She is amazed to see no door
or window, except one little narrow opening. Moreover, there was
no ladder or steps about this high, sheer tower. For this reason
she surmises that it was made so intentionally, and that Lancelot
is confined inside. But she resolves that before she tastes of
food, she will learn whether this is so or not. She thinks she
will call Lancelot by name, and is about to do so when she is
deterred by hearing from the tower a voice which was making a
marvellously sad moan as it called on death. It implores death
to come, and complains of misery unbearable. In contempt of the
body and life, it weakly piped in a low, hoarse tone: "Ah,
fortune, how disastrously thy wheel has turned for me! Thou hast
mocked me shamefully: a while ago I was up, but now I am down; I
was well off of late, but now I am in a sorry state; not long
since thou didst smile on me, but now thy eyes are filled with
tears. Alas, poor wretch, why didst thou trust in her, when so
soon she has deserted thee! Behold, in a very little while she
has cast thee down from thy high estate! Fortune, it was wrong
of thee to mock me thus; but what carest thou! Thou carest not
how it may turn out. Ah, sacred Cross! All, Holy Ghost! How am
I wretched and undone! How completely has my career been closed!
Ah, Gawain, you who possess such worth, and whose goodness is
unparalleled, surely I may well be amazed that you do not come to
succour me.
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