But
Percival understood not their mockery, whereupon he said: "Lo! how pleasant
and how cheerful is the world. I knew not it was so merry a place." So he
laughed and nodded and gave them greeting who mocked him in that manner.
And some of them said, "That is a madman." And others said, "Nay, he is a
silly fool." And when Percival heard these he said to himself: "I wonder
whether there are other sorts of knights that I have not yet heard tell
of?"
So he rode upon his way very happy, and whenever he met travellers, they
would laugh at him; but he would laugh louder than they and give them
greeting because of pure pleasure that the great world was so merry and
kind.
Now in the declining of the afternoon, he came to a certain pleasant glade,
and there he beheld a very noble and stately pavilion in among the trees,
And that pavilion was all of yellow satin so that it shone like to gold in
the light of the declining sun.
Then Percival said to himself: "Verily, this must be one of those churches
concerning which my mother spake to me." So he descended from his horse and
went to that pavilion and knelt down and said a pater-noster.
Pages:
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469