road to the right of him and so missed the boy returning.

He found himself at the place at which the boy had slept. He
dismounted to observe more closely. Then he beheld the holy man as he
stepped from the shadows.

"Good day to you, holy father," the knight greeted him.

"God's blessing stay with thee, son. I have been expecting thee."

"Nay, father, not me. Other knight, mayhap. For I knew not myself I
would be here."

"Yet did I know, Sir Launcelot. You came here to seek the youth Allan
and knew not that you came in obedience to greater will than your own.
And having come, you must, prithee, listen to the things that must be
told you."

"Launcelot," and the monk spoke sternly and yet with great sadness,
"as measured by men thou art the bravest knight in Christendom.
Chivalrous, strong, yet gentle and ever ready to succor the weak and
distressed. Your name shall be emblazoned as symbolic of chivalry."
The strange man paused for a time.

"I speak now of the Holy Grail," he resumed. "Who would be better
fitted to seek and find the Holy Grail? Are there any who hold greater
desire to find the same? And who seeks to make himself more worthy?"

"And yet, though you seek until Judgment Day you will never find it.
In the innermost soul of you, you know it to be so. The pity of it."