CHAPTER XI

How Sir Bors told his dream to a priest, which he had
dreamed, and of the counsel that the priest gave to him.


NOW leave we him here, said the good man, and go we
to our harbour till to-morrow; we will come here again
to do him service.  Sir, said Bors, be ye a priest?  Yea
forsooth, said he.  Then I pray you tell me a dream that
befell to me the last night.  Say on, said he.  Then he
began so much to tell him of the great bird in the forest,
and after told him of his birds, one white, another black,
and of the rotten tree, and of the white flowers.  Sir, I
shall tell you a part now, and the other deal to-morrow.
The white fowl betokeneth a gentlewoman, fair and rich,
which loved thee paramours, and hath loved thee long;
and if thou warn her love she shall go die anon, if thou
have no pity on her.  That signifieth the great bird, the
which shall make thee to warn her.  Now for no fear that
thou hast, ne for no dread that thou hast of God, thou
shalt not warn her, but thou wouldst not do it for to be
holden chaste, for to conquer the loos of the vain glory of
the world; for that shall befall thee now an thou warn
her, that Launcelot, the good knight, thy cousin, shall die.
And therefore men shall now say that thou art a manslayer,
both of thy brother, Sir Lionel, and of thy cousin, Sir
Launcelot du Lake, the which thou mightest have saved and
rescued easily, but thou weenedst to rescue a maid which
pertaineth nothing to thee.  Now look thou whether it
had been greater harm of thy brother's death, or else to
have suffered her to have lost her maidenhood.  Then
asked he him:  Hast thou heard the tokens of thy dream
the which I have told to you?  Yea forsooth, said Sir Bors,
all your exposition and declaring of my dream I have well
understood and heard.  Then said the man in this black
clothing: Then is it in thy default if Sir Launcelot, thy
cousin, die.  Sir, said Bors, that were me loath, for wit ye
well there is nothing in the world but I had liefer do it
than to see my lord, Sir Launcelot du Lake, to die in my
default.  Choose ye now the one or the other, said the
good man.

And then he led Sir Bors into an high tower, and there
he found knights and ladies: those ladies said he was
welcome, and so they unarmed him.  And when he was
in his doublet men brought him a mantle furred with
ermine, and put it about him; and then they made him
such cheer that he had forgotten all his sorrow and anguish,
and only set his heart in these delights and dainties, and
took no thought more for his brother, Sir Lionel, neither
of Sir Launcelot du Lake, his cousin.  And anon came
out of a chamber to him the fairest lady than ever he saw,
and more richer beseen than ever he saw Queen Guenever
or any other estate.  Lo, said they, Sir Bors, here is the
lady unto whom we owe all our service, and I trow she be
the richest lady and the fairest of all the world, and the
which loveth you best above all other knights, for she will
have no knight but you.  And when he understood that
language he was abashed.  Not for then she saluted him,
and he her; and then they sat down together and spake
of many things, in so much that she besought him to be
her love, for she had loved him above all earthly men, and
she should make him richer than ever was man of his age.
When Bors understood her words he was right evil at ease,
which in no manner would not break chastity, so wist not
he how to answer her.