Launcelot having been severely wounded, he was carried from the field and taken to a hermit's cave.

Elaine sought him out.

After he had sufficiently recovered he was removed to Astolat, where Elaine continued to be his nurse. But the knight's thoughts were elsewhere.

"And Launcelot

Would, tho' he call'd his wound a little hurt
Whereof he should be quickly whole, at times
Brain-feverous in his heat and agony, seem
Uncourteous, even he."-ELAINE.

Upon his recovery Launcelot resolved to return to Camelot. Elaine sat at the window when the knight rode by. He knew that she was there.

"And yet he glanced not up nor waved his hand.”—ELAINE.

Sir Launcelot tried to forget Elaine and the associations of Shalott. His manner indicated a most heartless spirit.

"His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode,
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,

As he rode down to Camelot.

From the bank and from the river
He flash'd into the crystal mirror,
'Tirra lirra,' by the river,

Sang Sir Launcelot."

-THE LADY OF SHALOTT.

Elaine was thus left alone, while Guinevere was made happy by Launcelot's return.

"So in her tower alone the maiden sat :

His very shield was gone; only the case,

Her own poor work, her empty labor, left.”—ELAINE.

She wandered aimlessly through the palace singing a strange monody which she called her song, "The Song of Love and Death."

"Sweet is true love tho' given in vain, in vain ; And sweet is death who puts an end to pain:

I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.

"Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be : Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me.

O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die.

"Sweet love, that seems not made to fade away,
Sweet death, that seems to make us loveless clay,
I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.

"I fain would follow love, if that could be; I needs must follow death, who calls for me; Call and I follow, I follow! let me die."

!

One day she called her father, and asked that he write a letter in her name and address it to Launcelot and the Queen.

"And lay the letter in my hand

A little ere I die, and close the hand
Upon it; I shall guard it even in death.

And when the heat is gone from out my heart,
Then take the little bed on which I died
For Launcelot's love, and deck it like the Queen's
For richness, and me also like the Queen
In all I have of rich, and lay me on it.
And let there be prepared a chariot-bier
To take me to the river, and a barge
Be ready on the river, clothed in black.
I go in state to court, to meet the Queen.
There surely I shall speak for mine own self,
And none of you can speak for me so well.
And therefore let our dumb old man alone
Go with me, he can steer and row, and he

Will guide me to that palace, to the doors."―ELAINE.

The father promised, thinking the request more fantasy than real.

"But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh

Her father laid the letter in her hand,

And closed the hand upon it, and she died.

So that day there was dole in Astolat."-ELAINE.

She was borne by her two brothers to the river, where the barge was in readiness. They laid her upon a couch, and placing a lily in her hands, turned away in sorrow :

"Then rose the dumb old servitor, and the dead

Steer'd by the dumb went upward with the flood."—ELAINE.

The barge floated on until it came near to the Castle of Came Launcelot was the first to see it:

lot.

"Then while Sir Launcelot leant, in half disgust
At love, life, all things, on the window-ledge,
Close underneath his eyes, and right across
Where these had fallen, slowly past the barge
Whereon the lily maid of Astolat

Lay smiling, like a star in blackest night.

Then turned the tongueless man

From the half-face to the full-eye, and rose

And pointed to the damsel."-Elaine.

Sir Arthur ordered the dead to be brought within the palace. And as he stood gazing upon her face

"He spied the letter in her hand,

Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all.
'Most noble lord, Sir Launcelot of the Lake,

I, sometime call'd the maid of Astolat,
Come, for you left me taking no farewell,
Hither, to take my last farewell of you.
I loved you, and my love had no return,
And therefore my true love has been my death.
And therefore to our lady Guinevere,

And to all other ladies, I make moan.

Pray for my soul, and yield me burial.
Pray for my soul thou too, Sir Launcelot,
As thou art a knight peerless.'

Thus he read,

And ever in the reading, lords and dames
Wept, looking often from his face who read

To hers which lay so silent, and at times,

So touched were they, half-thinking that her lips,

Who had devised the letter, moved again."-Elaine.

Sir Launcelot confessed that Elaine's love surpassed that of all women, but to be loved makes not to love again. The Queen reproached him, but—

"Launcelot answer'd nothing; he only went,

And at the inrunning of a little brook

Sat by the river in a cove, and watch'd

The high reed wave, and lifted up his eyes

And saw the barge that brought her moving down,

Far off, a blot upon the stream, and said

Low in himself, 'Ah, simple heart and sweet,

You loved me, damsel, surely with a love

Far tenderer than my Queen's. Pray for thy soul?
Ay, that will I. Farewell too-now at last-
Farewell.'"-ELAINE.

Elaine's Last Voyage.