other was wounded and bare King Arthur's badge; and I know full well,"
quoth the boatman, "the knights who bear that badge, by that same token
shall ye yourself be one of King Arthur's knights. They would both cross
over, and I ferried them to the further side. 'Twas to them an unknown
land; that did I hear well from their speech. Methought that they were
ill at ease, I wist not wherefore. I saw that the one wept so that the
tears fell thick adown his face. And when I had brought them to the
other side the knight, who was glad thereof, asked me if I knew where
stood a hermitage wherein a hermit dwelt. That did I shew him--no more
and no less."

Thus fared they, having heard the tale and speaking of the twain, till
that they touched the sand. Then did the boatman shew them the way they
should ride thence to where the hermitage stood, and declared to them
the road. Thus left they the boatman, who was much rejoiced to be safely
quit of them. But the knights went on their way till they knew that they
drew near to the hermitage, and came even unto it. Then they dismounted,
and made fast their steeds before the door, and cried with a loud voice
to those within: "Let us in! Open of your goodwill!" A lad came to the
door and asked them what they desired, and if aught ailed them that they
required aid.

Then Sir Gariet spake, and said that an it were pleasing to them, they
would fain have speech with the hermit and with Sir Agloval. And the
messenger went his way to the twain, and told them how two knights stood
without the gate. "The one is a goodly man to look upon and well armed,
and so, forsooth, is the other, but his armour and his limbs, so far as
I might see, were blacker than soot or pitch. I wot not if ye know aught
of them or of their errand. They said that they would fain speak with
ye, and they prayed me straitly, the twain of them, that I should come