Then Sir
Percival
answered:
"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail.
"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail.
Tennyson
" cried everybody streaming round.
"A pale fairy queen come
to take Arthur to fairy land? "
Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad carry her
reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came and wondered at her
and Lancelot came and mused over her, and the queen came and pitied her.
But King Arthur spied a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the
lords and ladies. It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot.
[Illustration: A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND. ]
Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and how he had
promised to give her his lands and riches when she should be ready to
marry some knight of her own age. The king said that he should see that
she was buried very grandly. So they had a procession with all the pomp
of a queen, with gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all
the Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then they laid
the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her hand.
THE HOLY GRAIL.
One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. There was
something about him different from all the other monks there. He was so
polished and clever that old Ambrosious who had lived in the old
monastery for fifty years and had never seen a bit of the world guessed
in a minute that the new brother had come from King Arthur's court. And
one windy April morning as Ambrosious stood under the yew tree with this
gentle monk he asked him why he left the Knights of the Round Table.
Then Sir Percival answered:
"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail. "
[Illustration: "THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS. ]
"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I don't know much, but
what is that, the phantom of a cup that comes and goes? "
"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's the cup that
our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and after he died Joseph of
Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at Christmas time, and there it
stayed a while and every one who looked at it or touched it was healed
of their sicknesses. But the times grew so wicked that the cup was
caught up into heaven where nobody could see it. "
"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious, "how Joseph
built a lonely little church at Glastonbury on the marsh, but that was
long ago. Who first saw the vision of the Holy Grail to-day? "
"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a holy maid if
ever there was one. The old man to whom she used to tell her sins (or
what she called her sins), often spoke to her about the legend of the
Holy Grail which had been handed down through six people, each of them a
hundred years old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order
of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a time this
old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come back again. 'O Christ! '
he used to say to my sister, 'if only it would come back and help all
the world of its wickedness! ' And then my sister asked him whether it
might come to her by prayer and fasting.
"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.
to take Arthur to fairy land? "
Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad carry her
reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came and wondered at her
and Lancelot came and mused over her, and the queen came and pitied her.
But King Arthur spied a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the
lords and ladies. It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot.
[Illustration: A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND. ]
Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and how he had
promised to give her his lands and riches when she should be ready to
marry some knight of her own age. The king said that he should see that
she was buried very grandly. So they had a procession with all the pomp
of a queen, with gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all
the Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then they laid
the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her hand.
THE HOLY GRAIL.
One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. There was
something about him different from all the other monks there. He was so
polished and clever that old Ambrosious who had lived in the old
monastery for fifty years and had never seen a bit of the world guessed
in a minute that the new brother had come from King Arthur's court. And
one windy April morning as Ambrosious stood under the yew tree with this
gentle monk he asked him why he left the Knights of the Round Table.
Then Sir Percival answered:
"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail. "
[Illustration: "THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS. ]
"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I don't know much, but
what is that, the phantom of a cup that comes and goes? "
"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's the cup that
our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and after he died Joseph of
Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at Christmas time, and there it
stayed a while and every one who looked at it or touched it was healed
of their sicknesses. But the times grew so wicked that the cup was
caught up into heaven where nobody could see it. "
"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious, "how Joseph
built a lonely little church at Glastonbury on the marsh, but that was
long ago. Who first saw the vision of the Holy Grail to-day? "
"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a holy maid if
ever there was one. The old man to whom she used to tell her sins (or
what she called her sins), often spoke to her about the legend of the
Holy Grail which had been handed down through six people, each of them a
hundred years old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order
of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a time this
old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come back again. 'O Christ! '
he used to say to my sister, 'if only it would come back and help all
the world of its wickedness! ' And then my sister asked him whether it
might come to her by prayer and fasting.
"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.
