"He could
scarcely
speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who
are you?
are you?
Tennyson
' while many lords and ladies wept.
Then we came
down to the gate of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own
way.
"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought the sky
never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my blood danced within
me for I knew that I would see the Holy Grail. But after a while I
thought of the dark warning of the king. I looked about and saw that I
was quite alone in a sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of
thirst. Then I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees
overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and eating of the
apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and thirsty again in
among the sands and thorns. Next I saw a woman spinning beside a
beautiful house. She rose to greet me and stretched out her arms to
welcome me into her house to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell
to dust, and the house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and
then it fell to dust too.
"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was a walled city,
the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up to the sky, and at the
gateway there was a crowd of people who cried out to me:
"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men! "
"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I passed through to
the ruined old city and found only one person a very, very old man.
'Where is the crowd who called out to me? ' I asked him.
"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who
are you? ' and then fell to dust.
[Illustration: NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING. ]
"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I should see
the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble into dust. From
there I passed down into a deep valley, as low down as the city was
high up, where I found a chapel with a hermit in a hermitage near by. I
told him about all these phantoms.
"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother of all
virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as Galahad did. '
"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in silver armor.
He laid his lance beside the chapel door and we all went in and knelt in
prayer. Then my thirst was quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw
only the holy elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon
the shrine.
"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever since we
came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at night. In its
strength I have overcome evil customs wherever I have gone, and have
passed through Pagan lands and clashed with Pagan hordes and broken them
down everywhere. But the time is very near now when I shall go into the
spiritual city far away where some one will crown me king.
down to the gate of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own
way.
"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought the sky
never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my blood danced within
me for I knew that I would see the Holy Grail. But after a while I
thought of the dark warning of the king. I looked about and saw that I
was quite alone in a sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of
thirst. Then I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees
overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and eating of the
apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and thirsty again in
among the sands and thorns. Next I saw a woman spinning beside a
beautiful house. She rose to greet me and stretched out her arms to
welcome me into her house to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell
to dust, and the house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and
then it fell to dust too.
"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was a walled city,
the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up to the sky, and at the
gateway there was a crowd of people who cried out to me:
"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men! "
"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I passed through to
the ruined old city and found only one person a very, very old man.
'Where is the crowd who called out to me? ' I asked him.
"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who
are you? ' and then fell to dust.
[Illustration: NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING. ]
"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I should see
the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble into dust. From
there I passed down into a deep valley, as low down as the city was
high up, where I found a chapel with a hermit in a hermitage near by. I
told him about all these phantoms.
"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother of all
virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as Galahad did. '
"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in silver armor.
He laid his lance beside the chapel door and we all went in and knelt in
prayer. Then my thirst was quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw
only the holy elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon
the shrine.
"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever since we
came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at night. In its
strength I have overcome evil customs wherever I have gone, and have
passed through Pagan lands and clashed with Pagan hordes and broken them
down everywhere. But the time is very near now when I shall go into the
spiritual city far away where some one will crown me king.
