descended upon him, and still he drove ever forward, he knew not
whitherward. And he travelled in that wise all that night until about
the dawning of the day, what time he came to that part of the woodland
where was the hut of the hermit of the forest, and there he beheld the
chapel and the cell of the hermit. Here Sir Launcelot leaped down from
his horse, and he burst very violently into the dwelling-place of that
good man so that the hermit was amazed at his coming. And Sir Launcelot
cried out in a loud and violent voice, "God save you!" and therewith he
fell forward and lay with his face upon the floor.

Then the hermit ran to him and he lifted up his head and looked in his
face and he beheld that Sir Launcelot was in a fit.

So the hermit eased Sir Launcelot of his armor and he loosed the jerkin
and the shirt at his throat so that his throat was bare. And he lifted
Sir Launcelot and brought him to his own cot and he laid him down
thereon and there Sir Launcelot lay for the entire day.

But toward the sloping of the afternoon the sick man opened his eyes and
he aroused and sat up and gazed about him, and he said, "Where am I?"
The hermit said, "Thou art with me," and he further said, "What aileth
thee, Sir Launcelot?"

But to this Sir Launcelot answered naught but ever looked about him as
though not knowing who he was or where he was; for he was like to one
who is bedazed by a heavy blow he hath received. Then by and by Sir
Launcelot said, "I know not what it is that hath happened." Thus he
spake because his brains were bewildered by the passion through which he
had passed, for even at that time the madness which afterward gat hold
of him had begun to ferment in his brains so that he wist not very well
what he said or did.

Then the hermit knew that some great trouble had befallen Sir Launcelot,
and he thought that maybe if Sir Launcelot would eat he would perhaps be
refreshed and might maybe recover his mind once more. So the good man
said, "Messire, will you not eat?" and Sir Launcelot said, "Yea, give me
to eat."

[Sidenote: _The hermit cherisheth Sir Launcelot._]

So the hermit brought bread and milk and honey and fruit and he set
those things before Sir Launcelot. And Sir Launcelot fell upon those
things and ate of them very fiercely and voraciously, devouring them
more like a savage than a worshipful and worthy knight.

Then after Sir Launcelot had thus eaten he said, "I am aweary," and
therewith he a