" To this the
Lady of the Lake said: "Thou must endure thy sorrow a while longer; for it
is so ordained that I must take thy child; for I take him only that I may
give him to thee again, reared in such a wise that he shall make the glory
of thy house to be the glory of the world. For he shall become the greatest
knight in the world, and from his loins shall spring a greater still than
he, so that the glory of the House of King Ban shall be spoken of as long
as mankind shall last." But Queen Helen cried out all the more in a great
despair: "What care I for all this? I care only that I shall have my little
child again! Give him to me!"
[Sidenote: The Lady of the Lake taketh Launcelot into the Lake] Therewith
she would have laid hold of the garments of the Lady of the Lake in
supplication, but the Lady of the Lake drew herself away from Queen Helen's
hand and said: "Touch me not, for I am not mortal, but Fay." And thereupon
she and Launcelot vanished from before Queen Helen's eyes as the breath
vanishes from the face of a mirror.
For when you breathe upon a mirror the breath will obscure that which lieth
behind; but presently the breath will disappear and vanish, and then you
shall behold all things entirely clear and bright to the sight again.
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