“And with that the chamber door opened, and there came out a great clearness, that the house was so bright as though all the torches of the world had been there.  And anon he would have entered, but a voice said, Flee, Sir Lancelot, and enter not, for and if thou enter thou shalt forethink it.  Then he withdrew him aback, and was right heavy in his mind.  Then looked he up in the midst of the room and saw a table of silver, and the holy vessel covered with red samite, and so many angels about it, whereof one of them held a candle of wax burning, and the other held a Cross and the ornaments of the altar.  And before the holy vessel he saw a good man, clothed like a priest, and it seemed that he was at the sacring of the Mass.

“And it seemed unto Sir Lancelot that, above the priest’s hands, there were three men, whereof the two put the youngest by likeliness between the priest’s hands, and so he lift it upright high, and it seemed to show unto the people.  And then Sir Lancelot marvelled not a little, for him thought the priest was so greatly charged of the figure that him seemed he should have fallen to the ground; and when he saw none about him, he came to the door a great pace, and said:—­

“Fair sweet Father, Jesu Christ, me take it for no sin, though I help the good man, which hath great need of help.  Right so he entered into the chamber, and came toward the table of silver.  And when he came nigh he felt a breath that him thought it was intermeddled with fire, which smote him so sore in the visage that him thought it all to brent his visage.”

This is the culminating point of Lancelot’s quest; he swooned away, and lay as one dead for twenty-four days.  Nearer he might not come to the Holy Grail, and the sequel shows why, for after a time he returned to the court and fell into sin again, and forgot his good resolutions:—­

“For, as the French book saith, had not Sir Lancelot been in his privy thoughts and in his mind set inwardly to the queen, as he was in seeming outward unto God, there had no knight passed him in the quest of the Sancgreall; but ever his thoughts were privily upon the queen.”

But soon there arose a bitter quarrel between Lancelot and Guinevere, and she banished him from her sight.  During his absence from the court she made a dinner, at which one of the guests, Sir Modor, was poisoned, and the queen accused of the crime.  Guinevere was therefore impeached, and so truly did all the Round Table believe in her guilt, that at first no knight would come forward to defend her.

Ultimately, however, the “good Sir Bors,” Lancelot’s kinsman, was prevailed on to be her champion, provided that at the moment of the contest a better knight did not appear, to answer for her.  Of course, when Sir Bors is about to enter the lists in the meadow before Winchester, where there is a great fire and an iron stake, at which Guinevere is to be burned if her champion is overcome, a strange knight appears in unknown armour, and turns out to be Lancelot, fights for the queen, and overthrows her accuser.