again as from the
bottom of his heart and said, "Yea, it is great pity."

Then after a while the Lady Elaine came out from where Sir Launcelot
lay, and she gave command that they should abide at that place until the
wounded knight was healed of his hurt. So the Lady Elaine established
her court there in the forest nigh to where Sir Launcelot lay. And they
set up pavilions around about that place so that all that erstwhile
lonely and silent woodland was presently gay with bright colors and
cheerful with the sound of many voices.

And methinks that these days, whilst the Lady Elaine dwelt there in the
forest nigh to the chapel of the good old hermit of the forest, and
whilst she abided ever close to Sir Launcelot in that time of his
grievous sickness, were the happiest days of all her life unto that
time. For it was as though Sir Launcelot were all her own and as though
there was none in the world but they two. For ever she was nigh to him
and cherished him in all ways, the whiles the voices of those others who
were there sounded remote and afar off as though they were of a
different world than hers.

So ever the Lady Elaine drank deep draughts of love and joy, and thought
not of the morrow, but only of the day and of the joys that the day set
to the lips of her soul, as it were, in a bright, shining chalice of
pure gold.

For so it is, oftentimes, that the soul drinketh deep from that chalice
and reckoneth not that at the bottom of the cup there lyeth the dregs of
sorrow or of despair that must by and by likewise be quaffed, and which,
when drunk, must turn all the life thereafter to bitterness, as though
those dregs were compounded of the gall and of the wormwood of death.

[Sidenote: _They return to Corbin._]

Thus the Lady Elaine the Fair abided with her court there in the forest
for nigh a month and by the end of that time Sir Launcelot was healed of
his infirmities, though like to a little child for weakness. And after
he was healed she then had a fair litter prepared with several soft
cushions of down. And she had that litter hung with hangings of
flame-colored satin; and she had them lay Sir Launcelot therein and so
they bore him thence. Thus they bore him in that litter by easy stages
until they had brought him to Corbin and there he was received with
great rejoicing and high honor.

* * * * *

Now it hath been told how that Queen Guinevere bade Sir Bors for to go
seek Si