“She seized,

And, thro’ the casement standing wide for heat,
Flung them, and down they flash’d, and smote the stream. 
Then from the smitten surface flash’d, as it were,
Diamonds to meet them, and they passed away.” 

          
                                                TENNYSON, Lancelot and Elaine.

[Illustration:  ELAINE—­Rosenthal.]

[Sidenote:  The funeral barge.] As he leaned out of the window to trace them in their fall, Lancelot saw a barge slowly drifting down the stream.  Its peculiar appearance attracted his attention, and as it passed close by him he saw that it bore a corpse.  A moment later he had recognized the features of the dead Elaine.  The mute boatman paused at the castle steps, and Arthur had the corpse borne into his presence.  The letter was found and read aloud in the midst of the awestruck court.  Arthur, touched by the girl’s love, bade Lancelot fulfill her last request and lay her to rest.  Lancelot then related the brief story of the maiden, whose love he could not return, but whose death he sincerely mourned.

    “’My lord liege Arthur, and all ye that hear,
    Know that for this most gentle maiden’s death
    Right heavy am I; for good she was and true,
    But loved me with a love beyond all love
    In women, whomsoever I have known. 
    Yet to be loved makes not to love again;
    Not at my years, however it hold in youth. 
    I swear by truth and knighthood that I gave
    No cause, not willingly, for such a love: 
    To this I call my friends in testimony,
    Her brethren, and her father, who himself
    Besought me to be plain and blunt, and use,
    To break her passion, some discourtesy
    Against my nature:  what I could, I did. 
    I left her and I bade her no farewell;
    Tho’, had I dreamt the damsel would have died,
    I might have put my wits to some rough use,
    And help’d her from herself.’”
                            TENNYSON, Lancelot and Elaine.

Haunted by remorse for this involuntary crime, Lancelot again wandered away from Camelot, but returned in time to save Guinevere, who had again been falsely accused.  In his indignation at the treatment to which she had been exposed, Lancelot bore her off to Joyeuse Garde, where he swore he would defend her even against the king.  Arthur, whose mind, in the mean while, had been poisoned by officious courtiers, besieged his recreant wife and knight; but although repeatedly challenged, the loyal Lancelot ever refused to bear arms directly against his king.

When the Pope heard of the dissension in England he finally interfered; and Lancelot, assured that Guinevere would henceforth be treated with all due respect, surrendered her to the king and retreated to his paternal estate in Brittany.  As Arthur’s resentment against Lancelot had not yet cooled, he left Guinevere under the care and protection of Mordred, his nephew,—­some versions say his son,—­and then, at the head of a large force, departed for Brittany.