Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/323

 of the Round Table. 283

13. After that event the King said to his ministers, — " Look and see how many of the knights perished in that Quest." They found that forty-two were missing, who had died in the war of the Quest, through the power of arms and knighthood. The king asked his nephew, Messer Galwan, on oath how many he had slain with his sword. Messer Galwan answered upon his oath that he had slain with his hand eighteen good, brave, and noble knights. The king asked him further if among the eighteen there had been also King Bano of Benook (?) (Magos). He answered, — "Yea, he was, but my heart has been grieving over it ever since; I did not recognize him in the battle." The King said, — " I also am mourning for him, and I am very sad, for he was my friend and intimate companion." When the King heard that so many of his knights of the Table had died in the war of ^' The Dish" (Graal), he ordered others to be elected in their stead, and so to fill up the number of the Table. Forty-two brave and noble knights were thereupon elected; they were all, however, youths who had not yet proved sufficiently their valour and strength. The king gave orders that a tournament be held in the field of Wincestre (Winchester) on a certain day, in order to teach the new knights the manner of warfare and the prowess of knighthood. The day of the battle approached.

14. Now I shall begin to tell about that famous knight, Messer Langolot del Lac, son of the King Bano of Benook. It is necessary to know that, when the knights of the Table started on their errand in quest of "The Dish " (Graal), Lang, who was at the head, had gone first to a monk who lived in a retreat, and confessed to him all his sins, and also that he had committed adultery with the Queen Zinevra. Then he went on the Quest, and, when he returned from the Quest, he again repaired to the confessor and confessed the sins of slaughter (murder) he had become guilty of in the battle of the Quest. The confessor gave him a severe penance with