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They might be pluck'd asunder. Then I spake

To one most holy saint, who wept and said,

That save they could be pluck'd asunder, all

My quest were but in vain; to whom I vow'd
That I would work according as he will'd.

And forth I went, and while I yearn'd and strove
To tear the twain asunder in my heart,

My madness came upon me as of old,

And whipt me into waste fields far away ;

There was I beaten down by little men,

Mean knights, to whom the moving of my sword

And shadow of my spear had been enow

To scare them from me once; and then I came

All in my folly to the naked shore,

Wide flats, where nothing but coarse grasses grew; But such a blast, my King, began to blow,

So loud a blast along the shore and sea,

Ye could not hear the waters for the blast,

Tho' hoapt in mounds and ridges all the sea.
Drove like a cataract, and all the sand

Swept like a river, and the clouded heavens

Were shaken with the motion and the sound.

And blackening in the sea-foam sway'd a boat, Half-swallow'd in it, anchor'd with a chain;

And in my madness to myself I said,

'I will embark and I will lose myself,

And in the great sca wash away my

sin.'

I burst the chain, I sprang into the boat.

Seven days I drove along the dreary deep,

And with me drove the moon and all the stars;

And the wind fell, and on the seventh night

I heard the shingle grinding in the surge,

And felt the boat shock carth, and looking up,

Behold, the enchanted towers of Carbonek,

A castle like a rock upon a rock,

With chasm-like portals open to the sea,

And steps that met the breaker! there was none

Stood near it but a lion on each side

That kept the entry, and the moon was full.

Then from the boat I lcapt, and up

the stairs.

There drew my sword. With sudden-flaring manes

Those two great beasts rose upright like a man,

Each gript a shoulder, and I stood between;

And, when I would have smitten them, heard a

voice,

'Doubt not, go forward; if thou doubt, the beasts

Will tear thee piecemeal.' Then with violenco

The sword was dash'd from out my hand, and fell.

And up into the sounding hall I past;

But nothing in the sounding hall I saw

No bench nor table, painting on the wall
Or shield of knight; only the rounded moon

Thro' the tall oriel on the rolling sea.

But always in the quict house I heard,

Clear as a lark, high o'er mo as a lark,

A sweet voice singing in the topmost tower

To the eastward: up I climb'd a thousand steps

With pain: as in a dream I scem'd to climb

For ever at the last I reach'd a door,

A light was in the crannies, and I heard,

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Glory and joy and honour to our Lord

And to the Holy Vessel of the Grail.'
Then in my madness I essay'd the door;
It gave; and thro' a stormy glare, a heat
As from a seventimes-heated furnace, I,
Blasted and burnt, and blinded as I was,
With such a fierceness that I swoon'd away-

O, yet methought I saw the Holy Grail,

All pall'd in crimson samite, and around

Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes.

And but for all my madness and my sin,

And then my swooning, I had sworn I saw

That which I saw; but what I saw was veil'd

And cover'd; and this quest was not for me."

So speaking, and here ceasing, Lancelot left
The hall long silent, till Sir Gawain-nay,
Brother, I need not tell thee foolish words,-
A reckless and irreverent knight was ho,

Now bolden'd by the silence of his King,—

Well, I will tell thee: "O king, my liego," he

said,

"Hath Gawain fail'd in any quest of thine ?
When have I stinted stroko in foughten field?
But as for thine, my good friend, Percivale,
Thy holy nun and thou have driven men mad,
Yea, made our mightiest madder than our least.

I
But by mino eyes and by mine cars swcar,

I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat,

And thrice as blind as any noonday owl,

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