn at even of an horse, and all that longed unto
you. And then Sir Launcelot repented him greatly.

_Here endeth off the history of Sir Launcelot. And here followeth of Sir
Percivale de Galis, which is the fourteenth book._

BOOK XIV.

CHAPTER I. How Sir Percivale came to a recluse and asked counsel, and
how she told him that she was his aunt.

NOW saith the tale, that when Sir Launcelot was ridden after Sir
Galahad, the which had all these adven