e good man, and go we to our harbour till
to-morrow; we will come here again to do him service. Sir, said Bors, be
ye a priest? Yea forsooth, said he. Then I pray you tell me a dream that
befell to me the last night. Say on, said he. Then he began so much
to tell him of the great bird in the forest, and after told him of his
birds, one white, another black, and of the rotten tree, and of the
white flowers. Sir, I shall tell you a part now, and the other deal
to-morrow. The white fowl betokeneth a gentlewoman, fair and rich, which
loved thee paramours, and hath loved thee long; and if thou warn her
love she shall go die anon, if thou have no pity on her. That signifieth
the great bird, the which shall make thee to warn her. Now for no fear
that thou hast, ne for no dread that thou hast of God, thou shalt not
warn her, but thou wouldst not do it for to be holden chaste, for to
conquer the loos of the vain glory of the world; for that shall befall
thee now an thou warn her, that Launcelot, the good knight, thy cousin,
shall die. And therefore men shall now say that thou art a manslayer,
both of thy brother, Sir Lionel, and of thy cousin, Sir Launcelot du
Lake, the which thou mightest have saved and rescued easily, but thou
weenedst to rescue a maid which pertaineth nothing to thee. Now look
thou whether it had been greater harm of thy brother's death, or else to
have suffered her to have lost her maidenhood. Then asked he him: Hast
thou heard the tokens of thy dream the which I have told to you? Yea
forsooth, said Sir Bors, all your exposition and declaring of my dream
I have well understood and heard. Then said the man in this black
clothing: Then is it in thy default if Sir Launcelot, thy cousin, die.
Sir, said Bors, that were me loath, for wit ye well there is nothing in
the world but I had liefer do it than to see my lord, Sir Launcelot du
Lake, to die in my default. Choose ye now the one or the other, said the
good man.

And then he led Sir Bors into an high tower, and there he found knights
and ladies: those ladies said he was welcome, and so they unarmed him.
And when he was in his doublet men brought him a mantle furred with
ermine, and put it about him; and then they made him such cheer that
he had forgotten all his sorrow and anguish, and only set his heart in
these delights and dainties, and took no thought more for his brother,
Sir Lionel, neither of Sir Launcelot du Lake, his cousin. And anon came
out of a cha