ater side. And when they
were at the water side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge with
many fair ladies in it, and among them all was a queen, and all they had
black hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw King Arthur.
Now put me into the barge, said the king. And so he did softly; and
there received him three queens with great mourning; and so they set
them down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head. And then
that queen said: Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me?
alas, this wound on your head hath caught over-much cold. And so then
they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld all those ladies go
from him. Then Sir Bedivere cried: Ah my lord Arthur, what shall become
of me, now ye go from me and leave me here alone among mine enemies?
Comfort thyself, said the king, and do as well as thou mayst, for in me
is no trust for to trust in; for I will into the vale of Avilion to heal
me of my grievous wound: and if thou hear never more of me, pray for my
soul. But ever the queens and ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity
to hear. And as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge, he
wept and wailed, and so took the forest; and so he went all that night,
and in the morning he was ware betwixt two holts hoar, of a chapel and
an hermitage.

CHAPTER VI. How Sir Bedivere found him on the morrow dead in an
hermitage, and how he abode there with the hermit.

THEN was Sir Bedivere glad, and thither he went; and when he came into
the chapel, he saw where lay an hermit grovelling on all four, there
fast by a tomb was new graven. When the hermit saw Sir Bedivere he knew
him well, for he was but little to-fore Bishop of Canterbury, that Sir
Mordred flemed. Sir, said Bedivere, what man is there interred that ye
pray so fast for? Fair son, said the hermit, I wot not verily, but by
deeming. But this night, at midnight, here came a number of ladies, and
brought hither a dead corpse, and prayed me to bury him; and here they
offered an hundred tapers, and they gave me an hundred besants. Alas,
said Sir Bedivere, that was my lord King Arthur, that here lieth buried
in this chapel. Then Sir Bedivere swooned; and when he awoke he prayed
the hermit he might abide with him still there, to live with fasting and
prayers. For from hence will I never go, said Sir Bedivere, by my will,
but all the days of my life here to pray for my lord Arthur. Ye are
welcome to me, said the