And so she pray'd and fasted, till the sun
Shone, and the wind blew, thro' her, and I thought She might have risen and floated when I saw her.
"For on a day she sent to speak with me.
And when she came to speak, behold her eyes
Beyond my knowing of them, beautiful,
Beyond all knowing of them, wonderful,
Beautiful in the light of holiness.
And 'O my brother, Percivale,' she said,
'Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail:
For, waked at dead of night, I heard a sound
As of a silver horn from o'er the hills
Blown, and I thought it is not Arthur's use
To hunt by moonlight, and the slender sound
As from a distance beyond distance grew
Coming upon me, - O never harp nor horn,
Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand,
Was like that music as it came; and then
Stream'd thro' my cell a cold and silver beam,
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail,
Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive,
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed
With rosy colors leaping on the wall;
And then the music faded, and the Grail
Passed, and the beam decay'd, and from the walls
The rosy quiverings died into the night.
So now the Holy Thing is here again
Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
That so perchance the vision may be seen
By thee and those, and all the world be heal'd.'
"Then leaving the pale nun, I spake of this To all men; and myself fasted and pray'd Always, and many among us many a week Fasted and pray'd even to the uttermost, Expectant of the wonder that would be.
"And one there was among us, ever moved Among us in white armor, Galahad.
God make thee good as thou art beautiful,'
Said Arthur, when he dubb'd him knight; and none,
In so young youth, was ever made a knight
Till Galahad; and this Galahad, when he heard
My sister's vision, filled me with amaze ;
His eyes became so like her own, they seem'd
Hers, and himself her brother more than I.
"Sister or brother none had he; but some Call'd him a son of Lancelot, and some said Begotten by enchantment, chatterers, they, Like birds of passage piping up and down That gape for flies, we know not whence they come ; For when was Lancelot wanderingly lewd?
"But she, the wan, sweet maiden, shore away
Clean from her forehead all that wealth of hair
Which made a silken mat-work for her feet;
And out of this she plaited broad and long
A strong sword-belt, and wove with silver thread,
And crimson in the belt a strange device,
A crimson grail within a silver beam;
And saw the bright boy-knight, and bound it on him,
Saying, 'My knight, my love, my knight of heaven.
O thou, my love, whose love is one with mine,
I, maiden, round thee, maiden, bind my belt.
Go forth, for thou shalt see what I have seen,
And break thro' all, till one will crown thee king
Far in the spiritual city:' and as she spake
She sent the deathless passion in her eyes.
Thro' him, and made him hers, and laid her mind
On him, and he believed in her belief.
"Then came a year of miracle: O brother,
In our great hall there stood a vacant chair,
Fashion'd by Merlin ere he past away,
And carven with strange figures; and in and out
The figures, like a serpent, ran a scroll
Of letters in a tongue no man could read.
And Merlin call'd it The Siege perilous,'
Perilous for good and ill; for there,' he said,
'No man could sit but he should lose himself:'
And once by misadvertence Merlin sat
In his own chair, and so was lost; but he,
Galahad, when he heard of Merlin's doom,
Cried, 'If I lose myself I save myself!'
"Then on a summer night it came to pass, While the great banquet lay along the hall, That Galahad would sit down in Merlin's chair.
"And all at once, as there we sat, we heard
A cracking and a riving of the roofs,
And rending, and a blast, and overhead
Thunder, and in the thunder was a cry.
And in the blast there smote along the hall
A beam of light seven times more clear than day:
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail
All over covered with a luminous cloud,
And none might see who bare it, and it past.
But every knight beheld his fellow's face
As in a glory, and all the knights arose,
And staring each at other like dumb men
Stood, till I found a voice and sware a vow.
"I sware a vow before them all, that I,
Because I had not seen the Grail, would ride
A twelvemonth and a day in quest of it,
Until I found and saw it, as the nun
My sister saw it; and Galahad sware the vow,
And good Sir Bors, our Lancelot's cousin, sware,
And Lancelot sware, and many among the knights,
And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest.
"Then spake the monk Ambrosius, asking him, 'What said the king? Did Arthur take the vow?'
“Nay, for, my lord, (said Percivale,) the king
Was not in Hall: for early that same day,
'Scaped thro' a cavern from a bandit hold,
An outraged maiden sprang into the hall
Crying on help: for all her shining hair
Was smeared with earth, and either milky arm
Red-rent with hooks of bramble, and all she wore
Torn as a sail, that leaves the rope, is torn
In tempest: so the king arose and went
To smoke the scandalous hive of those wild bees
That made such honey in his realm: howbeit
Some little of this marvel he too saw,
Returning o'er the plain that then began
To darken under Camelot; whence the king
Look'd up, calling aloud, 'Lo there! the roofs
Of our great Hall are rolled in thunder-smoke!
Pray Heaven they be not smitten by the bolt.'
For dear to Arthur was that hall of ours,
As having there so oft with all his knights
Feasted, and as the costliest under heaven.
"O brother, had you known our mighty hall, Which Merlin built for Arthur long ago! For all the sacred mount of Camelot, And all the dim rich city, roof by roof, Tower after tower, spire beyond spire, By grove, and garden-lawn, and rushing brook, Climbs to the mighty hall that Merlin built. And four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall : And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, And in the second men are slaying beasts, And on the third are warriors, perfect men, And on the fourth are men with growing wings, And over all one statue in the mould Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown, And peak'd wings pointed to the Northern Star. And eastward fronts the statue, and the crown And both the wings are made of gold, and flame At sunrise till the people in far fields, Wasted so often by the heathen hordes, Behold it, crying, 'We have still a king.'
And, brother, had you known our hall within, Broader and higher than any in all the lands, Where twelve great windows blazon Arthur's wars,
And all the light that falls upon the board
Streams thro' the twelve great battles of our king.
Nay, one there is, and at the eastern end,
Wealthy with wandering lines of mount and mere,
Where Arthur finds the brand Excalibur.
And also one to the west, and counter to it,
And blank and who shall blazon it ? when and how?
O then, perchance, when all our wars are done,
The brand Excalibur will be cast away.
"So to this hall full quickly rode the king,
In horror lest the work by Merlin wrought,
Dreamlike, should on the sudden vanish, wrapt
In unremorseful folds of rolling fire.
And in he rode, and up I glanced, and saw
The golden dragon sparkling over all:
And many of those who burnt the hold, their arms
Hack'd, and their foreheads grimed with smoke, and sear'd,
Follow'd, and in among bright faces, ours
Full of the vision, prest: and then the King
Spake to me, being nearest, Percivale,'
(Because the hall was all in tumult some Vowing, and some protesting), 'what is this?
"O brother, when I told him what had chanced, My sister's vision, and the rest, his face Darken'd, as I have seen it more than once, When some brave deed seem'd to be done in vain, Darken; and Woe is me, my knights!' he cried, 'Had I been here, ye had not sworn the vow.' Bold was mine answer, 'Had thyself been here,
My king, thou wouldst have sworn.' 'Yea, yea,' said he, 'Art thou so bold and hast not seen the grail ? '
Nay, Lord, I heard the sound, I saw the light,
But since I did not see the Holy Thing,
I sware a vow to follow it till I saw.'
"Then when he asked us, knight by knight, if any Had seen it, all their answers were as one,
Nay, Lord, and therefore have we sworn our vows.
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