Elaine now obtains leave of her old father to go in search of her brother and Launcelot. She finds Launcelot in the poplar grove, weak and burning with fever. Kneeling, she presents the kingly diamond, and then for many weeks cares for him. The three at last return to Astolat Castle. The grateful Launcelot urges Elaine to ask for some reward, declaring he would give lavishly. At last she makes known her love. He gently replies that she will yet live to honor some younger knight, and then he will endow them with lands and gold and that he will fight all her battles. Then he rode away with no word of parting. The motherless girl, broken-hearted, gives herself up to grief. She does not care to live. She becomes ill, and calling her father and brother to her bedside, she tells them that she must die. She dictates to Lavaine a letter which he writes and seals. Then she makes her father promise that when she dies she shall be dressed in her richest robes, and with the letter and a lily in her hands, she shall be placed upon a barge draped in black and borne by their dumb old serving-man up the river to the palace. After ten days she dies, and all is done as she directed. Sir Launcelot, standing with Queen Guinevere at a window facing the river, had just presented the dearly won diamonds. The jealous queen, charging him with deceit, flung them into the river. Launcelot, weary of life and all things, leaned back, when he espied the barge bearing Elaine, "a star in deepest night." 66 The whole court was touched with pity. Arthur approaching the bier, broke the letter and read. It begged Sir Launcelot and Lady Guinevere to pray for her soul and yield her burial. Sir Launcelot, deeply mourning her death, related before all the knights the story of his visit, her love, and his answer. He proved himself guiltless, yet all sorrowed for the maiden. King Arthur gave orders for a costly funeral. Queen Guinevere confessed her jealousy and begged Launcelot's forgiveness. King Arthur threw his arms about the unhappy knight and sought to comfort him. But Launcelot, sad and remorseful, went apart and mourned for the maiden whose death he had unwittingly caused. He resolved that the deceit which he had practised toward the king, and which had been the starting-point of all this woe, should be the last. The many interesting particulars of this beautiful story must be learned by reading the poem itself. QUOTATIONS FROM TENNYSON. "Love is hurt with jar and fret, "Howe'er it be, it seems to me, Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood." "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." "In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast; In the spring, the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest; In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove; In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." "A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things." "Ah yet, tho' all the world forsake, I will not cramp my heart, nor take "Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers." "It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute "Men may rise on stepping stones Of their dead selves, to higher things." "To loyal hearts the value of all gifts, "For manners are not idle, but the fruit "Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay." "Mockery is the fume of little hearts." "We needs must love the highest when we see it." "For what is true repentance but in thought Not even in inmost thought to think again The sins that made the past so pleasant to us." "Not die but live a life of truest breath, To teach true life to fight with mortal wrongs." "Indeed I know Of no more subtle master under heaven "And I must work through months of toil Upon my proper patch of soil, "The wanderings Of this most intricate Universe, Teach me the nothingness of things." |