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The World of Romance - being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856 by William Morris
page 42 of 110 (38%)
Lyf lythes to nee,
Twa wordes or three,
Of one who was fair and free,
And fele in his fight.

--_Sir Percival_.

I suppose my birth was somewhat after the birth of Sir Percival of
Galles, for I never saw my father, and my mother brought me up quaintly;
not like a poor man's son, though, indeed, we had little money, and lived
in a lone place: it was on a bit of waste land near a river; moist, and
without trees; on the drier parts of it folks had built cottages--see, I
can count them on my fingers--six cottages, of which ours was one.

Likewise, there was a little chapel, with a yew tree and graves in the
church-yard--graves--yes, a great many graves, more than in the yards of
many Minsters I have seen, because people fought a battle once near us,
and buried many bodies in deep pits, to the east of the chapel; but this
was before I was born.

I have talked to old knights since who fought in that battle, and who
told me that it was all about a lady that they fought; indeed, this lady,
who was a queen, was afterwards, by her own wish, buried in the aforesaid
chapel in a most fair tomb; her image was of latoun gilt, and with a
colour on it; her hands and face were of silver, and her hair, gilded and
most curiously wrought, flowed down from her head over the marble.

It was a strange sight to see that gold and brass and marble inside that
rough chapel which stood on the marshy common, near the river.

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