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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Tennyson
+
+Author: Molly K. Bellew
+
+Illustrator: H. S. Campbell
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2011 [EBook #35598]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TENNYSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Peter Vickers, Juliet Sutherland
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS]
+
+   TALES FROM TENNYSON
+
+   BY
+   MOLLY K. BELLEW
+
+   EDITOR OF
+   "TALES FROM LONGFELLOW"
+   "DICKENS' CHRISTMAS STORIES FOR CHILDREN"
+   ETC., ETC.
+
+   ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. CAMPBELL
+
+   NEW YORK AND BOSTON
+   H. M. CALDWELL CO.
+   PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+   COPYRIGHT, 1902
+   BY
+   JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO.
+
+
+
+
+   CONTENTS.
+
+
+   The Coming of King Arthur               9
+
+   Gareth and Lynette                     29
+
+   The Marriage of Geraint                46
+
+   Geraint's Quest of Honor               64
+
+   Merlin and Vivien                      85
+
+   Balin and Balan                        95
+
+   Lancelot and Elaine                   104
+
+   The Holy Grail                        119
+
+   Pelleas and Ettarre                   132
+
+   The Last Tournament                   142
+
+   The Passing of Arthur                 150
+
+
+
+
+To my Young Readers.
+
+
+Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and none, perhaps
+not even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly to the human heart. No
+other man's poems have caused as many readers to shed tears of sympathy
+nor have awakened higher sentiments in the human heart. The critics
+agree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his "Idylls from
+the King" are found the loftiest and proudest deeds of English history
+and even in the retelling of these in prose the high spirit that is an
+inspiration to the noblest deeds cannot fail to be preserved.
+
+                                         MOLLY K. BELLEW.
+
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR.
+
+
+Over a thousand years ago everybody was talking about the wonderful King
+Arthur and his brilliant Knights of the Round Table, who everywhere were
+pursuing bold quests, putting to rout the band of outlaws and robbers
+which in those days infested every highway and by-way of the country,
+going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and order among
+the rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the poor and the oppressed,
+and winning glorious renown for their valor and their successes.
+
+That was in England which at that time was not England as it is today,
+all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was divided into many bits of
+kingdoms each with its own king and all warring against each other.
+Arthur's kingdom was the most unpeaceful of all. This was because for
+twenty years or more, ever since the death of old King Uther, the
+country had been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a score
+of years before without leaving an heir to the throne, and all the
+nobles of the realm had immediately gone to war with one another each
+trying to get the most land and each trying to get the throne for
+himself.
+
+[Illustration: OLD MERLIN APPEARS.]
+
+Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been King Uther's
+magician, appeared one day in the royal council hall with a handsome
+young man, Arthur, and declared him to be the king of the realm. Arthur
+was crowned and for a time the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with a
+strong hand of iron, put down all the evils in his kingdom and
+everywhere gave it peace and order. People in every part of the island
+sent for him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out of
+their difficulties. But presently the nobles became troublesome again;
+they said that Arthur was not the true king, that he was not the son of
+Uther and that, therefore, he had no right to reign over them. So there
+was fighting and unrest again, and in the midst of it Leodogran, the
+king of the Land of Cameliard, asked Arthur to come with his knights and
+drive away the enemies besetting him on every side. The country of
+Cameliard had gone to waste and ruin, because of the continual warfare
+that was waged with the kings that lived in the little neighboring
+countries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen peoples who invaded
+the land. And so it happened that Cameliard was ravaged with battles,
+its strong men were cut down with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, and
+bears from the tangled weeds came rooting up the green fields and
+wallowing into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole little
+children from the villages and nursed them like their own cubs, until
+finally these children grew up into a race of wolf-men who molested the
+land worse than the wolves themselves. Then another king fought
+Leodogran, and at last the heathen hordes came swarming from over the
+seas and made all the earth red with his soldiers' blood, and they made
+the sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people.
+
+Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help until at last
+he thought of young Arthur of the Round Table who recently had been
+crowned king. So Leodogran sent for Arthur beseeching him to come and
+help him, for between the men and the beasts his country was dying.
+
+[Illustration: PRINCESS GUINEVERE.]
+
+King Arthur and his men welcomed the chance and went at once into the
+Land of Cameliard to drive away the heathen marauders. As he marched
+with his men past the castle walls, pretty Princess Guinevere stood
+outside to watch the glittering soldiers go by. Among so many richly
+dressed knights she did not particularly notice Arthur, for he wore
+nothing to show that he was king, although his kingly bearing and brave
+forehead might suggest leadership. But no royal arms were engraved upon
+his helmet or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly so
+gorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others.
+
+[Illustration: HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY.]
+
+Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur spied her
+beside the castle wall; he felt the light of her beautiful eyes
+glimmering out into his heart and setting it all aflame with a fire of
+love for her.
+
+He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched their
+tents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered away to their
+own territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts that had plundered
+the fields, cut down the forest trees so as to open out roads for the
+people of Cameliard to pass over from one part of their land to the
+other, then he traveled quietly away with his men, back to fight his own
+battles in his own country. For there was fighting everywhere in those
+days. But all the time in Arthur's heart, while he was doing those
+wonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of Leodogran,
+but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her.
+
+If only she could be his queen he thought they two together could rule
+on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and could exert a
+mighty power over all his people to make them good and wise and happy.
+Each day increased his love until he could not bear even to think for a
+moment of living without her. So from the very field of battle, while
+the swords were flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons
+and great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched three
+messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard.
+
+These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, the very
+first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. They went to Leodogran
+and said that if Arthur had been of any service to him in his recent
+troubles with the heathen and the wild beasts, he should give the
+Princess Guinevere to be Arthur's wife as a mark of his good will.
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN.]
+
+Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what to do any
+better than when the heathen and the beasts had come upon him. For while
+he thought Arthur a very bold soldier and a very fine man, and, although
+he felt very grateful indeed to him for all the great things he had
+done, still he was not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For,
+as Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the wife of
+none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not know precisely who
+this King Arthur was; but he did know that the barons of Arthur's court
+had burst out into this uproar against him because they said he was not
+their true king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before
+him. Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others
+avowed that Sir Anton was his father.
+
+As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter himself, he
+sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who always had good
+counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he asked the chamberlain whether
+he had heard anything certainly as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlain
+told him that there were just two men in all the world who knew the
+truth with respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both
+these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was Merlin the
+wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in magic, who had written
+a book of his renowned pupil's wonders, which probably related
+everything regarding the secret of Arthur's birth.
+
+"If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than you have just
+now in my present trouble," the king answered the chamberlain, "I would
+have died long ago from the wild beasts and the heathen. Send me in
+Ulfius and Brastias and Bedivere again."
+
+So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came into Leodogran
+who spoke to them this way: "I have often seen a big cuckoo chased by
+little birds and understood why such tiny birds plagued him so, but why
+are the nobles in your country rebelling against their king and saying
+that he is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves think
+he is the child of King Uther."
+
+[Illustration: SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT.]
+
+Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but Bedivere, the first
+of all Arthur's knights, became very bold when anyone slandered his
+sovereign and he replied: "_Sir King, there are all sorts of stories
+about that_; some of the nobles hate him just because he is good and
+they are wicked; they cry out that he is no man because his ways are
+gentler than their rough manners, while others again think he must be
+an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts as I know
+them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago; they both loved
+Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and had no sons, but three
+daughters, one of them the Queen of Orkney who has clung to Arthur like
+a sister. The two rivals, Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other
+and Gerlois was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsome
+Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently.
+In a few months Uther died, and on that very night of his death Arthur
+was born. And as soon as he was born they carried him out by a secret
+back gateway to Merlin the magician, to be brought up far away from the
+court so that no one would hear about him until he was grown up ready to
+sit upon Uther's, his father, throne.
+
+"For those were wild lords in those years just like these of today,
+always struggling for the rule, and they would have shattered the
+helpless little prince to pieces had they known about him. So Merlin
+took the baby and gave him over to old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's,
+and Sir Anton's wife tended Arthur with her own little ones so that
+nobody knew who he was or where he had come from. But while the prince
+was growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and barons were
+fighting all the time among themselves and nobody ruled. But during this
+present year Arthur's time for ascending the throne had come, so Merlin
+brought him from out of his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and
+cried out to all the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, your
+king!' Of course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried
+back immediately: 'Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's the son
+of Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king.'
+
+"In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he won the
+day for the people, who were clamoring for a king and were glad to see
+Arthur crowned. But after it all was over the lords banded together and
+broke out in open war against Arthur. That is the whole story of this
+war."
+
+Although pleased with Bedivere's good account of Arthur, yet when it was
+ended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was Bedivere right, he thought
+to himself, or were the barons right? As he sat pondering over
+everything in his palace, _three great visitors came to the castle_;
+these were the Queen of Orkney, the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, with
+her two sons, Gawain and Modred. Leodogran made a great feast for them
+and while entertaining them at table remembered what Bedivere had said
+about Arthur and this queen. So he turned to the queen and remarked:
+
+[Illustration: THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE.]
+
+"An insecure throne is no better than a mass of ice in a summer's sea;
+it all melts away. You are from Arthur's court; tell me, do you think
+this king with his few loyal Knights of the Round Table can triumph over
+the rebellious lords, and keep his throne?"
+
+"O King, they are few indeed," the Queen of Orkney cried, "but so bold
+and true, and all of one mind with him. I was there at the coronation
+when the savage yells of the nobles died away, and Arthur sat crowned
+upon the dais with all his knights gathered round him to do his service
+for him forever. Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of great
+authority bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that when
+they rose from their knees one after the other, some of them looked as
+pale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were flushed in their
+faces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind with their awe as if not
+fully awake. Then he spoke to them, cheering them with divine words that
+are far more than my tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke every
+face flashed, for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifix
+above, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon the
+bright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends who stood
+silently beside his throne, and who will always be ready to help him if
+he is in need.
+
+"Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred years of art
+like so many hands of vassals to wait upon the young king. Near Merlin
+stood the mystical, marvelous Lady of the Lake, who knows a deeper magic
+than Merlin's own, dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all about
+her and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom. But when the holy
+hymns were sung a voice like flowing waters sounded through the music.
+It was the voice of the Lady of the Lake who lives in the lowest waters
+of the lake where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow over
+the earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above her can walk out
+upon their crests just as our Lord did.
+
+"_It was she who gave Arthur his remarkable sword_ Excalibur, with its
+hilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen for you. That
+strange sword rose up from out the bosom of the lake, and Arthur rowed
+over in a little boat and took it. The sword is incrusted with rich
+jewels on the hilt, with a blade so bright that men are blinded by it.
+On one side the words 'Take me' are graven upon it in the oldest
+language of the world, while on the other side the words 'Cast me away'
+are carved in the tongue that you speak.
+
+[Illustration: SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD]
+
+"Arthur became very sad when he saw the second inscription, but Merlin
+advised him to take the beautiful blade and use it; he told him that now
+was the time to strike and that the time to cast away was very, very far
+off. So Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat down
+his enemies, King Leodogran."
+
+Leodogran was pleased with the queen's words, but he wished to test the
+story Bedivere had told him, so he looked into her eyes narrowly as he
+observed, with a question in his tones, "The swallow and the swift are
+very near kin, but you are still closer to this noble prince as you are
+his own dear sister."
+
+"I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne," she answered.
+
+"Yes, that is why you are Arthur's sister," the king returned still
+questioningly.
+
+"These are secret things," the Queen of Orkney replied, and she motioned
+with her hand for her two sons to leave her alone in the room with the
+king.
+
+Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying after and
+frolicked outside like a frisky pony, _but cunning Modred laid his ear
+close beside the door to listen_, so that he half heard all the strange
+story his mother told the king. This is what the queen said in the
+beginning to the king.
+
+[Illustration: CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR TO LISTEN]
+
+"What should I know about it? For my mother's hair and eyes were dark,
+and so were the eyes and hair of Gerlois, and Uther was dark too, almost
+black, but the King Arthur is fairer than anyone else in Britain.
+However, I remember how my mother used often to weep and say, 'O that
+you had some brother, pretty little one, to guard you from the rough
+ways of the world."
+
+"Yes? She said that?" Leodogran rejoined, "but when did you see Arthur
+first?"
+
+"O king, I will tell you all about it," cried the Queen of Orkney. "Once
+when I was a little bit of a girl and had been beaten for some childish
+fault that I had not committed, I ran outside and flung myself on a
+grassy bank and hated all the world and everything in it, and wished I
+were dead. But all of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don't
+know how he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him, for
+Merlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if he will, but any
+rate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting me and drying my tears.
+After that Arthur came very often without anybody knowing it and we were
+children together, and in those golden days I felt sure he would be
+king.
+
+"But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who taught the
+magician Merlin. You know they both served King Uther, and just a little
+while ago when Bleys died he sent for me. He said he had something to
+tell me that I must know before he left the world. He said that they
+two, Merlin and he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night when
+the king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir to his
+throne. After the king's death as Merlin and Bleys walked out from the
+castle walls into the dismal misty night, they saw a wonderful
+fairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon sailing the heavens, with shining
+people collected on its decks; but in the twinkling of an eye the ship
+was gone.
+
+"Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by the seashore to
+watch the billows, one after the other, as they lapped up against the
+beach. And as they looked at last a great wave gathered up one-half of
+the ocean and came full of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaring
+all the while. Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the wave
+and in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by the
+water to Merlin's very feet.
+
+"'The king!' cried Merlin. 'Here's an heir for Uther.'
+
+"Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great flaming
+breaker lashed at him as he held up the baby; it rose up round him in a
+mantle of fire so that he and the child were clothed in fire. Then
+suddenly there was a calm, the stars looked out and the sky was open.
+
+"'And this same child,' Bleys whispered to me, 'is the young king who
+reigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story had been told.'
+Then Bleys passed away into the land where nobody can question him.
+
+"So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true about the
+shining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating down from heaven
+over on the glory of the seas; but Merlin just laughed, as he always
+does, and answered me in the riddles of the old song, this way:
+
+    "'Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky!
+    A young man will be wiser by and by;
+    An old man's wit may wander ere he die.
+    Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea!
+    And truth is this to me and that to thee;
+    And truth or clothed or naked let it be.
+    Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows;
+    Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows.
+    From the great deep to the great deep he goes!'
+
+"It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but you must
+not be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere to this King
+Arthur. For great poets will sing of his brave deeds in long years after
+this; and Merlin has said, and not joking, either, that even although
+Arthur's enemies may wound him in battle he will never, never die, but
+will only pass away for a time, for a little while, and then will come
+to us again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going to
+trample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the nations and
+all the men will call him their king."
+
+It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of Orkney told
+him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay thinking over it all, still
+puzzled as to whether he should say "yes" or "no" to the ambassadors
+whom Arthur had sent. As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very,
+very drowsy and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept
+he saw a wonderful vision in a dream.
+
+There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that ascended
+higher and higher, field after field, to a very great height and at the
+top there was a lofty peak hidden in the heavy, hazy clouds; and on the
+peak a phantom king stood. One moment the king was there, and the next
+moment he was gone, while everything below him was in a frightful
+confusion, a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle
+falling back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up in
+streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king stood in the
+fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king spoke out through the
+haze, and some one here or there beneath would point upward toward him,
+but the rest all went on fighting. They cried out, "He is no king of
+ours, no son of Uther's, no king of ours." Then in a twinkling the dream
+all changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth below the
+peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful king remained,
+crowned with his diadems, standing in the heavens.
+
+Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. He called
+for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they had come into this
+presence he told them that Arthur should marry the fair Princess
+Guinevere, and he sent them galloping back to Arthur's court.
+
+That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights delivered
+King Leodogran's message. He made ready at once for his sweet queen. He
+picked out Lancelot, his favorite Knight of the Round Table, whom he
+loved better than any other man in all the world, to ride over into the
+Land of Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as
+Lancelot mounted his dancing steed and rode away _Arthur watched him
+from the palace gates_, thinking of the lovely lady who would ride by
+his side when he returned.
+
+[Illustration: LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.]
+
+Lancelot's horse trampled away among the flowers; for it was April when
+he left the court of Arthur, and just one month later he came riding
+back among the flowers of the May-time. Guinevere was with him on her
+graceful palfrey.
+
+Then Dubric, the head of the whole church in Britain, went out to meet
+her. Happy Arthur was there too. They were married in the greatest and
+noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all the
+Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white clothes, gathered
+about them. And all the knights were as delighted as they could be
+because their king was so glad. Holy Dubric spread out his hands above
+the King and the lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and
+he said:
+
+[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN.]
+
+"Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, and may your
+queen be one with you, and may all the Knights of the Order of the Round
+Table fulfill the boundless purposes of their king."
+
+There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords came thither
+from far away Rome, which once was the mistress of all the world, but
+now was slowly fading away. These Roman lords called for the tribute
+from Arthur that they had always received from Britain ever since Cæsar
+with his Roman legions had conquered it long years before.
+
+But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy knights and
+said: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight for me in all my wars
+and to worship me as their king. The old order of things has passed away
+and a new order will take its place. We are fighting for our fair father
+Christ, while you have been growing so feeble and so weak and so old
+that you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman walls any
+more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be your slaves. This is to
+be our own free country which we will defend and maintain."
+
+_The great lords from Rome drew back very angrily_ and went home and
+told their king all about what Arthur had said. So Arthur had to battle
+with Rome, but he won in the end.
+
+Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they all felt like
+one great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he became mightier
+than any of the other kings in any part of Britain. And when he fought
+with them he always conquered them. In that way he drew in all the
+little kingdoms under him, so that he was the one king of the land, and
+they all fought together for him.
+
+There were twelve great battles against the heathen hordes that had
+molested them from across the terrible seas, and each of these battles
+he won. So he made one great realm and he reigned over it, the king.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK.]
+
+
+
+
+GARETH AND LYNETTE.
+
+
+Old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent had three sons. Gawain and Modred
+were Knights of the Round Table at Arthur's court, and young Gareth, who
+was his mother's pet, sighed to think he had to stay home and be cuddled
+and fondled like a baby boy instead of riding off like a venturesome
+soldier fighting gloriously for the king and winning a great name.
+
+"There!" he cried impatiently, one chilly spring day as he stood by the
+brink of a rivulet and saw a bit of a pine tree caught from the bank by
+the dashing, swollen waters of the stream and whirled madly away.
+"That's the way the king's enemies would fall before my spear, if I had
+a spear to use! That stream can do no more than I can, even although it
+is merely icy water all cold with the snows while I'm tingling with hot
+blood and have strong arms. When Gawain came home last summer and asked
+me to tilt with him and Modred was the judge, didn't I shake him so in
+his saddle that he said I had half overcome him? Humph! and mother
+thinks I'm still a child!"
+
+_Gareth went in to the queen_ and said: "Mother, if you love me listen
+to a story I will tell. Once there was an egg which a great royal eagle
+laid high above on the rocks somewhere almost out of sight and there was
+a lad which saw the splendor sparkling from it, and the lightnings
+playing around it and the little birds crying and clashing in the nest.
+The boy thought if he could only reach that egg he would be richer than
+a houseful of kings, and he was nearly driven from his sense with his
+desire for it. But whenever he reached to clamber up for it some one who
+loved him restrained him saying, 'If you love me do not climb, lest
+you break your neck.' So the boy did not climb, mother, and he did not
+break his neck, but he broke his heart pining for the glorious egg. How
+can you keep me tethered here, Mother? Let me go!"
+
+[Illustration: MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL.]
+
+"Have you no pity for me?" Queen Bellicent asked. "Stay here by your
+poor old father and me; chase the deer in our fir trees and marry some
+lovely bride I will get for you. You're my best son and so young."
+
+"Mother, a king once showed his son two brides and told him that he must
+either win the beautiful one, or, if he failed, wed the other. The
+pretty one was Fame and the other was Shame. Why should I follow the
+deer when I can follow the king? Why was I born a man if I cannot do a
+man's work?"
+
+"But some of the barons say he isn't the true king."
+
+"Hasn't he conquered the Romans and driven off the heathen and made all
+the people free? Who has a right to be king if not the man who has done
+that? He is the true king."
+
+When Bellicent found that she could not turn Gareth from his purpose,
+she said that if he was determined he must do one thing before he asked
+the king to make him a knight.
+
+"Anything," cried Gareth. "Give me a hundred proofs. Only be quick."
+
+The queen looked at him very slowly and said: "You are a prince, Gareth,
+but before you are fit to serve the king you must go into Arthur's court
+disguised and hire yourself to serve his meats and drink among the
+scullions and kitchen knaves. And you must not tell your name to anyone
+and you must serve that way for a year and a day."
+
+The queen made this condition, thinking that Gareth would be too proud
+to play the slave. But he thought a moment, then answered: "A slave may
+be free in his soul, and I can see the jousts there. You are my mother
+so I must obey you and I will be a scullion in King Arthur's kitchen and
+keep my name a secret from everyone, even the king."
+
+So Bellicent grieved and watched Gareth every moment wherever he went,
+dreading the time when he should leave. And he waited until one windy
+night when she slept, then called two servants and slipped away with
+them, all three dressed like poor peasants of the field.
+
+They walked away towards the south and as they came to the plain
+stretching to the mountain of Camelot, they saw the royal city upon its
+brow. Sometimes its spires and towers flashed in the sunlight; sometimes
+only the great gate shone out before their eyes, or again the whole fair
+town vanished away. Then the servants said:
+
+"Let us go no further, Lord. It's an enchanted city, and all a vision.
+The people say anyway, that Arthur isn't the true king, but only a
+changeling from fairyland, and that Merlin won his battles for him with
+magic."
+
+Gareth laughed and replied that he had magic enough in his blood and
+hopes to plunge old Merlin into the Arabian sea. And he pushed them on
+to the gate. There was no other gate like it under heaven. The Lady of
+the Lake stood barefooted on the keystone and held up the cornice. Drops
+of water fell from either hand and above were the three queens who were
+Arthur's friends, and on each side Arthur's wars were pictured in weird
+devices with dragons and elves so intertwined that they made men dizzy
+to look at them. The servants cried out, "Lord, the gateway is alive!"
+Then a blast of music pealed out of the city, and the three queens
+stepped aside while an old man with a long beard came out and asked:
+
+"Who are you, my sons?"
+
+"We are peasants," answered Gareth, "who have come to see the glories of
+your king, but the city looked so strange through the morning mist that
+my men are wondering whether it is not a fairy city or perhaps no city
+at all. So tell us the truth about it."
+
+"Oh, it's a fairy city," the old man answered, "and a fairy king and
+queen came out of the mountain cleft at sunrise with harps in their
+hands and built it to music, which means it never was built at all, and
+therefore built forever."
+
+"Why do you mock me so?" Gareth cried angrily.
+
+"I am not mocking you so much as you are mocking me and every one who
+looks at you, for you are not what you seem, still I know what you truly
+are."
+
+Then the old man turned away and Gareth said to his men: "Our poor
+little white lie stands like a ghost at the very beginning of our
+enterprise. Blame my mother's love for it and not her nor me."
+
+So they all laughed and came into the city of Camelot with its shadowy
+and stately palaces. Here and there a knight passed in or out, his arms
+clashing and the sound was good to Gareth's ears. Or out of a casement
+window glanced the pure eyes of lovely women. But Gareth made at once
+for the hall of the king where his heart fairly hammered into his ears
+as he wondered whether Arthur would turn him aside because of the half
+shadow of a lie he had told the old man by the gate about being a
+peasant. There were many supplicants coming before the king to tell him
+of some hurt done them by marauders or the wild beasts, and each one was
+given a knight by the king to help them.
+
+When Gareth's turn came, he rested his arms, one on each servant, and
+stepped forward saying: "A boon, Sir King! Do you see how weak I seem,
+leaning on these men? Pray let me go into your kitchen and serve there
+for a year and a day, and do not ask me my name. After that I will fight
+for you."
+
+"You are a handsome youth," said the king, "and worth something better
+from the king, but if that is what you wish, go and serve under the
+seneschal, Sir Kay, Master of the Meats and Drinks."
+
+Sir Kay thought the boy had probably run away from the farm belonging to
+some Abbey where he had not had enough to eat, and he promised that if
+Gareth would work well he would feed him until he was as plump as a
+pigeon.
+
+But Lancelot, the king's favorite, said to Kay: "You don't understand
+boys as well as dogs and cattle. Can't you see by this lad's broad fair
+forehead and fine hands that he is nobly born? Treat him well or he may
+shame you."
+
+"Fair and fine, forsooth," cried Kay. "If he had been a gentleman he
+would have asked for a horse and armor."
+
+So he hustled and harried Garreth, _set him to draw water_, _hew wood_
+and labor harder than any of the grimy and smudgy kitchen knaves. Gareth
+did all with a noble sort of ease and graced the lowliest act, and when
+the knaves all gathered together of an evening to tell stories about
+Arthur on the battlefields or of Lancelot in the tournament, Gareth
+listened delightedly or made them all, with gaping mouths, listen
+charmed, to some prodigious tale of his own about wonderful knights
+cutting their scarlet way through twenty folds of twisted dragons. When
+there was a Joust and Sir Kay let him attend it, he went half beside
+himself in an ecstasy watching the warriors clash their springing
+spears, and the sniffing chargers reel.
+
+At the end of the first month, lonely Queen Bellicent felt sorry for her
+poor, dear son, toiling and moiling among pots and pans, so she sent a
+servant to Camelot with the beaming armor of a knight and freed him from
+his vow. Gareth colored redder than any young girl and went alone in to
+the king and told him all.
+
+[Illustration: SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD.]
+
+"Make me your knight in secret," he begged Arthur, "and give me the very
+next quest from your court!"
+
+"Son," answered the king, "my knights are sworn to vows of utter
+hardihood, of utter gentleness, of utter faithfulness in love and of
+utter obedience to the king."
+
+Gareth sprang lightly from his knees: "My king, I can promise you for my
+hardihood; respecting my obedience, ask Sir Kay, and as for love I have
+not loved yet, but God willing some day I will, and faithfully."
+
+The reply so pleased the great king, he laid his hand on Gareth's arm
+and smiled and knighted him.
+
+A few days later _a noble maiden_ with a brow like a May-blossom and a
+saucy nose _passed into the king's hall with her page_ and told Arthur
+that her name was Lynette, and that her beautiful sister, the Lady
+Lyonors lived in the Castle Perilous which was beset with bandit
+knights.
+
+[Illustration: A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE.]
+
+"A river courses about the castle in three loops," said she, "each loop
+has a bridge and every bridge is guarded by a wicked outlaw warrior, Sir
+Morning-star, Sir Noon-sun and Sir Evening-star, while a fourth called
+Death, a huge man-beast of boundless savageries, is besieging my sister
+in her own castle so as to break her will and make her wed with him.
+They are four fools," cried the maiden disdainfully, "but they are
+mighty men so I have come to ask for Lancelot to ride away with me to
+help us."
+
+Gareth was up in a twinkling with kindled eyes. "A boon, Sir King, this
+quest," he cried. "I am only a knave from your kitchen, but I can
+topple over a hundred such fellows. Your promise, king."
+
+"You are rough and sudden and worthy to be a knight. Therefore go," said
+Arthur to the great amazement of the court.
+
+"Fie on you, King!" exclaimed Lynette in a fury. "I asked you for your
+best knight, Lancelot, and you give me a slave from your kitchen," and
+she scampered down the aisle, leaped to her horse and flitted out of the
+weird white gate. "A kitchen slave!" she sputtered as she flew. "Why
+didn't the king send me a knight that fights for love and glory?"
+
+Gareth in the meantime had strode to the side doorway of the royal hall
+where he saw a war-horse awaiting him, the gift of Arthur and worth half
+the price of a town. His two servants stood by with his shield and
+helmet and spear. Dropping his coarse kitchen cloak to the floor, he
+instantly harnessed himself in his armor, leaped to the back of his
+beautiful steed and flashed out of the gateway while all his kitchen
+mates threw up their caps and cried, "God bless the king and all his
+fellowship!"
+
+"Maiden, the quest is mine," he said to Lynette as he overtook her,
+"Lead and I follow."
+
+"Away with you!" she cried, nipping her slender nose. "You smell of
+kitchen grease. See there, your master is coming!"
+
+Indeed she told the truth, for Sir Kay, infuriated with Gareth's
+boldness in the king's hall was hounding after them. "Don't you know
+me?" he shouted.
+
+"Yes, too well," returned Gareth. "I know you to be the most ungentle
+knight in Arthur's court."
+
+"Have at me, then," cried Kay, whereupon Gareth pounced upon him with
+his gleaming lance and struck him instantly to the earth, then turned
+for Lynette and said again, "Lead and I follow."
+
+But Lynette had hurried her galloping palfrey away and would not stop
+the beast until his heart had nearly burst with its violent throbbing.
+Then she turned and eyed Gareth as scornfully as ever. As he pranced to
+her side she observed:
+
+"Do you suppose scullion, that I think any more of you now that by some
+good luck you have overthrown your master. You dishwasher and
+water-carrier, you smell of the kitchen quite as much as before."
+
+"Maiden," Gareth rejoined gently, "Say what you will, but whatever you
+say, I will not leave this quest until it is ended or I have died for
+it."
+
+"O, my, how the knave talks! But you'll soon meet with another knave
+whom in spite of all the kitchen concoctions ever brewed, you'll not
+dare look in the face."
+
+"I'll try him," answered Gareth with a smile that maddened Lynette. And
+away she darted again far into the strange avenues of the limitless
+woods.
+
+Gareth plunged on through the pine trees after her and a serving-man
+came breaking through the black forest crying out, "They've bound my
+master and are throwing him into the lake!"
+
+"Lead and I follow," cried Gareth to Lynette, and she led, plunging into
+the pine trees until they came upon a hollow sinking away into a lake,
+where six tall men up to their thighs in reeds and bulrushes were
+dragging a seventh man with a stone about his neck toward the water to
+drown him.
+
+Gareth sprang upon three and stilled them with his doughty blows, but
+three scurried away through the trees; then Gareth loosened the stone
+from the gentleman and set him on his feet. He proved to be a baron and
+a friend of Arthur and asked Gareth what he could do to show his
+gratitude for the saving of his life. Gareth said he would like a
+night's shelter for the lady who was with him. So they rode over toward
+the graceful manor house where the baron lived, and as they rode he said
+to Gareth.
+
+"I believe you are of the Table," meaning that Gareth was a Knight of
+the Round Table.
+
+"Yes, he is of the table after his own fashion," Lynette laughed, "for
+he serves in Arthur's kitchen." And turning toward Gareth she added, "Do
+not imagine that I admire you the more for having routed these miserable
+cowardly foresters; any thresher with his flail could have done that."
+
+And when they were seated at the baron's table, Gareth by Lynette's
+side, she cried out to their host, "It seems dreadfully rude in you,
+Lord Baron, to place this knave beside me. Listen to me: I went to King
+Arthur's court to ask for Sir Lancelot to come to help my sister, and as
+I ended my plea, up bawls this kitchen boy: 'Mine's the quest.' And
+Arthur goes mad and sends me this fellow who was made to kill pigs and
+not redress the wrongs of women."
+
+So Gareth was seated at another table and the baron came to him and
+asked him whether it might not be better for him to relinquish his
+quest, but the lad replied that the king had given it to him and he
+would carry it through. The next morning he said again to proud Lynette,
+"Lead and I follow."
+
+But the maiden responded, "We are almost at the place where one of the
+knaves is stationed. Don't you want to go home? He will slay you and
+then I'll go back to Arthur and shame him for giving me a knight from
+his kitchen cinders."
+
+"Just let me fight," cried Gareth, "and I'll have as good luck as little
+Cinderella who married the prince."
+
+So they came to the first coil of the river and on the other side saw a
+rich white pavilion with a purple dome and a slender crimson flag
+fluttering above. The lawless Sir Morning-star paced up and down
+outside.
+
+"Damsel, is this the knight you've brought me?" he shouted.
+
+"Not a knight, but a knave. The king scorned you so he sent some one
+from his kitchen."
+
+"Come Daughters of the Dawn and arm me!" cried Sir Morning-star, and
+three bare-footed, bare-headed maidens in pink and gold dresses brought
+him a blue coat of mail and a blue shield.
+
+"A kitchen knave in scorn of me!" roared the blue knight. "I won't fight
+him. Go home, knave! It isn't proper for you to be riding abroad with a
+lady."
+
+"Dog, you lie! I'm sprung from nobler lineage than you," and saying
+this, Gareth sprang fiercely at his adversary who met him in the middle
+of the bridge. The two spears were hurled so harshly that both knights
+were thrown from their horses like two stones but up they leaped
+instantly. Gareth drew forth his sword and drove his enemy back down the
+bridge and laid him at his feet.
+
+"I yield," Sir Morning-star cried, "don't kill me."
+
+"Your life is in the hands of this lady," Gareth replied. "If she asks
+me to spare you I will."
+
+"Scullion!" Lynette cried, reddening with shame. "Do you suppose I will
+ask a favor of you?"
+
+"Then he dies," and Gareth was about to slay the wounded knight when
+Lynette screamed and told him he ought not to think of killing a man of
+nobler birth than himself. So Gareth said, "Knight, your life is spared
+at this lady's command. Go to King Arthur's court and tell him that his
+kitchen knave sent you, and crave his pardon for breaking his laws."
+
+"I thought the smells of the odors of the kitchen grew fainter while you
+were fighting on the bridge," Lynette remarked to Gareth as he took his
+place behind her and told her to lead, "but now they are as strong as
+ever."
+
+So they rode on until they arrived at the second loop of the river where
+the knight of the Noonday-Sun flared with his burning shield that blazed
+so violently that Gareth saw scarlet blots before his eyes as he turned
+away from it.
+
+"Here's a kitchen knave from Arthur's hall who has overthrown your
+brother," Lynette called across the river to him.
+
+"Ugh!" returned Sir Noonday-Sun, raising his visor to reveal his round
+foolish face like a cipher, and with that he pushed his horse into the
+foaming stream.
+
+Gareth met him midway and struck him four blows of his sword. As he was
+about to deal the fifth stroke the horse of the Noonday-Sun slipped and
+the stream washed his dazzling master away. Gareth plucked him out of
+the water and sent him back to King Arthur.
+
+"Lead and I follow," he said to Lynette.
+
+"Do not fancy," she rejoined, as she guided him toward the third passing
+of the river, "that I thought you bold or brave when you overcame Sir
+Noonday-Sun; he just slipped on the river-bed. Here we are at the third
+fool in the allegory, Sir Evening-star. You see he looks naked but he is
+only wrapped in hardened skins that fit him like his own. They will turn
+the blade of your sword."
+
+"Never mind," Gareth said, "the wind may turn again and the kitchen
+odors grow faint."
+
+Then Lynette called to the Evening-star:
+
+"Both of your brothers have gone down before this youth and so will you.
+Aren't you old?"
+
+"Old with the strength of twenty boys," said Sir Evening-star.
+
+"Old in boasting," Gareth cried, "but the same strength that slew your
+brothers can slay you."
+
+Then the Evening-star blew a deadly note upon his horn and a
+storm-beaten, russet, grizzly old woman came out and armed him in a
+quantity of dingy weapons. The two knights clashed together on the
+bridge and Gareth brought the Evening-star groveling in a minute to his
+feet on his knees. But the other vaulted up again so quickly that Gareth
+panted and half despaired of winning the victory.
+
+Then Lynette cried: "Well done, knave; you are as noble as any knight.
+Now do not shame me; I said you would win. Strike! strike! and the wind
+will change again."
+
+Gareth struck harder, he hewed great pieces of armor from the old
+knight, but clashed in vain with his sword against the hard skin, until
+at last he lashed the Evening-star's sword and broke it at the hilt. "I
+have you now!" he shouted, but the cowardly knight of the Evening-star
+writhed his arms about the lad till Gareth was almost strangled. Yet
+straining himself to the uttermost he finally _tossed his foe headlong
+over the side of the bridge_ to sink or to swim as the waves allowed.
+
+"Lead and I follow," Gareth said to Lynette.
+
+"No, it is lead no longer," the maiden replied. "Ride beside me the
+knightliest of all kitchen knaves. Sir I am ashamed that I have treated
+you so. Pardon me. I do wonder who you are, you knave."
+
+"You are not to blame for anything," Gareth said, "except for your
+mistrusting of the king when he sent you some one to defend you. You
+said what you thought and I answered by my actions."
+
+At that moment he heard the hoofs of a horse clattering in the road
+behind him. "Stay!" cried a knight with a veiled shield, "I have come to
+avenge my friend, Sir Kay."
+
+Gareth turned, and in a thrice had closed in upon the stranger, but when
+he felt the touch of the stranger knight's magical spear, which was the
+wonder of the world he fell to the earth. As he felt the grass in his
+hands he burst into laughter.
+
+[Illustration: TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE.]
+
+"Why do you laugh?" asked Lynette.
+
+"Because here am I, the son of old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent,
+the victor of the three bridges, and a knight of Arthur's thrown by no
+one knows whom."
+
+"I have come to help you and not harm you," said the strange knight,
+revealing himself. It was Lancelot, whom King Arthur had sent to keep a
+guardian eye upon young Gareth in this his first quest, to prevent him
+from being killed or taken away.
+
+"And why did you refuse to come when I wanted you, and now come just in
+time to shame my poor defender just when I was beginning to feel proud
+of him?" asked Lynette.
+
+"But he isn't shamed," Lancelot answered. "What knight is not overthrown
+sometimes? By being defeated we learn to overcome, so hail Prince and
+Knight of our Round Table!" "You did well Gareth, only you and your
+horse were a little weary."
+
+[Illustration: SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER.]
+
+Lynette led them into a glen and a cave where they found pleasant drinks
+and meat, and where Gareth fell asleep.
+
+"You have good reason to feel sleepy," cried Lynette. "Sleep soundly and
+wake strong." _And she tended him as gently as a mother_, and watched
+over him carefully as he slept.
+
+When Gareth woke Lancelot gave him his own horse and shield to use in
+fighting the last awful outlaw, but as they drew near Lynette clutched
+at the shield and pleaded with him: "Give it back to Lancelot," said
+she. "O curse my tongue that was reviling you so today. He must do the
+fighting now. You have done wonders, but you cannot do miracles. You
+have thrown three men today and that is glory enough. You will get all
+maimed and mangled if you go on now when you are tired. There, I vow you
+must not try the fourth."
+
+But Gareth told her that her sharp words during the day had just spurred
+him on to do his best and he said he must not now leave his quest until
+he had finished. So Lancelot advised him how best to manage his horse
+and his lance, his sword and his shield when meeting a foe that was
+stouter than himself, winning with fineness and skill where he lacked in
+strength.
+
+But Gareth replied that he knew but one rule in fighting and that was to
+dash against his foe and overcome him.
+
+"Heaven help you," cried Lynette, and she made her palfrey halt.
+"There!" They were facing the camp of the Knight of Death.
+
+There was a huge black pavilion, a black banner and a black horn. Gareth
+blew the horn and heard hollow tramplings to and fro and muffled voices.
+Then on a night-black horse, in night-black arms rode forth the dread
+warrior. A white breast-bone showed in front. He spoke not a word which
+made him the more fearful.
+
+"Fool!" shouted Gareth sturdily. "People say that you have the strength
+of ten men; can't you trust to it without depending on these toggeries
+and tricks?"
+
+But the Knight of Death said nothing. Lady Lyonors at her castle window
+wept, and one of her maids fainted away, and Gareth felt his head
+prickling beneath his helmet and Lancelot felt his blood turning cold.
+Every one stood aghast.
+
+Then the chargers bounded forward and Gareth struck Death to the ground.
+Drawing out his sword he split apart the vast skull; one half of it fell
+to the right and one half to the left. Then he was about to strike at
+the helmet when out of it peeped the face of a blooming young boy, as
+fresh as a flower.
+
+"O Knight!" cried the laddie. "Do not kill me. My three brothers made me
+do it to make a horror all about the castle. They never dreamed that
+anyone could pass the bridges."
+
+Then Lady Lyonors with all her house had a great party of dancing and
+revelry and song and making merry because the hideous Knight of Death
+that had terrified them so was only a pretty little boy. And there was
+mirth over Gareth's victorious quest.
+
+And some people say that Gareth married Lynette, but others who tell the
+story later say he wedded with Lyonors.
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT.
+
+
+King Arthur had come to the old city of Caerleon on the River Usk to
+hold his court, and was sitting high in his royal hall when a woodman,
+all bedraggled with the mists of the forests came tripping up in haste
+before his throne.
+
+"O noble King," he cried, "today I saw a wonderful deer, a hart all
+milky white running through among the trees, and, nothing like it has
+ever been seen here before."
+
+The king, who loved the chase, was very pleased and immediately gave
+orders that the royal horns should be blown for all the court to go a
+hunting after the beautiful white deer the following morning. Queen
+Guinevere wished to go with them to watch the hounds and huntsmen and
+dancing horses in the chase. She slept late, however, the next day with
+her pleasant dreams, and Arthur with his Knights of the Round Table had
+sped gloriously away on their snorting chargers when she arose, called
+one of her maids to come with her, mounted her palfrey and forded the
+River Usk to pass over by the forest.
+
+[Illustration: A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS
+THRONE.]
+
+There they climbed up on a little knoll and stood listening for the
+hounds, but instead of the barking of the king's dogs they heard the
+sound of a horse's hoofs trampling behind them. It was Prince Geraint's
+charger as he flashed over the shallow ford of the river, then galloped
+up the banks of the knoll to her side. He carried not a single weapon
+except his golden-hilted sword and wore, not his hunting-dress, but gay
+holiday silks with a purple scarf about him swinging an apple of gold at
+either end and glancing like a dragon-fly. He bowed low to the sweet,
+stately queen.
+
+"You're late, very late, Sir Prince," said she, "later even than we."
+
+"Yes, noble queen," replied Geraint, "I'm so late that I'm not going to
+the hunt; I've come like you just to watch it."
+
+"Then stay with me," the queen said, "for here on this little knoll, if
+anywhere, you will have a good chance to see the hounds, often they dash
+by at its very feet."
+
+So Geraint stood by the queen, thinking he would catch particularly the
+baying of Cavall, Arthur's loudest dog, which would tell him that the
+hunters were coming. As they waited however, along the base of the
+knoll, came a knight, a lady and a dwarf riding slowly by on their
+horses. The knight wore his visor up showing his imperious and very
+haughty young face. The dwarf lagged behind.
+
+"That knight doesn't belong to the Round Table, does he?" asked the
+queen. "I don't know him."
+
+"No, nor I," replied Geraint.
+
+So the queen sent her maid over to the dwarf to find out the name of his
+master. But the dwarf was old and crotchety and would not tell her.
+
+"Then I'll ask your master himself," cried the maid.
+
+"No, indeed, you shall not!" cried the dwarf, "you are not fit even to
+speak of him," and as the girl turned her horse to approach the proud
+young knight, the misshapen little dwarf of a servant struck at her with
+his whip, and she came scampering back indignantly to the queen.
+
+[Illustration: HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE'S CHEEK.]
+
+"I'll learn his name for you," Geraint exclaimed, and he rode off
+sharply.
+
+But the impudent dwarf answered just as before and when Prince Geraint
+moved on toward his master he struck out his whip and cut the prince's
+cheek so that the blood streamed upon the purple scarf dyeing it red.
+Instantly Geraint reached for the hilt of his sword to strike down the
+vicious little midget but then remembering that he was a prince and
+disdaining to fight with a dwarf, he did not even say a word, but
+cantered back to Queen Guinevere's side.
+
+"Noble Queen," he cried fiercely. "I am going to avenge this insult that
+has been done you. I'll track these vermin to the earth. For even
+although I am riding unarmed just now, as we go along I will come to
+some place where I can borrow weapons or hire them. And then when I have
+my man I'll fight him, and on the third day from today I'll be back
+again unless I die in the fight. So good-bye, farewell."
+
+"Farewell, handsome prince," the queen answered. "Good fortune in your
+quest and may you live to marry your first love whoever that may be. But
+whether she will be a princess or a beggar from the hedgerows, before
+you wed with her bring her back to me and I will robe her for her
+wedding day."
+
+Prince Geraint bowed and with that he was off. One minute he thought he
+heard the noble milk-white deer brought to bay by the dogs, the next he
+thought he heard the hunter's horn far away and felt a little vexed to
+think he must be following this stupid dwarf while all the others were
+at the chase. But he had determined to avenge the queen and up and down
+the grassy glades and valleys pursued the three enemies until at last at
+sundown they emerged from the forest, climbed up on the ridge of a hill
+where they looked like shadows against the dark sky, then sank again on
+the other side.
+
+Below on the other side of the ridge ran the long street of a clamoring
+little town in a long valley, on one side a new white fortress and on
+the other, across a ravine and a bridge, a fallen old castle in decay.
+The knight, the lady and the dwarf rode on to the white fortress, then
+vanished within its walls.
+
+"There!" cried Geraint, "now I have him! I have tracked him to his hole,
+and tomorrow when I'm rested I'll fight him."
+
+Then he turned wearily down the long street of the noisy village to look
+for his night's lodging, but he found every inn and tavern crowded, and
+everywhere horses in the stables were being shod and young fellows were
+busy burnishing their master's armor.
+
+"What does all this hubbub mean?" asked Geraint of one of these youths.
+
+The lad did not stop his work one instant, but went on scouring and
+replied, "It's the sparrow-hawk."
+
+As Prince Geraint did not know what was meant by the sparrow-hawk he
+trotted a little farther along the street until he came to a quiet old
+man trudging by with a sack of corn on his back.
+
+"Why is your town so noisy and busy to-night, good old fellow?" he
+cried.
+
+"Ugh! the sparrow-hawk!" the old fellow said gruffly.
+
+So the prince rode his horse yet a little farther until he saw an
+armor-maker's shop. The armor-maker sat inside with his back turned, all
+doubled over a helmet which he was riveting together upon his knee.
+
+"Armorer," cried Geraint, "what is going on? Why is there such a din?"
+
+The man did not pause in his riveting even to turn about and face the
+stranger, but said quickly as if to finish speaking as rapidly as he
+could, "Friend, the people who are working for the sparrow-hawk have no
+time for idle questions."
+
+At this Geraint flashed up angrily.
+
+"A fig for your sparrow-hawk! I wish all the bits of birds of the air
+would peck him dead. You imagine that this little cackle in your baby
+town is all the noise and murmur of the great world. What do I care
+about it? It is nothing to me. Listen to me, now, if you are not gone
+hawk-mad like the rest, where can I get a lodging for the night, and
+more than that, where can I get some arms, arms, arms, to fight my
+enemy? Tell me."
+
+The hurrying armor-maker looked about in amazement to see this gorgeous
+cavalier in purple silks standing before his bit of a shop.
+
+"O pardon me, stranger knight," said he very politely. "We are holding a
+great tournament here tomorrow morning and there is hardly any time to
+do one-half the work that has to be finished before then. Arms, did you
+say? Indeed I cannot tell you where to get any; all that there are in
+this town are needed for to-morrow in the lists. And as for lodging, I
+don't know unless perhaps at Earl Yniol's in the old castle across the
+bridge." Then he again picked up his helmet and turned his back to the
+prince.
+
+So Geraint, still a wee mite vexed, rode over the bridge that spanned
+the ravine, to go to the ruined castle. There upon the farther side sat
+the hoary-headed Earl Yniol, dressed in some magnificent shabby old
+clothes which had been fit for a king's parties when they were new.
+
+"Where are you going, son?" he queried of Geraint, waking from his
+reveries and dreaminess.
+
+"O friend, I'm looking for some shelter for the night," Geraint replied.
+
+"Come in then," Yniol said, "and accept of my hospitality. Our house was
+rich once and now it is poor, but it always keeps its door open to the
+stranger."
+
+"Oh, anything will do for me," cried Geraint. "If only you won't serve
+me sparrow-hawks for my supper I'll eat with all the passion of a whole
+day's fast."
+
+The old earl smiled and sighed as he rejoined, "I have more serious
+reason than you to curse this sparrow-hawk. But go in and we will not
+have a word about him even jokingly unless you wish it."
+
+Whereupon Geraint passed into the desolate castle court, where the
+stones of the pavement were all broken and overgrown with wild plants,
+and the turrets and walls were shattered. As he stood awaiting the Earl
+Yniol, the voice of a young girl singing like a nightingale rang out
+from one of the open castle windows.
+
+It was the voice of Enid, Earl Yniol's daughter as she sang the song of
+Fortune and her Wheel:
+
+    "Turn, Fortune, thy wheel with smile or frown,
+    With that wild wheel we go not up or down;
+    Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great."
+
+"The song of that little bird describes the nest she lives in," cried
+Earl Yniol approaching. "Enter."
+
+Geraint alighted from his charger and stepped within the large dusky
+cobwebbed hall, where an aged lady sat, with Enid moving about her, like
+a little flower in a wilted sheath of a faded silk gown.
+
+"Enid, the good knight's horse is standing in the court," cried the
+earl. "Take him to the stall and give him some corn, then go to town and
+buy us some meat and wine."
+
+[Illustration: GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL.]
+
+Geraint wished that he might do this servant's work instead of this
+pretty young lady, but as he started to follow her the old gray earl
+stopped him.
+
+"We're old and poor," he said, "but not so poor and old as to let our
+guests wait upon themselves."
+
+So Enid fetched the wine and the meat and the cakes and the bread; and
+she served at the table while her mother, father and Geraint sat around.
+Geraint wished that he might stoop to kiss her tender little thumb as it
+held the platter when she laid it down.
+
+[Illustration: ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES.]
+
+"Fair host and Earl," he said after his refreshing supper, "who is this
+sparrow-hawk that everybody in the town is talking about? And yet I do
+not wish you to give me his name, for perhaps he is the knight I saw
+riding into the new fortress the other side of the bridge at the other
+end of the town. His name I am going to have from his own lips, for I
+am Geraint of Devon. This morning when the queen sent her maid to find
+out his name he struck at the girl with his whip, and I've sworn
+vengeance for such a great insult done our queen, and have followed him
+to his hold, and as soon as I can get arms I will fight him."
+
+"And are you the renowned Geraint?" cried Earl Yniol beaming. "Well, as
+soon as I saw you coming toward me on the bridge I knew that you were no
+ordinary man. By the state and presence of your bearing I might have
+guessed you to be one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table at Camelot.
+Pray do not suppose that I am flattering you foolishly. This dear child
+of mine has often heard me telling glorious stories of all the famous
+things you have done for the king and the people. And she has asked me
+to repeat them again and again.
+
+"Poor thing, there never has lived a woman with such miserable lovers as
+she has had. The first was Limours, who did nothing but drink and brawl,
+even when he was making love to her. And the second was the
+'sparrow-hawk,' my nephew, my curse. I will not let his name slip from
+me if I can help it. When I told him that he could not marry my daughter
+he spread a false rumour all round here among the people that his father
+had left him a great sum of money in my keeping and that I had never
+passed it over to him but had retained it for myself. He bribed all my
+servants with large promises and stirred up this whole little old town
+of mine against me, my own town. That was the night of Enid's birthday
+nearly three years ago. They sacked my house, ousted me from my earldom,
+threw us into this dilapidated, dingy old place and built up that grand
+new white fort. He would kill me if he did not despise me too much to
+do so; and sometimes I believe I despise myself for letting him have his
+way. I scarcely know whether I am very wise or very silly, very manly or
+very base to suffer it all so patiently."
+
+"Well said," cried Geraint eagerly. "But the arms, the arms, where can I
+get arms for myself? Then if the sparrow-hawk will fight tomorrow in the
+tourney I may be able to bring down his terrible pride a little."
+
+"I have arms," said Yniol, "although they are old and rusty, Prince
+Geraint, and you would be welcome to have them for the asking. But in
+this tournament of tomorrow no knight is allowed to tilt unless the lady
+he loves best come there too. The forks are fastened into the meadow
+ground and over them is placed a silver wand, above that a golden
+sparrow-hawk, the prize of beauty for the fairest woman there. And
+whoever wins in the tourney presents this to the lady-love whom he has
+brought with him. Since my nephew is a man of very large bone and is
+clever with his lance he has always won it for his lady. That is how he
+has earned his title of sparrow-hawk. But you have no lady so you will
+not be able to fight."
+
+Then Geraint leaned forward toward the earl.
+
+"With your leave, noble Earl Yniol," he replied, "I will do battle for
+your daughter. For although I have seen all the beauties of the day
+never have I come upon anything so wonderfully lovely as she. If it
+should happen that I prove victor, as true as heaven, I will make her my
+wife!"
+
+Yniol's heart danced in his bosom for joy, and he turned about for Enid,
+but she had fluttered away as soon as her name had been mentioned, so
+he tenderly grasped the hands of her mother in his own and said:
+
+"Mother, young girls are shy little things and best understood by their
+own mothers. Before you go to rest to night, find out what Enid will
+think about this."
+
+So the earl's wife passed out to speak with Enid, and Enid became so
+glad and excited that she could not sleep the entire happy night long.
+But very early the next morning, as soon as the pale sky began to redden
+with the sun she arose, then called her mother, and hand in hand,
+tripped over with her to the place of the tournament. There they awaited
+for Yniol and Geraint. Geraint came wearing the Earl's rusty, worn old
+arms, yet in spite of them looked stately and princely.
+
+Many other knights in blazing armor gathered there for the jousts, with
+many fine ladies, and by and by the whole town full of people flooded
+in, settling in a circle around the lists. Then the two forks were fixed
+into the earth, above them a wand of silver was laid, and over it the
+golden sparrow-hawk. The trumpet was blown and Yniol's nephew rose and
+spoke:
+
+"Come forward, my lady," he cried to the maiden who had come with him.
+"Fairest of the fair, take the prize of beauty which I have won for you
+during the past two years."
+
+"Stay!" Prince Geraint cried loudly. "There is a worthier beauty here."
+
+The earl's nephew looked round with surprise and disdain to see his
+uncle's family and the prince.
+
+"Do battle for it then," he shouted angrily.
+
+Geraint sprang forward and the tourney was begun. Three times the two
+warriors clashed together. _Three times they broke their spears._ Then
+both were thrown from their horses. They now drew their swords; and
+with them lashed at one another so frequently and with such dreadfully
+hard strokes that all the crowd wondered. Now and again from the distant
+walls came the sounds of applause, like the clapping of phantom hands.
+The perspiration and the blood flowed together down the strong bodies of
+the combatants. Each was as sturdy as the other.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Remember the great insult done our queen!" Earl Yniol cried at last.
+
+This so inflamed Geraint that he heaved his vast sword-blade aloft,
+cracked through his enemy's helmet, bit into the bone of his head,
+felled the haughty knight, and set his feet upon his breast.
+
+"Your name!" demanded Geraint.
+
+"Edryn, the son of Nudd," groaned the fallen warrior.
+
+"Very well, then Edryn, the son of Nudd," returned Geraint, "you must do
+these two things or else you will have to die. First, you with your lady
+and your dwarf must ride to Arthur's court at Caerleon and crave their
+pardon for the insult you did the queen yesterday morning, and you must
+bide her decree in the punishment she awards you. Secondly, you must
+give back the earldom to your uncle the Earl of Yniol. You will do these
+two things or you die."
+
+"I will do them," cried Edryn. "For never before was I ever overcome.
+But now all of my pride is broken down, for Enid has seen me fall."
+
+With that Edryn rose from the ground like a man, took his lady and the
+dwarf on their horses to Arthur's court. There receiving the sweet
+forgiveness of the queen, he became a true knight of the Round Table,
+and at the last died in battle while he fought for his king.
+
+But Geraint when the tourney was over and he had come back to the
+castle, drew Enid aside to tell her that early the next morning he would
+have to start for Caerleon and that she should be ready to ride away
+with him to be married at the court with tremendous pomp. For that would
+be three days after the King's chase, when the prince had promised Queen
+Guinevere he would be back. But of that he did not speak to Enid, who
+wondered why he was so bent on returning immediately, and why she could
+not have time at home to prepare herself some pretty robes to wear.
+
+Imagine, she thought, such a grand and frightful thing as a court, the
+queen's court, with all the graceful ladies staring at her in that faded
+old silk dress! And although she promised Geraint that she would go as
+he wished, when she woke to the dread day for making her appearance at
+court, she still yearned that he would only stay yet a little while so
+that she could sew herself some clothes, that she had the flowered silk
+which her mother had given her three years ago for her birthday and
+which Edryn's men had robbed from her when they sacked the house and
+scattered everything she ever owned to all the winds. How she wished
+that handsome Geraint had known her then, those three years ago when she
+wore so many pretty dresses and jewels!
+
+But while she lay dreamily thinking, softly in trod her mother bearing
+on her arm a gorgeous, delicate robe.
+
+"Do you recognize it, child?" she cried.
+
+It was that self-same birthday dress, three years old, but as beautiful
+as new and never worn.
+
+"Yesterday after the jousts your father went through all the town from
+house to house and ordered that all sack and plunder which the men had
+taken from us should be brought back, for he was again to be in his
+earldom. So last evening while you were talking with the prince some one
+came up from the town and placed this in my hands. I did not tell you
+about it then for I wished to keep it as a sweet surprise for you this
+morning. And it is a sweet surprise, isn't it? For although the prince
+yesterday did say that you were the fairest of the fair there is no
+handsome girl in the world but looks handsomer in new clothes than in
+old. And it would have been a shame for you to go to the court in your
+poor old faded silk which you have worn so long and so patiently. The
+great ladies there might say that Prince Geraint had plucked up some
+ragged robin from the hedges."
+
+[Illustration: BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE.]
+
+So Enid was put into the fine flowered robe.
+
+Her mother said that after she had gone to the queen's court, she, the
+poor old mother at home, who was too feeble to journey so far with her
+daughter, would think over and over again of her pretty princess at
+Camelot. And the old gray Earl Yniol went in to tell Geraint of Enid's
+fanciful apparel.
+
+But Geraint was not delighted with the magnificence.
+
+"Say to her," he answered the earl, "that by all my love for her,
+although I give her no other reason, I entreat Enid to wear that faded
+old silk dress of hers and no other."
+
+This amazing and hard message from Geraint made poor little Enid's face
+fall like a meadowful of corn blasted by a rainstorm. Still she
+willingly laid aside her gold finery for his sake, slipped into the
+faded silk, and pattered down the steps to meet Geraint. He scanned her
+so eagerly from her tip to her toe that both her rosy cheeks burned like
+flames. Then as he noted her mother's clouded face he said very kindly:
+
+"My new mother don't be very angry, or grieved with your new son because
+of what I have just asked Enid to do. I had a very good reason for it
+and I will explain it all to you. The other day when I left the queen at
+Caerleon to avenge the insult done her by Edryn, the son of Nudd, she
+made me two wishes. The one was that I should be successful with my
+quest and the other was that I should wed with my first love. Then she
+promised that whoever my bride should be she herself with her own royal
+hands would dress her for her wedding day, splendidly, like the very sun
+in the skies. So when I found this lovely Enid of yours in her shabby
+clothes I vowed that the queen's hands only should array her in handsome
+new robes that befitted her grace and beauty. But never mind, dear
+mother, some day you will come to see Enid and then she will wear the
+golden, flowered birthday dress which you gave her three years ago."
+
+Then the earl's wife smiled through her tears, wrapped Enid in a mantle,
+kissed her gentle farewells, and in a moment saw her riding far, far
+away beside Geraint.
+
+The queen Guinevere that day had three times climbed the royal tower at
+Caerleon to look far into the valley for some sign of Geraint, who had
+promised to be back that day, if he did not fall in battle, and who
+would certainly come now, since Edryn had been vanquished and had come
+to the court. At last when evening had fallen she spied the prince's
+charger pacing nobly along the road, and Enid's palfrey at his side.
+Instantly Queen Guinevere sped down from the small window in the high
+turret, tripped out to the gate to greet him and embrace the lovely Enid
+as a long-loved friend.
+
+The old City of Caerleon was gay for one whole week, over the wedding
+week of Geraint and Enid. The queen herself dressed Enid for her
+marriage like the very sunlight, Dubric, the highest saint of the
+church, married them, and they lived for nearly a year at the court with
+Arthur and sweet Guinevere.
+
+And so the insult done the queen was avenged, and her two wishes were
+fulfilled. For Geraint overcame his enemy and wedded with his
+first-love, dressed for her marriage by the queen.
+
+
+
+
+GERAINT'S QUEST OF HONOR.
+
+
+One morning Prince Geraint went into Arthur's hall and said:
+
+"O King, my princedom is in danger. It lies close to the territory which
+is infested with bandits, earls and caitiff knights, assassins and all
+sorts of outlaws. Give me your kind good leave and I will go there to
+defend my lands."
+
+The king said the prince might go, and sent fifty armed knights to
+protect him and pretty Enid as they traveled away on their horses across
+the Severn River into their own country, the Land of Devon.
+
+After Geraint had come into Devon he forgot what he had said to the king
+of ridding his princedom of outlawry, he forgot the chase where he had
+always been so clever in tracking his game, forgot the tournament where
+he had won victory after victory, forgot all his former glory and his
+name, forgot his lands and their cares, forgot everything he ever did,
+and did nothing at all but lie about at home and talk with Enid. At last
+all his people began to gossip about their fine prince who once had been
+illustrious everywhere and now had become an idle stay-at-home who spent
+his time in making love to his wife.
+
+[Illustration: ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER.]
+
+Enid heard of the tattling about Geraint from her hair-dresser, and one
+morning as he lay abed, she went over it all to herself, talking aloud.
+She wished, that he would not abandon all his knightly pursuits but
+would hunt and fight again and add to his lustre. She felt very bashful
+about mentioning the matter to him as she was very shy by nature and
+lived in a time when wives were altogether over-ruled by their husbands,
+yet to say nothing she thought would not be showing herself a true wife
+to Geraint. All this and more Enid went over to herself.
+
+The drowsy prince, half awake, just half heard her and quite
+misunderstood her meaning. When she said that in keeping quiet about the
+gossip she was not a true wife to him he supposed she meant that she no
+longer cared for him, that he was not a handsome and strong enough man
+to suit her. This grieved him deeply and made him very angry with her,
+for Geraint had really given up all the glory of the king's court just
+to be alone with Enid, although no one knew it. And the thought that now
+she looked down upon him infuriated all his heart. A word would have
+made everything right but he didn't say it.
+
+Springing up quickly from his bed he roused his squire and said, "Get
+ready our horses, my charger and the princess' palfrey. And you,"
+turning a frowning face to the princess, "put on the worst looking,
+meanest, poorest dress you have and come away with me. We are going on a
+quest of honor and then you will see what sort of soldier I am."
+
+Enid wondered why her lord was so vexed with her and replied, "If I have
+displeased you surely you will tell me why."
+
+But Geraint would not say; he could not bear to speak of it. So Enid
+hurried after her poor old faded silk gown with the summer flowers among
+its folds, which she had worn to ride from her old home to Caerleon, and
+hastily dressed.
+
+"Do not ride at my side," Geraint said as they both mounted their horses
+to start away. "Ride ahead of me, a good way ahead of me, and no matter
+what may happen, do not speak a word to me, no not a word."
+
+Enid listened, wondering what had come over her lord.
+
+"There!" he cried as they were off, "we will make our way along with our
+iron weapons, not with gold money." So saying, he loosed the great purse
+which dangled from his belt and tossed it back to his squire who stood
+on the marble threshold of the doorway where the golden coins flashed
+and clattered as they scattered every which-way over the floor. "Now
+then, Enid, to the wild woods!"
+
+At that they made for the swampy, desolated forest lands that were
+famous for their perilous paths and their bandits, Enid with a white
+face going before, Geraint coming gloomily nearly a quarter of a mile
+after.
+
+The morning was only half begun when the white princess became aware
+that behind a rock hiding in the shadow stood three tall knights on
+horseback, armed from tip to toe, bandit outlaws lying in wait to fall
+upon whoever should pass. She heard one saying to his comrades as he
+pointed toward Geraint:
+
+"Look here comes some lazy-bones who seems just about as bold as a dog
+who has had the worst of it in a fight. Come, we will kill him, and then
+we will take his horse and armor and his lady."
+
+Enid thought, "I'll go back a little way to Geraint and tell him about
+these ruffians, for even if it will madden him I should rather have him
+kill me than to have him fall into their hands."
+
+She guided her palfrey backward and bravely met the frowning face which
+greeted her, saying timidly:
+
+"My lord, there are three bandit knights behind a rock a little way
+beyond us who are boasting that they will slay you and steal your horse
+and armor and make me their captive."
+
+"Did I tell you," cried Geraint angrily, "that you should warn me of any
+danger. There was only one thing which I told you to do and that was to
+keep quiet; and this is the way you have heeded me! a pretty way! But
+win or lose, you shall see by these fellows that my vigor is not lost."
+
+Then Enid stood back as the three outlaws flashed out of their ambush
+and bore down upon the prince.
+
+Geraint aimed first for the middle one, driving his long spear into the
+bandit's breast and out on the other side. The two others in the
+meanwhile had dashed upon him with their lances, but they had broken on
+his magnificent armor like so many icicles. He now turned upon them with
+his broadsword, swinging it first to the right and then to the left,
+first stunning them with his blows, then slaying them outright. And when
+all three had fallen he dismounted, and like a hunter skinning the wild
+beasts he has shot, he stripped the three robber knights of their gay
+suits of armor, and leaving the bodies lie, bound each man's sword,
+spear and coat of arms to his horse, tied the three bridle reins of the
+three empty horses together and cried to Enid.
+
+"Drive these on before you."
+
+Enid drove them on across the wastelands, Geraint following after. As
+she passed into the first shallow shade of the forest she described
+three more horsemen partly hidden in the gloom of three sturdy
+oak-trees. All were armed and one was a veritable giant, so tall and
+bulky, towering above his companions.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE.]
+
+"See there, a prize!" bellowed the giant and set Enid's pulses in a
+quiver. "Three horses and three suits of armor, and all in charge
+of--whom? A girl! Isn't that simple? Lay on, my men!"
+
+"No," cried the second, "behind is coming a knight. A coward and a fool,
+for see how he hangs his head."
+
+The giant thundered back gaily.
+
+"Yes? Only one? Wait here and as he goes by make for him."
+
+"I will go no farther until Geraint comes," Enid said to herself
+stopping her horse. "And then I will tell him about these villains. He
+must be so weary with his other fight and they will fall upon him
+unawares. I shall have to disobey him again for his own sake. How could
+I dare to obey him and let him be harmed? I must speak; if he kills me
+for it I shall only have lost my own life to save a life that is dearer
+to me than my own."
+
+So she waited until the prince approached when she said with a timid
+firmness, "Have I your leave to speak?"
+
+"You take it without asking when you speak," he replied, and she
+continued:
+
+"There are three men lurking in the woods behind some oaks and one of
+them is larger than you, a perfect giant. He told them to attack you as
+you passed by them."
+
+"If there were a hundred men in the wood and each of them a giant and if
+they all made for me together I vow it would not anger me so as to have
+you disobey me. Stand aside while we do battle and when we are done
+stand by the victor."
+
+At this, while Enid fell back breathing short fits of prayer but not
+daring to watch, Geraint proceeded to meet his assailants. The giant was
+the first to dash out for him aiming his lance at Geraint's helmet, but
+the lance missed and went to one side. Geraint's spear had been a
+little strained with his first encounter, but it struck through the
+bulky giant's corselet and pierced his breast, then broke, one-half of
+it still fast in the flesh as the giant knight fell to the earth. The
+other two bandits now felt that their support and hero was gone, and
+when Geraint darted rapidly on them, uttering his terrible warcry as if
+there were a thousand men behind him to come to his aid, they flew into
+the woods. But they were soon overtaken and pitilessly put to death.
+Then Geraint, selecting the best lance, the brightest and strongest
+among their spears to replace the one he had broken on the giant, he
+plucked off the gaudy armor from each brigand's body, laid it on the
+backs of the three horses, tied the bridle reins together and handed
+them to Enid with the words, "Drive them on before you."
+
+So Enid now followed the wild paths of the gloomy forest with two sets
+of three horses, each horse laden with his master's jingling weapons and
+coat of mail. Geraint came after. As they passed out of the wood into
+the open sky they came to a little town with towers upon a rocky hill,
+and beneath it a wide meadowland with mowers in it, mowing the hay. Down
+a stony pathway from the town skipped a fair-haired lad carrying a
+basket of lunch for the laborers in the field.
+
+"Friend!" cried Geraint, as the lad trotted past him, for he saw that
+Enid looked very white, "let my lady have something to eat. She is so
+faint."
+
+"Willingly," the youth answered, "and you too, my lord, even although
+this feed is very coarse and only fit for the mowers."
+
+He set down his basket and Enid and Geraint alighted and put all the
+horses to graze, while they sat down on the green sward to have some
+bread and barley. Enid felt too faint at heart, thinking of the
+prince's strange conduct, to care a great deal for food, but Geraint was
+hungry enough and had all the mowers' basket emptied almost before he
+knew it.
+
+"Boy," he cried half-ashamed, "everything is gone, which is a disgrace.
+But take one of my horses and his arms by way of payment, choose the
+very best."
+
+The poor lad, who might as well have had a kingdom given him, reddened
+with his extreme surprise and delight.
+
+"My lord, you are over-paying me fifty times," he cried.
+
+"You will be all the wealthier then," returned the prince, gaily.
+
+"I'll take it as free gift, then," the lad answered. "The food is not
+worth much. While your lady is resting here I can easily go back and
+fetch more, some more for the earl's mowers. For all these mowers belong
+to our great earl, and all these fields are his, and I am his, too. I'll
+tell him what a fine man you are, and he will have you to his palace and
+serve you with costly dinners."
+
+"I wish no better fare than I have had," Geraint said, "I never ate
+better in my life than just now when I left your poor mowers dinnerless.
+And I will go into no earl's palace. If he desires to see me, let him
+come to me. Now you go hire us some pleasant room in the town, stall our
+horses and when you return with the food for these men tell us about
+it."
+
+"Yes, my kind lord," the glad youth cried, and he held his head high and
+thought he was a gorgeous knight off to the wars as he disappeared up
+the rocky path leading his handsome horse.
+
+The prince turned himself sleepily to watch the lusty mowers laboring
+under the sun as it blazed on their scythes, while Enid plucked the long
+grass by the meadows' edge to weave it round and round her wedding
+ring, until the boy returned and showed them the room he had got in the
+town.
+
+"If you wish anything, call the woman of the house," Prince Geraint said
+to Enid as the door closed behind them. "Do not speak to me."
+
+"Yes, my lord," returned Enid, still marvelling at his cold ways.
+
+Silently they sat down, she at one end, he at the other, as quiet as
+pictures. But suddenly a mass of voices sounded up the street, and heel
+after heel echoing upon the pavement. In a twinkling the door to their
+room was pushed back to the wall while a mob of boisterous young
+gentlemen tumbled in led by the Earl of Limours, the wild lord of the
+town, and Enid's old suitor whom her father had rejected long ago, a man
+as beautiful as a woman and very graceful. He seized the prince's hand
+warmly, welcomed him to the town and stealthily, out of the corner of
+his eye, caught a glimpse of unhappy Enid nestled all alone at the
+farther end of the room.
+
+The prince immediately sent for every sort of delicious things to eat
+and drink from the town, told the earl, to bid all his friends for a
+feast and soon was gaily making merry with the men, drinking, laughing,
+joking.
+
+"May I have your leave, my lord," cried Earl Limours, "to cross the room
+and speak a word with your lady who seems so lonely?"
+
+"My free leave," cried the merry Prince Geraint, who did not know the
+earl, "Get her to speak with you; she has nothing to say to me."
+
+As Limours stepped to Enid's side he lifted his eyes adoringly, bowed at
+her side and said in a whisper:
+
+"Enid, you pilot star of my life, I see that Geraint is very unkind to
+you and loves you no longer. What a laughing stock he is making of you
+with that wretched old dress you have on! But I, I love you still as
+always. Just say the word and I will have him put into the keep and you
+will come with me. I will be kind to you forever."
+
+The tears fluttered into the earl's eyes as he spoke.
+
+"Earl," replied Enid, "if you love me as you used to do in the years
+long ago, and are not joking now, come in the morning and take me by
+force from the prince. But leave me tonight. I am wearied to death."
+
+So the earl made a low bow, brandishing his plumes until they brushed
+his very insteps, while the stout prince bade him a loud good night, and
+he moved away talking to his men.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW.]
+
+But as soon as he was gone Enid began to plan how she could escape with
+Geraint before Earl Limours should come after her in the morning. She
+was too afraid of Geraint to speak with him about it, but when he had
+fallen asleep she stepped lightly about the room and gathered the pieces
+of his armor together in one place ready for an early departure on the
+morrow. Then she dropped off into slumber. But suddenly she heard a loud
+sound, the earl with his wild following blowing his trumpet to call her
+to come out, she thought. But it was only the great red cock in the
+yard below crowing at the daylight which had begun to glimmer now across
+the heap of Geraint's armor. She rose immediately in her fright to see
+that all was well, went over to examine the weapons and unwittingly let
+the casque fall jangling to the floor. This woke Geraint, who started up
+and stared at her.
+
+"My lord," began Enid, and then she told him all that Earl Limours had
+said to her and how she had put him off by telling him to come this
+morning.
+
+"Call the woman of the house and tell her to bring the charger and the
+palfrey," Geraint cried angrily. "Your sweet face makes fools of good
+fellows." Geraint loved Enid still and he was in as great perplexity as
+she, for after misunderstanding what she had said he no more knew
+whether she cared for him truly than she knew what was troubling him and
+making him act in this unaccountable manner.
+
+Enid slipped through the sleeping household like a ghost to deliver the
+prince's message to the landlord, hurried back to help Geraint with his
+armor and came down with him to spring upon her palfrey.
+
+"What do I owe you, friends?" the prince asked his host, but before the
+man could reply he added "take those five horses and their burdens of
+arms."
+
+"My lord, I have scarcely spent the price of one of them on you!" cried
+the landlord astonished.
+
+"You'll have all the more riches then," the prince laughed, then turning
+to Enid, "today I charge you more particularly than ever before that
+whatever you may see, hear, fancy or imagine, do not speak to me, but
+obey."
+
+"Yes, my lord," answered Enid, "I know your wish and should like to
+obey, but when I go riding ahead, I hear all the violent threats you do
+not hear and see the danger you cannot see, and then not to give you
+warning seems hard, almost beyond me. Yet, I wish to obey you."
+
+"Do so, then," said he. "Do not be too wise, seeing that you are
+married, not to a clown but a strong man with arms to guard his own head
+and yours, too."
+
+The broad beaten path which they now took passed through toward the
+wasted lands bordering on the castle of Earl Doorm, the Bull, as his
+people called him, because of his ferocity.
+
+It was still early morning when Enid caught the sound of quantities of
+hoofs galloping up the road. Turning round she saw cloudsful of dust and
+the points of lances sparkling in it. Then, not to disobey the prince,
+yet to give him warning, she held up her finger and pointed toward the
+dust. Geraint was pleased at her cunning, and immediately stopped his
+horse. The moment after, the Earl of Limours dashed in upon him on a
+charger as black and as stormy as a thunder-cloud.
+
+Geraint closed with the earl, bore down on him with his spear, and in a
+minute brought him stunned or dead to the ground. Then he turned to the
+next-comer after Limours, overthrew him and blindly rushed back upon all
+the men behind. But they were so startled at the flash and movement of
+the prince that they scrambled away in a panic, leaving their leader
+lying on the public highway. The horses also of the fallen warriors
+whisked off from their wounded masters and wildly flew away to mix with
+the vanishing mob.
+
+"Horse and man, all of one mind," remarked Geraint, smiling, "not a hoof
+of them left. What do you say, Enid, shall we strip the earl and pay for
+a dinner or shall we fast? Fast? Then go on and let us pray heaven to
+send us some Earl of Doorm's men so that we can earn ourselves something
+to eat."
+
+Enid sadly eyed her bridle-reins and led the way, Geraint coming after,
+scarcely knowing that he had been pricked by Limours in his side, and
+that he was bleeding secretly beneath his armor. But at last his head
+and helmet began to wag unsteadily, and at a sudden swerving of the road
+he was tossed from his horse upon a bank of grass. Enid heard the
+clashing of the fall, and too terrified to cry out, came back all pale.
+Then she dismounted, loosed the fastenings of his armor and bound up his
+wounds with her veil. Then she sat down desolately and began to cry,
+wondering what ever she should do.
+
+[Illustration: ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY.]
+
+Many men passed by but no one took any notice of her. For in that
+lawless, turbulent earldom no one minded a woman weeping for a murdered
+lover than they now mind a summer shower. One man scurrying as fast as
+ever he could travel toward the bandit earl's castle, drove the sand
+sweeping into her poor eyes, and another coming in the opposite
+direction from out the earl's castle park in seeming hot haste, turned
+all the long dusty road into a column of smoke behind him, and
+frightened her little palfrey so that it scoured off into the coppices
+and was lost. But the prince's charger stood beside them and grieved
+over the mishap like a man.
+
+At noon a huge warrior with a big face and russet beard and eyes rolling
+about in search of prey, came riding hard by with a hundred spearmen at
+his back all bound for some foray. It was the frightful Earl Doorm.
+
+"What, is he dead?" cried the earl loudly to Enid, as he spied her on
+the wayside.
+
+"No, no, not dead," she quickly answered. "Would some of your kind
+people take him up and bear him off somewhere out of this cruel sun? I
+am very sure, quite sure that he is not dead."
+
+"Well, if he isn't dead, why should you cry for him so? Dead or not
+dead, you just spoil your pretty face with idiotic tears. They will not
+help him. But since it is a pretty face, come fellows, some of you, and
+take him to our hall. If he lives he will be one of our band, and if
+not, why there is earth enough to bury him in. See that you take his
+charger, too, a noble one."
+
+And so saying, the rude earl passed on, while two brawny horsemen came
+forward growling to think they might lose their chance of booty from the
+morning's raid all for this dead man. They raised the prince upon a
+litter, laying him in the hollow of his shield, and brought him into
+the barren hall of Doorm, while Enid and the gentle charger followed
+after. They tossed him and his litter down on an oaken settle in the
+hall, and then shot away for the woods.
+
+Enid sat through long hours all alone with Geraint besides the oaken
+settle, propping his head and chafing his hands, but in the late
+afternoon she saw the huge Earl Doorm returning with his lusty spearmen
+and their plunder. Each hurled down a heap of spoils on the floor, threw
+aside his lance and doffed his helmet, while a tribe of brightly gowned
+gentle-women fluttered into the hall and began to talk with them. Earl
+Doorm struck his knife against the table and bellowed for meat, and
+wine. In a moment the place fairly steamed and smoked with whole roast
+hogs and oxen, and everybody sat down in a hodge-podge and ate like
+cattle feeding in their stalls, while Enid shrank far back startled,
+into her nook.
+
+But suddenly, when Earl Doorm had eaten all he would, and all he could
+for the moment, he revolved his eyes about the bare hall and caught a
+glimpse of the fair little lady drooping in her niche. Then he
+recollected how she had crouched weeping by the roadside for her fallen
+lord that morning. A wild pity filled his gruff heart.
+
+"Eat, eat!" he shouted. "I never before saw any thing so pale. Be
+yourself. Isn't your lord lucky, for were I dead who is there in all the
+world who would mourn for me? Sweet lady, never have I ever seen a lily
+like you. If there were a bit of color living in your cheeks there is
+not one among my gentle-women here who would be fit to wear your
+slippers for gloves. But listen to me and you will share my earldom with
+me, girl, and we will live like two birds in a nest and I will bring you
+all sorts of finery from every part of the world to make you happy."
+
+As the earl spoke his two cheeks bulged with the two tremendous morsels
+of meat which he had tucked into his mouth.
+
+Enid was more alarmed than ever.
+
+"How can I be happy over anything," replied she, "until my lord is well
+again?"
+
+The earl laughed, then plucked her up out of the corner, carried her
+over to the table, thrust a dish of food before her and held a horn of
+wine to her lips.
+
+"By all heaven," cried Enid, "I will not drink until my lord gets up and
+drinks and eats with me. And if he will not rise again I will not drink
+any wine until I die."
+
+At this the earl turned perfectly red and paced up and down the hall,
+gnawing first his upper and then his lower lip.
+
+"Girl," shouted he, "why wail over a man who shames your beauty so, by
+dressing it in that rag? Put off those beggar-woman's weeds and robe
+yourself in this which my gentle-woman has brought you."
+
+It was a gorgeous, wonderful dress, colored in the tints of a shallow
+sea with the blue playing into the green, and gemmed with precious
+stones all down the front of it as thick as dewdrops on the grass. But
+Enid was harder to move than any cold tyrant on his throne, and said:
+
+"Earl, in this poor gown my dear lord found me first and loved me while
+I was living with my father; in this poor gown I rode with him to court
+and was presented to the queen; in this poor gown he bade me ride as we
+came out on this fatal quest of honor, and in this poor gown I am going
+to stay until he gets up again, a live, strong man, and tells me to put
+it away. I have griefs enough, pray be gentle with me, let me be. O God!
+I beg of your gentleness, since he is as he is, to let me be."
+
+Then the brutal earl strode up and down the hall and cried out:
+
+"It is of no more use to be gentle with you than to be rough. So take my
+salute," and with that he slapped her lightly on her white cheek.
+
+Enid shrieked. Instantly the fallen Geraint was up on his feet with the
+sword that had laid beside him in the hollow of the shield, making a
+single bound for the earl, and with one sweep of it sheared through the
+swarthy neck. The rolling eyes turned glassy, the russet-bearded head
+tumbled over the floor like a ball, and all the bandit knights and the
+gentle-women in the hall flitted, scampering pell-mell away, yelling as
+if they had seen a ghoul. Enid and Geraint were left alone.
+
+[Illustration: THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A
+BALL.]
+
+Now Geraint had come out of his swoon before the earl had returned, and
+he had lain perfectly silent and immovable because he wished to test
+Enid and see what she would do when she thought he was sleeping or
+fainted away, or perhaps dead. So he had listened to all that had taken
+place and had heard everything that Earl Doorm had said to her and all
+that Enid had replied, so now he knew that she loved him as ever and
+that she stood steadfast by him. All his heart filled with pity and
+remorse that he had brought her away on this hard, hard quest, and had
+made her suffer so much and had been so rough and cold.
+
+"Enid," said the prince tenderly, very tenderly. "I have used you worse
+than that big dead brute of a man used you. I have done you more wrong
+than he. I misunderstood you. Now, now you are three times mine."
+
+Geraint's kindness burst upon Enid so abruptly and was so unforeseen
+that she could not speak a word only this:
+
+"Fly, Geraint, they will kill you, they will come back. Fly. Your horse
+is outside, my poor little thing is lost."
+
+"You shall ride behind me, then, Enid."
+
+So they slipped quickly outside, found the stately charger and mounted
+him, first Geraint, then Enid, climbing up the prince's feet, and
+throwing her arms about him to hold herself firm as they bounded off.
+
+But as the horse dashed outside of the earl's gateway there before them
+in the highroad stood a knight of Arthur's court holding his lance as if
+ready to spring upon Geraint.
+
+"Stranger!" shrieked Enid, thinking of the prince's wound and loss of
+blood, "do not kill a dead man!"
+
+"The voice of Enid!" cried the stranger knight.
+
+Then Enid saw that he was Edryn, the son of Nudd, and feeling the more
+terrified as she remembered the jousts, cried out:
+
+"O, cousin, this is the man who spared your life!"
+
+[Illustration: BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR'S
+COURT.]
+
+Edryn stepped forward. "My lord Geraint," he said, "I took you for some
+bandit knight of Doorm's. Do not fear, Enid, that I will attack the
+prince. I love him. When he overthrew me at the lists he threw me
+higher. For now I have been made a Knight of the Round Table and am
+altogether changed. But since I used to know Earl Doorm in the old days
+when I was lawless and half a bandit myself, I have come as the
+mouthpiece of our king to tell Doorm to disband all his men and become
+subject to Arthur, who is now on his way hither."
+
+"Doorm is now before the King of Kings," Geraint replied, "And his men
+are already scattered," and the prince pointed to groups in the
+thickets or still running off in their panic. Then back to the people
+all aghast whom they could see huddling, he related fully to Edryn how
+he had slain the huge earl in his own hall.
+
+[Illustration: TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM.]
+
+"Come with me to the king," astonished Edryn said.
+
+So they all traveled off to the royal camp where Arthur himself came out
+to greet them, lifted Enid from her saddle, kissed her and showed her a
+tent where his own physician came in to attend to Geraint's wound. When
+that was healed he rode away with them to Caerleon for a visit with
+Queen Guinevere, who dressed Enid again in magnificent clothes. Then
+fifty armed knights escorted Enid and the prince as far as the banks of
+the Severn River, where they crossed over into the land of Devon. And
+all their people welcomed them back.
+
+Geraint after that never forgot his princedom or the tournament, but was
+known through all the country round as the cleverest and bravest
+warrior, while his princess was called Enid the Good.
+
+
+
+
+MERLIN AND VIVIEN.
+
+
+Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who wanted to become a
+greater magician than even the great Merlin, who was the most famous man
+of all his times, who understood all the arts, who had built the king's
+harbors, ships and halls, who was a fine poet and who could read the
+future in the stars in the skies.
+
+He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to make people
+invisible. Whenever he worked it upon anyone that person would seem to
+be imprisoned within the four walls of a tower and could not get out.
+The person would seem dead, lost to every one, and could be seen only by
+the person who worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charm
+was, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one would
+know where he was and she could become a great enchantress in the realm,
+as she foolishly thought. And she planned very cleverly so as to find
+out the wise old man's secret.
+
+She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first she played
+about him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and he watched and
+laughed at her as if she were a playful kitten. Then as she saw that he
+half disdained her she began to put on very grave and serious fits,
+turned red and pale when he came near her, or sighed or gazed at him, so
+silently and with such sweet devotion that he half believed that she
+really loved him truly.
+
+[Illustration: HE LAUGHED AT HER.]
+
+But after a while a great melancholy fell over Merlin, he felt so
+terribly sad that he passed away out of the kings' court and went down
+to the beach. There he found a little boat and stepped into it. Vivien
+had followed him without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat and
+while he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were driven
+across the sea with a strong wind and came to the shores of Brittany.
+Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed him all the way into the wild
+woods of Broceliande. Every step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet.
+
+They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his feet as if in
+the deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was wound round her
+hair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung about her beautiful limbs.
+As she kissed his feet she cried:
+
+"Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all through the world
+and I will worship you. Tread me down and I will kiss you for it."
+
+But Merlin still said not a word.
+
+[Illustration: MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD.]
+
+"Merlin do you love me?" at last cried Vivien, with her face sadly
+appealing to him. And again, "O, Merlin, do you love me?" "Great Master,
+do you love me?" she cried for the third time.
+
+And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward him, slid
+upon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles, curved her arms about
+his neck and used one of her hands as a white comb to run through his
+long ashy beard which she drew all across her neck down to her knees.
+
+"See! I'm clothing myself with wisdom," she cried. "I'm a golden summer
+butterfly that's been caught in a great old tyrant spider's web that's
+going to eat me up in this big wild wood without a word to me."
+
+"What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of yours?" cried
+Merlin at last. "What do you want me to give you?"
+
+"What!" said Vivien, smiling saucily, "have you found your tongue at
+last? Now yesterday you didn't open your lips once except to drink. And
+then I, with my own lady hands, made a pretty cup and offered you your
+water kneeling before you and you drank it, but gave me not a word of
+thanks. And when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with your
+feet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed through you
+know that I bathed your feet before I bathed my own. But yet no thanks
+from you. And all through this wild wood, all through this morning when
+I fondled you, still not a word of thanks."
+
+Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, "Vivien, have you never
+seen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to break? Well, I've
+been seeing a wave that was ready to break on me. It seemed to me that
+some dark, tremendous wave was going to come and sweep me away from my
+hold on the world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my great
+name. That's why I came away from Arthur's court to make me forget it
+and feel better. And when I saw you coming after me it seemed to me that
+you were that wave that was going to roll all over me. But pardon me,
+now, child, your pretty ways have brightened everything again, and now
+tell me what you would like to have from me. For I owe you something
+three times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for your
+goodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of yours. So tell me
+now, what will you have?"
+
+Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered:
+
+"I've always been afraid that you were not really mine, that you didn't
+love me truly, that you didn't quite trust me, and now you yourself have
+owned it. Don't you see, dear love, how this strange mood of yours must
+make me feel it more than ever? must make me yearn still more to prove
+that you are mine, must make me wish still more to know that great charm
+of waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about, just as a
+proof that you trust me? If you told that to me I should know that you
+are mine, and I should have the great proof of your love, because I
+think that however wise you may be you do not know me yet."
+
+"I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien," said Merlin, "than when
+I told you about that charm. Why won't you ask me for another boon?"
+
+Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid that ever
+lived, burst into tears and said:
+
+"No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me, let me feel
+myself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for another boon. I
+don't suppose that you know the old rhyme, 'Trust not at all or all in
+all?'"
+
+Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said. Her voice was
+so tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so sweetly gleaming
+behind her tears.
+
+He locked her hand in his again and said, "If you should know this charm
+you might sometimes in a wild moment of anger or a mood of overstrained
+affection when you wanted me all to yourself or when you were jealous
+in a sudden fit, you might work it on me."
+
+"Good!" cried Vivien, as if she were angry, "I am not trusted. Well,
+hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and when I've found it
+beware, look out for Vivien! When you use me so it's a wonder that I can
+love you at all, and as for jealousy, it seems to me this wonderful
+charm was invented just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot of
+pretty girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world with
+it."
+
+Then the great master laughed merrily.
+
+"Long, long years ago," he said, "there lived a King in the farthest
+East of the East. A tawny pirate who had plundered twenty islands or
+more anchored his boat in the King's port, and in the boat was a woman.
+For, as he had passed one of the islands the pirates had seen two cities
+full of men in boats fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed up
+his black boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of them
+and brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She was a
+maiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light seemed to come
+from her as she walked. When the pirate came upon the shore of the
+Eastern King's island the King asked him for the woman, but he would not
+give her up. So the King imprisoned the pirate and made the woman his
+queen.
+
+"All the people adored her, the King's councilmen and all his soldiers,
+the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down before her unbidden, and
+the black slaves of the mountains rang her golden ankle bells just to
+see her smile. So little wonder that the King grew very jealous. He had
+his horns blown through all the hundred under-kingdoms which he ruled,
+telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would teach him some
+charm to work upon the queen and make her all his own. To the wizard who
+could do this he promised a league of mountain land full of golden
+mines, a province with a hundred miles of coast, a palace and a
+princess. But all the wizards who failed should be killed and their
+heads would be hung on the city gates until they mouldered away.
+
+"So there were many, many wizards all through the hundred kingdoms who
+tried to work the charm, but failed; many wizard heads bleached on the
+walls, and for weeks a troupe of carrion crows hung like a cloud above
+the towers of the city gateways. But at last the king's men found a
+little glassy headed, hairless man who lived alone in a great wilderness
+and ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always reading
+had got grated down, filed away and lean, with monstrous eyes and his
+skin clinging to his bones. But since he never tasted wine or flesh--the
+wall that separates people from spirits became crystal to him. He could
+see through it, perceive the spirits as they walked and hear them
+talking; so he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rain
+across a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and the pine woods
+roared he made everything calm again.
+
+"He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to the king's court by
+force, he didn't want to go. There he taught the king how to charm the
+queen so that no one could see her again, and she could see no one
+except the king as he passed about the palace. She lay as if quite dead
+and lost to life. But when the king offered the magician his league of
+golden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast, the palace
+and the princess, the old man turned away, went back to his wilderness
+and lived on grass and vanished away. But his book came down to me."
+
+"You have the book!" cried Vivian smiling saucily. "The charm is written
+in it. Good, take my advice and let me know the secret at once, for if
+you should hide it away like a puzzle in a chest, if you should put
+chest upon chest, and lock and padlock each chest thirty times and bury
+them all away under some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on the
+battle-field, still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, of
+picking it, of opening it and reading the charm. And _then_ if I tried
+it on you who would blame me?"
+
+"You read the book, my pretty Vivien?" cried Merlin. "Well, it's only
+twenty pages long, but such pages! Every page has a square of text that
+looks like a blot, the letters no longer than fleas' legs written in a
+language that has long gone by, and all the borders and margins
+scribbled, crossed and crammed with notes. You read that book! No one,
+not even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out the
+notes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin. Oh, it is simple
+enough. Any child might work it and then not be able to undo it. Don't
+ask me again for it, because even although you would love me too much to
+try it on me, still you might try it on some of the knights of the Round
+Table."
+
+"O, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or sung about
+in song!" cried Vivien. She clapped her hands together and wailed out a
+shriek. "I'm stabbed to the heart! I only wished that prove to you that
+were wholly mine, that you loved me and now I'm killed with a word.
+There's nothing left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave,
+and if the wolves won't tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away,
+killed with unutterable unkindness!"
+
+She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair uncoiled itself.
+Then she wept afresh.
+
+The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky.
+
+Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true.
+
+"Come out of the storm," he called over to her, "come here into the
+hollow old oak tree."
+
+Then since she didn't answer, he tried three times to calm her but quite
+in vain. At last, however, she let herself be conquered, came back to
+her old perch, and nestled there, half falling from his knees. Gentle
+Merlin saw the slow tears still standing in her eyes and threw his arms
+kindly about her. But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with her
+arms crossed upon her bosom and fled away.
+
+"No more love between us two," she cried, "for you do not trust me. Oh,
+it would have been better if I had died three times over than to have
+asked you once! Farewell, think gently of me and I will go. But before I
+leave you let me swear once more that if I've been planning against you
+in all this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the sky
+to burn me to a cinder!"
+
+Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky, and sliced
+the giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and spikes.
+
+"Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!" cried Vivien, terrified lest the heavens
+had heard her oath and were going to kill her. And she flew back to his
+arms. She called him her dear protector, her lord and liege, her seer,
+her bard, her silver star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the one
+passionate love of her life, and hugged him close.
+
+All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches snapped above
+them in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes and neck seemed to come
+and go before Merlin's eyes with the lightning. At last the storm had
+spent its passion, the woodland was all in peace again, and Merlin,
+overtalked and overworn had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD.]
+
+Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven footsteps and waving
+arms, and in the hollow of the old oak tree left him lying dead to all
+life, use and fame and name.
+
+"I have made his glory mine! O fool!" she shrieked, and she sprang down
+through the great forest, the thicket closed about her behind her and
+all the woods echoed, "Fool!"
+
+
+
+
+BALIN AND BALAN.
+
+
+King Pellam owed Arthur some tribute money so Arthur told three of his
+knights to go see about it and collect it for him.
+
+"Very well," said one of the knights, "but listen, on the way to King
+Pellam's country, near Camelot, there are two strange knights sitting
+beside a fountain. They challenge and overthrow every knight that
+passes. Shall I stop to fight them as we go by and send them back to
+you?"
+
+Arthur laughed, "No, don't stop for anything; let them wait until they
+can find some one stronger themselves."
+
+With that the three men left. But after they had gone Arthur, who loved
+a good fight himself, started away early one morning for the fountain
+side of Camelot. On its right hand he saw the knight Balin sitting under
+an alder tree, with his horse beside him, and on the left hand under a
+poplar tree with his horse at his side sat the knight Balan.
+
+"Fair sirs," cried Arthur, "why are you sitting here?"
+
+"For the sake of glory," they answered. "We're stronger than all
+Arthur's court. We've proved that because we easily overthrow every
+knight that comes by here."
+
+"Well, I'm of Arthur's court, too," replied the king, "although I've
+never done so much in jousts as in real wars. But see whether you can
+overthrow me so easily too."
+
+So the two brothers came out boldly and fought with Arthur, but he
+struck them both lightly down, then softly came away and nobody knew
+anything about it.
+
+But that evening while Balin and Balan sat very meekly by the bubbling
+water a spangled messenger came riding by and cried out to them: "Sirs,
+you are sent for by the King."
+
+So they followed the man back to the court. "Tell me your names,"
+demanded Arthur, "and why do you sit there by the fountain?"
+
+[Illustration: TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS.]
+
+"My name is Balin," answered one of the men, "and my brother's name is
+Balan. Three years ago I struck down one of your slaves whom I heard had
+spoken ill of me, and you sent me away for a three years' exile. Then I
+thought that if we would sit by the well and would overcome every knight
+who passed by you would be a more willing to take me back. But today
+some man of yours came along and conquered us both. What do you wish
+with me?"
+
+"Be wiser for falling," Arthur said. "Your chair is in the hall vacant.
+Take it again and be my knight once more."
+
+So Balin went back into the old hall of the Knights of the Round Table,
+and they all clashed their cups together drinking his welcome, and sang
+until all of Arthur's banners of war hanging overhead began to stir as
+they always did on the battlefield.
+
+Meanwhile the men who had gone to collect the taxes from King Pellam
+returned.
+
+"Sir King," they cried to Arthur, "We scarcely could see Pellam for the
+gloom in his hall. That man who used to be one of your roughest and most
+riotous enemies is now living like a monk in his castle and has all
+sorts of holy things about him, and says he has given up all matters of
+the world. He wouldn't even talk about the tribute money and told us
+that his heir Sir Garlon, attended to his business for him, so we went
+to Garlon and after a struggle we got it. Then we came away, but as we
+passed through the deep woods we found one of your knights lying dead,
+killed by a spear. After we had buried him, we talked with an old
+woodman who told us that there's a demon of the woods who had probably
+slain the knight. This demon, he said, was once a man who lived all
+alone and learned black magic. He hated people so much that when he died
+he became a fiend. The woodman showed us the cave where he has seen the
+demon go in and out and where he lives. We saw the print of a horse's
+hoof, but no more."
+
+"Foully and villainously slain!" cried Arthur thinking of his poor
+killed knight in the woods. "Who will go hunt this demon of the woods
+for me?"
+
+"I!" exclaimed Balan, ready to dart instantly away, but first he
+embraced Balin, saying, "Good brother, hear; don't let your angry
+passions conquer you, fight them away. Remember how these knights of the
+Round Table welcomed you back. Be a loving brother with them and don't
+imagine that there is hatred among them here any more than there is in
+heaven itself."
+
+When bad Balan left, Balin set himself to learn how to curb his wildness
+and become a courteous and manly knight. He always hovered about
+Lancelot, the pattern knight of all the court, to see how he did, and
+when he noticed Lancelot's sweet smiles and his little pleasant words
+that gladdened every knight or churl or child that he passed, Balin
+sighed like some lame boy who longed to scale a mountain top and could
+scarcely limp up one hundred feet from the base.
+
+"It's Lancelot's worship of the queen that helps to make him gentle,"
+said he to himself. "If I want to be gentle I must serve and worship
+lovely Queen Guinevere too. Suppose I ask the King to let me have some
+token of hers on my shield instead of these pictures of wild beasts with
+big teeth and grins. Then whenever I see it I'll forget my wild heats
+and violences."
+
+"What would you like to bear on your shield?" asked the king when Balin
+spoke to him about his wish.
+
+"The queen's own crown-royal," replied Balin.
+
+Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. "The crown is only the
+shadow of the king," she said, "and this crown is the shadow of that
+shadow. But let him have it if it will help him out of his violences."
+
+"It's no shadow to me, my queen," cried Balan, "no shadow to me, king.
+It's a light for me."
+
+So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and whenever he
+looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and patient.
+
+But one morning as he heard Lancelot and the queen talking together on
+the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere's bower, all his
+old passions seemed to come back and filled him and he darted madly away
+on his horse, not stopping until he had passed the fount where he had
+sat with his brother Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond.
+There the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a branch of a
+tree.
+
+[Illustration: BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD.]
+
+"Give me your axe, Churl," cried Balin, and with one sharp cut he struck
+it down.
+
+"Lord!" cried the woodman, "you could kill the devil of this woods if
+any one can. Just yesterday I saw a flash of him. Some people say that
+our Sir Garlon has learned black magic too and can ride armed unseen.
+Just look into the demon's cave."
+
+But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off through the glades
+with a drooping head. He did not notice that on his right a great cavern
+chasm yawned out of the darkness. Once he heard the mosses beneath him
+thud and tremble and then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and
+ran along the ground. The light of somebody's armor flashed by him and
+vanished into the woods.
+
+Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that he
+stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from his horse.
+He sprang to his feet and darted off again not knowing where he was
+going until the massy battlements of King Pellam's castle appeared.
+
+"Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield?" Pellam's men asked him
+as soon as they saw him.
+
+"The fairest and best of ladies living gave it to me," Balin replied, as
+he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the banquet hall.
+
+"Why do you wear the royal crown?" Sir Garlon asked him as they sat at
+table.
+
+"The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest, best and
+purest gave it to me to wear," said Balin.
+
+But Sir Garlon only hissed at him and made fun of what he said, and
+Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with a sacred picture to
+hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the gentle queen about whom he
+was talking soothed his temper. The next morning, however, in the court
+Sir Garlon mocked him again and Balin's face grew black with anger. He
+tore out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, "Ha! I'll
+make a ghost of you!" struck Garlon hard on the helmet.
+
+The blade flew and splintered into six parts which clinked upon the
+stones below while Garlon reeled slowly backward and fell. Balin dragged
+him by the banneret of his helmet and struck again, but in a minute
+twenty warriors with pointed lances were making for him from the castle.
+Balin dashed his fist against the foremost face then dipped through a
+low doorway out along a glimmering gallery until he saw the open portals
+of King Pellam's chapel. He slipped inside this and crept behind the
+door while the others howled past outside.
+
+Before the golden altar he noticed lying the brightest lance he had ever
+seen with its point painted red with blood. Seizing it he pushed it out
+through an open casement, leaned on it and leaped in a half-circle to
+the ground outside. Running along a path he found his horse, mounted him
+and scudded away. An arrow whizzed to his right, another to his left and
+a third over his head while he heard Pellam crying out feebly, "Catch
+him, catch him! he mustn't pollute holy things!"
+
+But Balin quickly dove beneath the tree boughs and raced through miles
+of thick groves and open meadowland until his good horse, at last
+wearied and uncertain in his footsteps, stumbled over a fallen oak and
+threw Balin headlong.
+
+As Balin rose to his feet he looked at the Queen's crown on his shield
+and then drew the shield from off his neck. "I have shamed you," he
+cried. "I won't carry you any more," and he hung it up on a branch and
+threw himself on the ground in a passionate sleep.
+
+While he slept there the beautiful wicked Vivien came riding by through
+the woodland alleys with her squire, warbling a song.
+
+"What is this?" she cried as she noticed the shield on the tree, "a
+shield with a crown upon it. And there's a horse. Where's the rider? Oh!
+there he is sleeping. Hail royal knight, I'm flying away from a bad king
+and the knight I was riding with was hurt, and my poor squire isn't of
+much use in helping me. But you, Sir Prince, will surely guide me to the
+Warrior King Arthur, the Blameless, to get me some shelter."
+
+"Oh, no, I'll never go to Arthur's court again," cried Balin. "I'm not a
+prince any more, or a knight. I have brought the Queen's crown to
+shame."
+
+Then Vivien laughed shrilly, and told Balin a wicked story about the
+Queen which she just imagined in her wicked mind. But she told it so
+cunningly and smiled so sunnily as she talked that Balin believed her
+and he flew into the more passionate rage because he thought he had been
+deceived in the Queen whom he had worshipped.
+
+He ground his teeth together, sprang up with a yell, tore the shield
+from the branch and cast it on the ground, drove his heel _into the
+royal crown_, stamped and trampled upon it until it was all spoiled,
+then hurled the shield from him out among the forest weeds and cursed
+the story, the queen and Vivien.
+
+His weird yell had thrilled through the woods where Balan was lurking
+for his foe. "There! that's the scream of the wood-devil I'm looking
+for," he thought. "He has killed some knight and trampled on his shield
+to show his loathing of our order and the queen. Devil or man,
+whichever you are, take care of your head!"
+
+[Illustration: HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN.]
+
+With that he made swiftly for his poor brother whom he did not
+recognize. Sir Balin spoke not a word but snatched the buckler from
+Vivien's squire, vaulted on his horse and in a moment had clashed with
+his brother's armor. King Pellam's holy spear reddened with blood as it
+pricked through Balan's shield to his flesh. Then Balin's horse, wearied
+to death, rolled back over his rider and crushed him inward and both men
+fell and swooned away.
+
+"The fools!" cried Vivien to her young squire. "Come, you Sir Chick,
+loosen their casques and see who they are. They must be rivals for the
+same woman to fight so hard."
+
+"They are happy," her gentle squire answered, "if they died for love.
+And Vivien, though you beat me like your dog I would die for you."
+
+"Don't die, Sir Boy," cried Vivien, "I'd rather have a live dog than a
+dead lion. Come away, I don't like to look at them," and she made her
+palfrey leap off over the fallen oak tree.
+
+Balin was the first to wake from his swoon. As soon as he saw his
+brother's face he crawled over to his side moaning. Then Balan faintly
+opened his eyes and seeing who was with him kissed Balin's forehead.
+
+"O Balin," he cried, "why didn't you carry your own shield which I knew,
+and why did you trample all over this one which bears the queen's own
+crown which I know?"
+
+So Balin slowly gasped out the whole story of his shield. Then they each
+said good-night to the other and closed their eyes, locked in each
+other's arms.
+
+
+
+
+LANCELOT AND ELAINE.
+
+
+Long before Arthur was crowned king while he was roving one night over
+the trackless realms of Lyonesse he came upon a glen with a gray boulder
+and a lake. As he rode up the highway in the misty moonshine he suddenly
+stepped upon a white skeleton of a man with a crown of diamonds upon its
+skull. The skull broke off from the body and rolled away into the lake.
+Arthur alighted, reached down and picked up the crown and set it on his
+head murmuring to himself, "_You too shall be king some day_," for the
+skeleton was the bones of a king who had fought with his brother there
+and been killed.
+
+[Illustration: YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY.]
+
+When Arthur was crowned he plucked the nine gems out of the crown he had
+found on the skeleton and showed them to his knights with the words:
+
+"These jewels belong to the whole kingdom for everybody's use and not to
+the king. Hereafter there is to be joust for one of them every year and
+in that way in nine years time we will learn who is the mightiest in the
+kingdom and we will race with each other to become skilful in the use
+of arms until at last we shall be able to drive away the heathen horde
+from the land."
+
+Eight years had now passed and there had been eight jousts. Lancelot had
+won the diamond every year and intended when he had been victorious in
+all the jousts, to give the nine gems to the queen. When the ninth year
+came Arthur proclaimed the tournament for the central and largest
+diamond to be held at Camelot, where he was holding his court. But the
+queen became ill as the time for the tour jousts drew near and he asked
+her whether she was too feeble to go to see Lancelot in the lists.
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Guinevere, "and you know it," and she looked up
+languidly to Lancelot who stood near.
+
+Lancelot thinking that she would rather have him near while she was ill
+than to receive all the diamonds of the crown, said:
+
+"Sir King, that old wound of mine is not quite healed so I can hardly
+ride in my saddle."
+
+So the king went, excused Lancelot, and rode away alone to the lists
+while Lancelot remained, but as soon as Arthur was gone the _queen told
+Lancelot that he ought by all means go too and fight_.
+
+"But how can I go now," replied Lancelot, "after what I have said to the
+king."
+
+"I will tell you what to do," said Guinevere. "Everybody says that men
+go down before your spear just because of your great name. They are
+afraid as soon as you appear and of course, they are conquered. Go in
+today entirely unknown and win for yourself, then after all is over the
+king will be pleased with you for being so clever."
+
+[Illustration: THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS
+FIGHT.]
+
+Lancelot quickly got his horse and leaving the beaten thoroughfare,
+chose a green path among the downs to take him to the lists. It was a
+new road to him however and he lost his way and did not know where to go
+until at last he came upon a faintly traced pathway that led to the
+castle of Astolat far away on a hill. He went thither, blew the horn at
+the gate where a _dumb, wrinkled old man came to let him in_. In the
+castle court he met the lord of Astolat with his two young sons, Sir
+Torre and Sir Lavaine and behind them the lily maiden Elaine, Astolat's
+daughter. They were jesting and laughing as they came.
+
+[Illustration: A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN.]
+
+"Where do you come from, my guest, and what is your name?" asked
+Astolat. "By your state and presence I would guess you to be the chief
+of Arthur's court, for I have seen him although the other knights of the
+Round Table are strangers to me."
+
+Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight replied, "I am of Arthur's court and I
+am known, and my shield which I have happened to bring with me, is known
+too. But as I am going to joust for the diamond at Camelot as a
+stranger do not ask me my name. After it is over you shall know me and
+my shield. If you have some blank shield around, or one with a strange
+device, pray lend it to me."
+
+"Here is Torre's," the Lord of Astolat replied. "He was hurt in his
+first tilt and so his shield is blank enough, God knows. You can have
+his."
+
+"Yes," added Sir Torre simply, "since I can't use it you may have it."
+
+His father laughed. "Fie, Churl, is that an answer for a noble knight?
+You must pardon him, but Lavaine, my younger boy, is so full of life he
+will ride in the lists, joust for the diamond, win and bring it in one
+hour to set upon his sister's golden hair and make her three times as
+wilful as before."
+
+"Oh, no, good father! don't shame me before this noble knight. It was
+all a joke. Elaine dreamed that some one had put the diamond into her
+hand and it was so slippery it dropped into a pool of water. Then I told
+her that if I fought and won it for her she must keep it safer than
+that. But it was all in fun. However, if you'll give me your leave, I'll
+ride to Camelot with this noble knight. I shall not win but I'll do my
+best to win."
+
+Lancelot smiled a moment. "If you'll give me the pleasure of your
+company over the downs where I lost myself I'll be glad to have you as a
+friend and guide. You shall win the diamond if you can and then give it
+to your sister if you wish."
+
+"Such diamonds are for queens and not for simple little girls," said Sir
+Torre.
+
+Elaine flushed at this and Lancelot said, "If beautiful things are for
+beautiful people this maiden may wear as fine jewels as there are in the
+world."
+
+Then the lily maid lifted her eyes and thought that Lancelot was the
+greatest man that had ever lived. She loved his bruised and bronzed face
+seamed across with an old sword-cut.
+
+They took the pet knight of Arthur's court into the rude hall of Astolat
+where they entertained him with their best meats, wines and minstrel
+melodies. They told him about the dumb old man at the gate, how ten
+years ago he had warned Astolat of the heathen fighters coming, and how
+they had all escaped to the woods and lived in a boatman's hut by the
+river while the old man had been caught and had his tongue cut off.
+
+"Those were dull days," said the Lord of Astolat, "until Arthur came and
+drove the heathen away."
+
+"O, great Lord!" cried Lavaine to Lancelot, "you fought in those
+glorious wars with Arthur. Tell us about them!"
+
+So Lancelot told him all about the fight all day long at the white mouth
+of the river Glenn, the four loud battles on the shore of Duglas where
+the glorious king wore on his cuirass an emerald carved into Our Lady's
+head. "On the mount of Badon," he said, "I saw him charge at the head of
+all of his Round Table and break the heathen hosts. Afterward he stood
+on a heap of the killed, all red, from his spurs to the plumes of his
+helmet, with their blood, and he cried to me: 'They are broken! they are
+broken!' In this heathen war the fire of God filled him, I never saw
+anyone like him, there is no greater leader."
+
+"Except yourself," thought the lily maid Elaine. All through the night
+she saw his dark, splendid face living before her eyes and early in the
+morning she arose as if to bid goodbye to Lavaine, stole step after step
+down the long tower stairs and passed out to the court where Lancelot
+was smoothing the glossy shoulders of his horse. She drew nearer and
+stood in the dewy light, studying his face as though it was a god. He
+had never dreamed she was so beautiful.
+
+[Illustration: "FAIR LORD," SAID ELAINE.]
+
+"Fair lord," said Elaine, "I don't know your name but I believe it is
+the noblest himself of them all. Will you wear a token of me at the
+tournament today?"
+
+"No, pretty lady," said he, "for I've never worn a token of any woman in
+the lists; as every one who knows me knows."
+
+"Then by wearing mine you'll be less likely to be found out this time."
+
+"That's true, my child, well, I'll wear it. Fetch it out to me. What is
+it?"
+
+"A red sleeve bordered with pearls," replied Elaine, and she went in and
+brought it out to him.
+
+Then he wound it round his helmet and said he had never before done so
+much for any girl in the world. The blood sprang to Elaine's face as he
+said that, and filled her with delight, although she grew all the paler
+as Lavaine came out and handed Sir Torre's shield to Lancelot. Lancelot
+gave his own shield to Elaine saying, "Do me this favor, child, keep my
+shield for me until I come back."
+
+"It's a favor to me," she replied smiling, "I'll be your squire."
+
+"Come, Lily Maid," cried Lavaine, "you'll be a lily maid in earnest if
+you don't get to bed and have some sleep," and he kissed her good-bye.
+
+Lancelot kissed her hand as they moved away. She watched them at the
+gateway until their sparkling arms dipped below the downs, then climbed
+up to her tower with the shield and there she studied it and mused over
+it every day.
+
+Meanwhile Lancelot and Lavaine passed far over the long downs until they
+reached an old hermit who lived in a white rock. Here they spent the
+night. The next morning as they rode away Lancelot said, "Listen to me,
+but keep what I say a secret, you're riding with Lancelot of the Lake."
+
+"The great Lancelot?" stammered Lavaine, catching his breath with
+surprise. "There is only one other great man to see, and that is
+Britain's king of kings, Arthur. And he's going to be at the tournament,
+too."
+
+As soon as they reached the lists in the meadows by Camelot, Lancelot
+pointed out the king who, as he sat in the peopled gallery was very easy
+to recognize because of his five dragons. A golden dragon clung to his
+crown, another writhed down his robe while two others in gilded carved
+wood-work formed the arms of his chair. The canopy above him blazed with
+the last big diamond.
+
+"You call me great," cried Lancelot, "I'm not great, there's the man."
+
+Lavaine gaped at Arthur as if he were something miraculous. Then the
+trumpets blew. The two sides, those who held the lists and those who
+attacked them, set their lances in rest, then struck their spurs, moved
+out suddenly and shocked in the center of the field. The ground shook
+and there was a low thunder of arms. Lancelot waited a little until he
+saw which was the weaker side, then sprang into the fight with them. In
+those days of his glory, whomever he struck he overthrew, whether they
+were kings, dukes, earls, counts or barons. But that day in the field
+some of his relatives were holding the lists who did not know him and
+who could not bear the idea that any stranger knight should out do the
+feats of their own Lancelot.
+
+"Who is this?" one of them asked, "Isn't it Lancelot?"
+
+"When has Lancelot ever worn a lady's token?" the others replied.
+
+"Who is it then?" they cried, furious to guard the name of Lancelot.
+They pricked their steeds and moving all together bore down upon him
+like a wild wave that upsets a ship. One spear lamed Lancelot's charger
+and another pierced through Lancelot's side, snapped there and stuck.
+Lavaine now did splendidly for he brought a famous old knight down by
+Lancelot's side. Lancelot in the meantime rose to his feet in all his
+agony and by a sort of miracle as it seemed to those who were on his
+side, drove all his opponents back to the barrier. Then the trumpet blew
+and proclaimed that the knight who wore the scarlet sleeve with pearls
+was victor.
+
+"Go up and get your diamond," his men said to him.
+
+"Don't give me any diamonds," said Lancelot. "My prize is death, I'll
+leave and don't follow."
+
+Then he vanished into the poplar grove where he told Lavaine to draw out
+the lance head.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll die, if I do," cried Lavaine.
+
+"I'm dying now with it," said Lancelot, so Lavaine drew it out and
+Lancelot gave a wonderful shriek and swooned away.
+
+Then the old hermit came out, carried him into the white rock and
+stanched his wound.
+
+Immediately after he had left the field the men of his side went to the
+king and said that the knight who had won the day had left without
+receiving his prize.
+
+"Such a knight as that must not go uncared for," said the king. "Gawain,
+ride out and find him and since he didn't come for his diamond we will
+send it to him. Don't leave your quest until you have him."
+
+Gawain the courteous was a good young knight but he didn't like it that
+he had to leave the banquet and the king's side to look for a stranger
+knight, so he mounted his horse rather crossly. He rode all round the
+country to every place except the right one, poplar grove, and at last
+very late reached the Castle of Astolat.
+
+"What news from Camelot?" cried Elaine as soon as she saw him, "What
+about the knight with the red sleeve?"
+
+"He won."
+
+"I knew it," she said.
+
+"But he left the jousts wounded in his side."
+
+Then Elaine almost swooned away. When the Lord of Astolat came out and
+heard about Gawain's quest, "Stay with us, noble prince," said he. "For
+the knight was here and left his shield with us, so he will certainly
+come back or send for it. Besides my son is with him."
+
+Gawain thought he would have a pleasant time with Elaine so he stayed.
+But Elaine rebelled against his pretty love-making and asked him why he
+neglected the king's quest and why he didn't ask to see the knight's
+shield.
+
+"I've lost my quest in the light of your blue eyes," said Gawain, "but
+let me see the shield. Ah! the king was right!" he cried out when Elaine
+showed it to him. "It was our Lancelot."
+
+"I was right too," Elaine said merrily, "for I dreamed that my knight
+was the greatest of them all."
+
+"And suppose that I dreamed that you love this greatest knight?"
+returned Gawain.
+
+"What do I know?" Elaine answered simply. "I don't know whether I know
+what love is, but I do know that if I do not love him there isn't
+another man whom I can love."
+
+"Yes, you love him well," said Gawain. "And I suppose you know just
+where your greatest knight is hidden, so let me leave my quest with you.
+If you love him it will be sweet to you to give him the diamond and if
+he loves you it will be sweet to him to receive it from you, while even
+if he doesn't love you, a diamond is always a diamond. Farewell a
+thousand times. If he loves you I may see you at court after while."
+
+Then Gawain lightly kissed her hand as he laid the diamond in it, and,
+wearied of his quest, leaped on his horse and carrolling a love-ballad
+airily rode away to the court where it was soon buzzed abroad that a
+maid of Astolat loved Lancelot and that Lancelot loved a maid of
+Astolat.
+
+The maid meanwhile crept up to her father one day and received his leave
+to take the diamond to Sir Lancelot. Sir Torre went with her to the
+gates of Camelot where they saw Lavaine capering about on a horse.
+
+"Lavaine!" she cried, "how is it with my lord Sir Lancelot?" and she
+told him about the diamond. Then Sir Torre went on into the city while
+Lavaine guided Elaine to the hermit's cave. As she saw her handsome
+knight on the floor, a sort of skeleton of himself, she gave a little
+tender dolorous cry.
+
+"Your prize, the diamond, sent you by the king," said she, as she put it
+into his hand and explained how she had received it from Gawain. Then he
+kissed her as a father would kiss a dear little daughter and she went
+back to the dim, rich city of Camelot for the night. But the next
+morning she was back in the cave, and day after day she came, caring for
+him more mildly, tenderly and kindly than any mother could with a child,
+until at last the old hermit said she had nursed him back to life, then
+all three rode back together one morning to Astolat where Lancelot asked
+Elaine to tell him the dearest wish of her heart so that he could grant
+it to her. Elaine turned as pale as a ghost when he first spoke but at
+last one day she told him. She said she wanted him to love her, she
+wanted to be his wife.
+
+"If I had chosen to wed," Lancelot replied, slowly, "I would have been
+married long before this. But now I shall never marry, sweet Elaine."
+
+"No, no," cried Elaine, "it won't matter if I can't be your wife, if I
+can only go with you always and go round the world with you and serve
+you."
+
+But Lancelot said that would be a poor way for him to requite the love
+and kindness her father and brothers had shown him. "Noble maid," he
+went on, "this is only the first flash of love with you. After awhile
+you will smile at yourself about it when you find a knight who is fitter
+for you to marry and not three times older than you as I am, and then I
+will give you broad lands and territories even to a half of my kingdom
+across the seas and I'll always be ready to fight for you in your
+troubles. I'll do this, dear girl, but more I cannot."
+
+"Of all this I care for nothing," Elaine said growing deathly pale and
+falling in a swoon.
+
+That evening Lancelot sent for his shield from the tower where Elaine
+sat with it, and as his horse's hoofs clattered off upon the stone of
+the highway she looked down from her tower, but he did not glance back.
+
+After that Elaine dreamed her time sadly away in the tower and only
+wished that she could die. She begged her father to send for the priest
+to confess her and asked Lavaine to write a letter for her to Lancelot.
+Then she arranged it that when she died the dumb old man at the gate was
+to take her in the barge down the river to the king's palace. Eleven
+days later this was done. Elaine was dressed like a little sleeping
+queen and floated along the stream with her letter in one hand and a
+lily in the other.
+
+That day Lancelot was with the queen and as he looked out of the
+casement upon the river he saw the barge hung with rich black samite,
+the dumb old man and the lily maid of Astolat gliding up to the palace
+door.
+
+"What is it?" cried everybody streaming round. "A pale fairy queen come
+to take Arthur to fairy land?"
+
+Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad carry her
+reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came and wondered at her
+and Lancelot came and mused over her, and the queen came and pitied her.
+But King Arthur spied a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the
+lords and ladies. It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot.
+
+[Illustration: A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND.]
+
+Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and how he had
+promised to give her his lands and riches when she should be ready to
+marry some knight of her own age. The king said that he should see that
+she was buried very grandly. So they had a procession with all the pomp
+of a queen, with gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all
+the Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then they laid
+the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her hand.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOLY GRAIL.
+
+
+One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. There was
+something about him different from all the other monks there. He was so
+polished and clever that old Ambrosious who had lived in the old
+monastery for fifty years and had never seen a bit of the world guessed
+in a minute that the new brother had come from King Arthur's court. And
+one windy April morning as Ambrosious stood under the yew tree with this
+gentle monk he asked him why he left the Knights of the Round Table.
+
+Then Sir Percival answered:
+
+"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail."
+
+[Illustration: "THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS.]
+
+"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I don't know much, but
+what is that, the phantom of a cup that comes and goes?"
+
+"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's the cup that
+our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and after he died Joseph of
+Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at Christmas time, and there it
+stayed a while and every one who looked at it or touched it was healed
+of their sicknesses. But the times grew so wicked that the cup was
+caught up into heaven where nobody could see it."
+
+"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious, "how Joseph
+built a lonely little church at Glastonbury on the marsh, but that was
+long ago. Who first saw the vision of the Holy Grail to-day?"
+
+"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a holy maid if
+ever there was one. The old man to whom she used to tell her sins (or
+what she called her sins), often spoke to her about the legend of the
+Holy Grail which had been handed down through six people, each of them a
+hundred years old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order
+of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a time this
+old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come back again. 'O Christ!'
+he used to say to my sister, 'if only it would come back and help all
+the world of its wickedness!' And then my sister asked him whether it
+might come to her by prayer and fasting.
+
+"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.'
+
+"So she prayed and fasted until the sun shone and the wind blew through
+her and one day she sent for me. Her eyes were so beautiful with the
+light of holiness that I did not know them.
+
+"'Sweet Brother,' she said, 'I have seen the Holy Grail. I heard a sound
+like a silver horn but sweeter than any music we can make, and then a
+cold silver beam of light streamed in through my cell, and down the beam
+stole the Holy Grail, rose red and throbbing as if it were alive. All
+the walls of my cell grew rosy red with quivering rosy colors. Then the
+music faded away, the Holy Grail vanished and the colors died out in
+the darkness. So now we know the Holy Thing is here again, Brother fast,
+too, and pray, and tell your brother-knights about it, then perhaps the
+vision may be seen by you all, and the whole world will be healed.'
+
+[Illustration: MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH.]
+
+"So I told all the knights and we fasted and prayed for many weeks. Then
+my sister cut off all her long streaming silken hair which used to fall
+to her feet and out of it braided a strong sword belt and with silver
+and crimson thread she wove into it a crimson grail in a silver beam.
+Then she bound it on our beautiful boy knight, Sir Galahad, and said:
+
+"'My knight of heaven, go forth, for you shall see what I have seen and
+far in the spiritual city you will be crowned king.' Then she sent the
+deathless passion of her eyes through him and he believed what she said.
+
+"Then came a year of miracles. In our great hall there stood a chair
+which Merlin had fashioned carved with strange figures like a serpent
+and in and out among the strange figures ran a scroll of strange letters
+in a language nobody knew like a serpent. Merlin called it the Seat
+Perilous, because he said if any one sat in it he would get lost. And
+Galahad said that if he got lost in it he would save himself. So one
+summer night Sir Galahad sat down in the chair and all at once there was
+a cracking of the roofs above us, and a blast and thunder, and in the
+thunder there was a cry and in the blast there was a beam of light seven
+times clearer than the daylight. Down the beam stole the Holy Grail all
+covered over with a luminous cloud. Then it passed away but every knight
+saw his brother knight's faces in a glory and we all rose and stared at
+each other until at last I found my voice and swore a vow.
+
+"I swore that because I had not seen the Holy Grail behind the cloud I
+would ride away a year and a day in quest of it until I could see it as
+my sister saw it. Galahad swore too, and good Sir Bors, and Lancelot and
+many others, knights, and Gawain louder than all the rest.
+
+"The king was not in the hall that day for he had gone out to help some
+poor maiden, but as he came back over the plains beyond Camelot he saw
+the roofs rolling in smoke and thought that his wonderfully dear,
+beautiful hall which Merlin had built for him so wonderfully was afire.
+So he rode fast and rushed into the tumult of knights and asked me what
+it all meant.
+
+"'Woe is me!' cried the king when I told him. 'Had I been here you would
+not have sworn the vows.'
+
+"'My king,' I answered boldly, had you been here you would have sworn
+the vows yourself.'
+
+"'Yes, yes,' said he, 'are you so bold when you didn't see the Grail?
+You didn't see farther than the cloud, and what can you expect to see
+now if you go out into the wilderness?'
+
+"'No, no, Lord, I didn't see the Grail, I heard the sound, I saw the
+light and since I didn't see the holy thing I swore the vow that I would
+follow it until I did see.'
+
+"'Then he asked us, knight by knight, whether we had seen it and each
+one said, 'No, no, Lord, that was why we swore our vows,' but suddenly
+Galahad called out, 'But I saw the Holy Grail, Sir Arthur, and heard the
+cry, "O Galahad, follow me."'
+
+"Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the king, 'the vision is for such as you
+and for your holy nun but not for these. Are you all Galahads or all
+Percivals? No, no, you are just men with the strength to right the
+wrongs and violences of the land. But now since one has seen, all the
+blind want to see. However, since you have made the vow, go. But oh, how
+often the distressed people of the kingdom will come into the hall for
+you to help them and all your chairs will be vacant while you are out
+chasing a fire in the quagmire! Many of you, yes, most of you will never
+come back again! But come to-morrow before you go, let us have one more
+day of field sports so that before you go I can rejoice in the unbroken
+strength of the Order I have made.'
+
+"So the next day there was the greatest tournament that Camelot had ever
+seen, and Galahad and I, with a strength which we had received from the
+vision, overthrew so many knights that all the people cheered hotly for
+Sir Galahad and Sir Percival. The next morning all the rich balconies
+along the streets of Camelot were laden with ladies and showers of
+flowers fell over us as we passed out and men and boys astride lions and
+dragons, griffins and swans at the street corners, called us all by name
+and cried, 'God Speed!' while many lords and ladies wept. Then we came
+down to the gate of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own
+way.
+
+"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought the sky
+never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my blood danced within
+me for I knew that I would see the Holy Grail. But after a while I
+thought of the dark warning of the king. I looked about and saw that I
+was quite alone in a sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of
+thirst. Then I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees
+overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and eating of the
+apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and thirsty again in
+among the sands and thorns. Next I saw a woman spinning beside a
+beautiful house. She rose to greet me and stretched out her arms to
+welcome me into her house to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell
+to dust, and the house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and
+then it fell to dust too.
+
+"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was a walled city,
+the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up to the sky, and at the
+gateway there was a crowd of people who cried out to me:
+
+"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men!"
+
+"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I passed through to
+the ruined old city and found only one person a very, very old man.
+'Where is the crowd who called out to me?' I asked him.
+
+"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who
+are you?' and then fell to dust.
+
+[Illustration: NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING.]
+
+"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I should see
+the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble into dust. From
+there I passed down into a deep valley, as low down as the city was
+high up, where I found a chapel with a hermit in a hermitage near by. I
+told him about all these phantoms.
+
+"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother of all
+virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as Galahad did.'
+
+"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in silver armor.
+He laid his lance beside the chapel door and we all went in and knelt in
+prayer. Then my thirst was quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw
+only the holy elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon
+the shrine.
+
+"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever since we
+came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at night. In its
+strength I have overcome evil customs wherever I have gone, and have
+passed through Pagan lands and clashed with Pagan hordes and broken them
+down everywhere. But the time is very near now when I shall go into the
+spiritual city far away where some one will crown me king. Come with me
+for you will see the Holy Grail in a vision when I go.'
+
+"At the close of the day I started away with him. We came to a hill
+which only a man could climb, scarred all over with a hundred frozen
+streams, and when we reached the top there was a wild storm. Galahad's
+armor flashed and darkened again every instant with quick, thick
+lightnings which struck the dead old tree trunks on every side until at
+last they blazed into a fire. At the base was a great black swamp partly
+whitened with bones of dead men. A chain of bridges lead across it to
+the great sea, and Galahad crossed them, one after the other, but each
+one burned away as soon as he had passed over so that I had to stay
+behind. When he reached the great sea the Holy Grail hung over his head
+in a brilliant cloud. Then a boat came swiftly by and when the sky
+brightened again with the lightning I could see him floating away,
+either in a boat with full sails or a winged creature which was flying,
+I couldn't tell which. Above him hung the Holy Grail rosy red without
+the cloud. I had seen the holy thing at last. When I saw Sir Galahad
+again he looked like a silver star in the sky, and beyond the star was
+the spiritual city with all her spires and gateways in a glory like one
+pearl, no larger than a pearl. From the star a rosy red sparkle from the
+Grail shot across to the city. But while I looked a flood of rain came
+down in torrents, and how I ever came away I don't know, but anyway at
+the dawn of the next day I had reached the little chapel again. There I
+got my horse from the hermit and rode back to the gates of Camelot.
+
+"Just once I met one of the other knights. That was one night when the
+full moon was rising and the pelican of Sir Bors' casque made a shadow
+on it. I spurred on my horse, hailed him and we were both very glad to
+see each other.
+
+"'Where is Sir Lancelot,' he asked. 'Have you seen him? Once he dashed
+across me very madly, maddening his horse. When I asked him why he rode
+so hotly on a holy quest he shouted, 'Don't keep me, I was a sluggard,
+and now I'm going fast for there's a lion in the way.' Then he vanished.
+When I saw how mad he was I felt very sad for I love him, and I cared no
+more whether I saw the Holy Grail, or not; but I rode on until I came to
+the loneliest parts of the country where some magicians told me I
+followed a mocking fire. This vexed me and when the people saw that I
+quarrelled with their priests they bound me and put me into a cell of
+stones. I lay there for hours until one night a miracle happened. One
+of the stones slipped away without any one touching it or any wind
+blowing. Through the gap it made I saw the seven clear stars which we
+have always called the stars of the Round Table and across the seven
+stars the sweet Grail glided past. Close after a clap of thunder pealed.
+Then a maiden came to me in secret and loosed me and let me go.'
+
+[Illustration: ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST.]
+
+"Sir Bors and I rode along together and when we reached the city our
+horses stumbled over heaps of ruined bits of houses that fell as they
+trod along the streets. At last brought us to Arthur's hall.
+
+"As we came in we saw Arthur sitting on his throne with just a tenth of
+the knights who had gone out on the quest of the Holy Grail standing
+before him, wasted and worn, also the knights who had stayed at home.
+When he saw me he rose and said he was glad to see me back, that he had
+been worrying about me because of the fierce gale that had made havoc
+through the town and shaken even the new strong hall and half wrenched
+the statue Merlin made for him.
+
+"'But the quest,' the king went on, 'have you seen the cup that Joseph
+brought long ago to Glastonbury?'
+
+"Then when I told him all that you have been hearing just now and how I
+was going to give up the tournament and tilt and pass into the quiet of
+the life of the monk, he answered not a word, but turning quickly to
+Gawain asked,
+
+"'Gawain, was this quest for you?'
+
+"'No, Lord,' replied Gawain, 'not for such as I. I talked with a saintly
+old man about that and he made me very sure that it wasn't for me. I was
+very tired of it. But I found a silk pavilion in the field with a lot of
+merry girls in it, then this gale tore it off from the tenting pin and
+blew my merry maidens all about with a great deal of discomfort. If it
+hadn't been for that storm my twelve months and a day would have passed
+very pleasantly for me.'
+
+"Then Arthur turned to Sir Bors, who had pushed across the throng at
+once to Lancelot's side, caught him by the hand and held it there half
+hidden beside him until the king spied them.
+
+"'Hail, Bors, if ever a true and loyal man could see the Grail you have
+seen it,' cried Arthur.
+
+"'Don't ask me about it,' replied Sir Bors with tears in his eyes 'I may
+not speak about it; I saw it.'
+
+"The others spoke only about the perils of their storm, and then it was
+Lancelot's turn. Perhaps Arthur kept his best for the last.
+
+"'My Lancelot,' said the king, 'our Strongest, has the quest availed for
+you?'
+
+"'Our strongest, O King!' groaned Lancelot and as he paused I thought I
+saw a dying fire of madness in his eyes. 'O King, my friend, a sin lived
+in me that was so strange that everything pure, noble and knightly in me
+twined and clung around it until the good and the poisonous in me grew
+together, and when your knights swore to make the quest I swore only in
+the hope that could I see or touch the Holy Grail they might be pulled
+apart. Then I spoke to a holy saint who said that if they could not be
+plucked apart my quest would be all in vain. So I vowed to him that I
+would do just as he told me, and while I was out trying to tear them
+away from each other my old madness came back to me and whipped me off
+into waste fields far away.
+
+"There I was beaten down by little knights whom at one time I would have
+frightened away just by the shadow of my spear. From there I rode over
+to the sea-shore where such a blast of wind began to blow that you could
+not hear the waves even although they were heaped up in mountains and
+drove the sea like a cataract, while the sand on the beach swept by like
+a river. A boat, half-swallowed by the seafoam, was moored to the shore
+by a chain. I said to myself that I would embark in the boat and lose
+myself and wash away my sin in the great sea.
+
+"For seven days I rode around over the dreary water and on the seventh
+night I felt the boat striking ground. In front of me rose the enchanted
+towers of Carbonek, a castle like a rock upon a rock, with portals open
+to the sea and steps that met the waves. A lion sat on each side of
+them. I went up the steps and drew my sword. Suddenly flaring their
+manes the lions stood up like men and gripped me on my shoulders. When I
+was about to strike them a voice said to me, 'Don't be afraid, or the
+beasts will tear you to pieces; go on.' Then my sword was dashed
+violently from my hand and fell. Up into the sounding hall I passed but
+saw not a bench, table, picture, shield or anything else except the moon
+over the sea through the oriel window, but I heard a sweet voice as
+clear as a lark singing in the topmost tower to the east. I climbed up a
+thousand steps with great pain. It seemed as though I was climbing
+forever but at last I reached a door with light shining through the
+crannies and I heard voices singing 'Glory and joy and honor to our Lord
+and the Holy Vessel, the Grail.'
+
+"'Then I madly tried the door, it gave way and through a stormy glare of
+heat that burned me and made me swoon away I thought I saw the Grail,
+all veiled with crimson samite and around it great angels, awful shapes
+and wings and eyes!'
+
+"The long hall was silent after Lancelot was done, until airy Gawain
+began with a sudden.
+
+"'O King, my liege, my good friend Percival and your holy nun have
+driven men mad. By my eyes and ears I swear I'll be deeper than a
+blue-eyed cat and three times as blind as any owl at noon-time
+hereafter to any holy virgins in their ecstasies.'
+
+"'Gawain,' replied the king, 'don't try to become blinder; you're too
+blind now to want to see. If a sign really came from heaven Bors,
+Lancelot and Percival are blessed for they have each seen according to
+their sight.'"
+
+
+
+
+PELLEAS AND ETTARRE.
+
+
+When his knights went after the Holy Grail Arthur made many new knights
+to fill the gaps made by their absence. As he sat in his hall one day at
+old Caerleon the high doors were softly parted and through these in came
+a youth, and with him the outer sunshine and the sweet scent of meadows.
+
+"Make me your knight, Sir King!" he cried, "because I know all about
+everything that belongs to a knight and because I love a maiden."
+
+This youth was Sir Pelleas-of-the-Isles who had heard that the king had
+proclaimed a great tournament at Caerleon with a sword for the victor
+and a golden crown for the victor's sweetheart as the prize. He longed
+to win them, the circlet for his lady love, the sword for himself.
+
+Just a few days before, while riding across the Forest of Dean to find
+the king's palace hall at Caerleon, Pelleas had felt the sun beating on
+his helmet so sharply that he reeled and almost fell from his horse.
+Then, seeing a hillock near-by overgrown with stately beech trees and
+flowers here and there beneath, he tied his horse to a tree, threw
+himself down and was very soon lost in sweet dreams about a maiden, not
+any particular maiden for he had no sweetheart at that time.
+
+But suddenly he was wakened with a sound of chatter and laughing at the
+outskirts of the grove, and glancing through fern he saw a party of
+young girls in many colors like the clouds at sunset, all of them riding
+on richly dressed horses. They were all talking together in a
+hodgepodge, some pointing this way, some that, for they had lost their
+way.
+
+[Illustration: WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN.]
+
+Pelleas sprang up, loosed his horse and led him into the light.
+
+"Just in time!" cried the lady who seemed to be the leader of the party.
+"See, our pilot-star! Youth, we are wandering damsels riding armed, as
+you see, ready to tilt against the knights at Caerleon, but we've lost
+our way. To the right? to the left? straight on? forward? backward?
+which is it? tell us quickly."
+
+Pelleas gazed at her and wondered to himself whether the famous Queen
+Guinevere herself was as beautiful as this maiden. For her violet eyes,
+scornful eyes, were large and the bloom on her cheeks was like the rosy
+dawn. Her beauty made Pelleas timid and when she spoke to him he could
+not answer but only stammered, for he had come from far away waste
+islands where besides his sisters, he had scarcely known any women but
+the tough wives of the islands who made fish nets.
+
+With a slow smile the lady turned round to her companions the smile
+spreading to them all. For she was Ettarre, a very great lady in her
+land.
+
+"O, wild man of the woods," she cried, "don't you understand our
+language, or has heaven given you a beautiful face and no tongue?"
+
+"Lady," he answered, "I just woke from my dreams, and coming out of the
+gloomy woods I was dazzled by the sudden light, and beg your pardon. But
+are you going to Caerleon? I'm going too. Shall I lead you to the king?"
+
+"Lead," said she.
+
+So through the woods they went together but his tender manner, his awe
+of her and his bashfulness bothered her. "I've lighted on a fool," she
+muttered to herself, "so raw and yet so stale!"
+
+But since she wished to be crowned the Queen of Beauty in the king's
+tournament, and since Pelleas looked strong she thought perhaps he would
+fight for her, so she flattered him and was very pleasant and kind. Her
+three knights and maidens were kind to him too, for she was a very
+great lady and they had to do as she did. When they reached Caerleon
+before she passed on to her lodgings she took Pelleas by the hand and
+said:
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND.]
+
+"O, how strong your hand is! See; look at my poor little weak one! Will
+you fight for me and win me the crown, Pelleas, so that I may love you?"
+
+Pelleas' heart danced. "Yes! Yes!" he cried, "and will you love me if I
+win?"
+
+"Yes, that I will," answered Ettarre laughing and flinging away his hand
+as she peeped round to her knights and ladies until they all laughed
+with her.
+
+"O what a happy world!" thought glad Pelleas, "everybody seems happy and
+I am the happiest of all."
+
+He couldn't sleep that night for joy and on the next day when he was
+knighted he swore to love one maiden only. As he came away from the
+king's hall the men who met him all turned around to look at his face,
+for it flamed with happiness, and at the great banquets which Arthur
+gave to knights from all parts of the country Pelleas looked the noblest
+of the noble. For he dreamed that his lady loved him and he knew that he
+was loved by the king.
+
+On the morning when the jousts began the first that was called was the
+tournament of youth. Arthur wanted to keep the older, stronger men out
+of it so that young Pelleas might win his lady's love as she had
+promised, and be lord of the tourney. Down by the field along the river
+Usk where it was held the gilded parapets were crowned with faces and
+the great tower filled with eyes up to its top. Then the trumpets blew
+for the tournament to begin.
+
+All day long Sir Pelleas held the field. At the close a shout rang round
+the galleries as Ettarre caught the gold crown from his lance and
+crowned herself before all the people. Her eyes sparkled as she looked
+at him, but that was the last time she was kind to her knight.
+
+She lingered a few days at Caerleon, sunny to all the other people but
+always frowning at him.
+
+Still when she left for home with her knights and maidens Sir Pelleas
+followed.
+
+"Damsels," cried she as she saw him coming, "I ought to be ashamed to
+say it and yet I can't bear that Sir Baby. Keep him back with
+yourselves. I'd rather have some rough old knight who knows the ways of
+the world to chatter and joke with; so don't let him come near me.
+Tell him all sorts of baby fables that good mothers tell their little
+boys, and if he runs off for us--it doesn't matter."
+
+[Illustration: ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE.]
+
+So the young women didn't let him go near Ettarre but made him stay with
+them, and as soon as they had all passed into Ettarre's castle gate up
+sprang the drawbridge, down rang the iron grating, and Sir Pelleas was
+left outside all alone.
+
+"These are only the ways of ladies with their lovers when the ladies
+want to find out whether the lovers are true or not. Well, she can try
+me with anything, I'll be true through all."
+
+So he stayed there until dark, then went to a priory not far off and the
+next morning came back. Every day he did the same whether it rained or
+shone, armed on his charger, and stayed all the day beneath the walls,
+although nobody opened the gate for him.
+
+This made Ettarre's scorn turn to anger. She told her three knights to
+go out and drive him away. But when they came out Pelleas overthrew them
+all as they dashed upon him one after the other. So they went back
+inside and he kept his watch as before. This turned Ettarre's anger into
+hate. As she walked on top of the walls with her three knights about a
+week later she pointed down to Pelleas and said:
+
+"He haunts me, look, he besieges me! I can't breathe. Strike him down,
+put my hate into your blows and drive him away from my walls."
+
+So down they went but Pelleas overthrew them all again so Ettarre called
+down from the tower above, "Bind him and bring him in."
+
+Pelleas heard her say this so he did not resist, but let the men bind
+him and take him into his lady love. "See me, Lady," he said cheerily,
+"your prisoner, and if you keep me in your dungeon here I'll be quite
+content if you'll just let me see your face every day. For I've sworn my
+vows and you've given me your promise and I know that when you've done
+proving me you will give me your love and have me for your knight."
+
+But she made fun of his vows and told her knights to put him outside
+again and "if he isn't a fool to the middle of his bones," said she,
+"he'll never come back." Then the three knights laughed and thrust him
+out of the gates.
+
+But a week later Ettarre called them again, "He's watching there yet. He
+comes just like a dog that's been kicked out of his master's door. Don't
+you hate him? Go after him, all of you at once, and if you don't kill
+him bind him as you did before and bring him in."
+
+So the three knights couched their spears all together, three against
+one, ready to dash upon Pelleas, low down beneath the shadow of the
+towers.
+
+Gawain passing by on a lonely adventure saw them.
+
+"The villains!" he shouted to Pelleas, "I'll strike for you!"
+
+"No," cried Pelleas, "when one's doing a lady's will one doesn't need
+any help."
+
+Gawain stood by quivering to fight while the three knights sprang down
+upon Pelleas, but Pelleas all alone beat the three of them together.
+Then they rose to their feet, and he stood still while they bound him
+and took him into their lady.
+
+"You're scarcely fit to touch your victor, you dogs!" she cried to her
+men, "far less bind him; but take him out as he is and let whoever wants
+to untie him. Then if he comes again--"
+
+She paused just a minute and Pelleas broke in at once with, "Lady, I
+loved you and thought you very beautiful, but if you don't love me
+don't trouble yourself about it; you won't see me again."
+
+As soon as Pelleas was put outside the gate Gawain sprang forward,
+loosed his bonds, flung them over the walls and cried out:
+
+"My faith, and why did you let those wretches tie you up so when you
+were victor of all the jousts?"
+
+"O," said Pelleas, "they were just obeying the wishes of my lady, and
+her wishes are mine."
+
+Gawain laughed. "Lend me your horse and armor," he said, "and I'll tell
+her I've killed you. Then she'll let me in just to hear all about it and
+when I've made her listen I'll tell her all about you, what a great and
+good fellow you are. Give me three days to melt her and on the third
+evening I'll bring you golden news."
+
+"Don't betray me," cried Pelleas, as he handed over his horse and all
+his weapons except his sword. "Aren't you the knight they call
+'Light-of-love?'"
+
+"That is just because women are so light," Gawain rejoined, laughing.
+
+Then he rode up to the castle gate, and blew the bugle so musically that
+all the hidden echoes in the walls rang out.
+
+"Away with you!" cried Ettarre's maidens, running up to the tower
+window. "Our lady doesn't love you."
+
+"I'm Gawain from Arthur's court," cried Gawain, lifting his vizor so
+that they could see his face. "I've killed Pelleas whom you hate so.
+Open the gates and I'll make you merry with my story."
+
+The ladies ran down crying out to Ettarre, "Pelleas is dead! Sir Gawain
+of Arthur's court has killed him and is blowing the bugle to come in to
+tell us."
+
+"Let him in," said Ettarre.
+
+Then they opened the gates and Gawain rode inside.
+
+For three days Pelleas wandered all about, doing nothing but thinking of
+Gawain and Ettarre, and on the third night, when Gawain did not come, he
+wondered why Gawain lingered with his golden news. At last he rode up to
+Ettarre's castle, tied his horse outside and walked in through the wide
+open gates. The court he found all dark and empty, not a light
+glimmering from anywhere, so he passed out by the back gate, into the
+large gardens beyond of red and white roses, where he saw three
+pavilions. In one he found the three knights with their squires, all red
+with revelling, and all asleep, in the second he saw the girls with
+their scornful smiles frozen stiff in slumber, and in the third lay
+Gawain with Ettarre, the golden crown he had won for her at the joust on
+her forehead, both sleeping.
+
+Pelleas drew back as if he had touched a snake.
+
+"I'll kill them just as they lie," he cried in a passion. "O! to think
+that any knight could be so false!"
+
+But he was too manly to kill anyone in sleep, so he just laid his sword
+across their throats and passed out to his horse, crushed his saddle
+with his thighs, clenched his hands together and groaned.
+
+"I loathe her now just as much as I loved her!" he cried, and dashing
+his spurs into his horse he bounded out into the darkness and never came
+back.
+
+Meanwhile Ettarre, feeling the cold sword on her neck, awoke.
+
+"Liar!" she cried to Gawain, as she saw that it was the sword of
+Pelleas, "you haven't killed Pelleas, for he's been here and could have
+killed us both just now."
+
+And ever after that, as those who tell the story say, the proud and
+scornful Ettarre sighed for Pelleas, the one true knight in the world,
+her only faithful lover, and at last pined away because he never came
+back.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST TOURNAMENT.
+
+
+One day while King Arthur and Sir Lancelot were riding far, far beneath
+a winding wall of rock they heard the wail of a child.
+
+A half-dead oak tree climbed up the sides of the rock and up in mid-air
+it held an eagle's nest. Through its branches rushed a rainy wind and
+through the wind came the voice of a little child. Lancelot sprang up
+the crag and from the nest at the tree-top he brought down a baby girl.
+Round her neck was twined a necklace of rubies, wound round and round
+three times.
+
+Arthur took the baby and gave it to Queen Guinevere, who soon loved it
+very tenderly and named her "Nestling." But Nestling had caught a
+terrible cold in her strange little home in the wild eagle's nest and
+died. And after that whenever the Queen looked at the ruby necklace it
+made her very sad so she gave it to Arthur and said:
+
+"Take these jewels of our Dead Innocence and make them a prize at a
+tournament."
+
+"Just as you wish," cried the King, "but why don't you wear the diamonds
+that I found for you in the tarn, which Lancelot won for you at the
+jousts?"
+
+"Don't you know that they slipped out of my hands the very day that he
+gave them to me, while I was leaning out of the window to see Elaine in
+the barge on the river? But these rubies will bring better luck than
+that to the lady who gets them, for they didn't come from a dead king's
+skeleton, but from the body of a sweet baby girl. Perhaps, who knows,
+the purest of your knights will win them at the jousts for the purest of
+my ladies."
+
+So the great jousts were proclaimed with trumpets that blew all along
+the streets of Camelot and out across the faded fields to the farthest
+towers, and everywhere the knights armed themselves for a day of glory
+before the king.
+
+But just the day before they were to be held, as King Arthur sat in his
+great hall, a churl staggered in through the door; his face was all
+striped with the lashes of a dog whip, his nose was broken, one eye was
+out, a hand was off and the other hand dangled at his side with
+shattered fingers.
+
+"My poor Churl," cried the king, full of indignant pity, "what beast or
+fiend has been after you? Or was it a man who hurt you so?"
+
+"He took them all away," sputtered the churl, "a hundred good ones. It
+was the Red Knight. He--Lord, I was tending sheep, my pigs, a hundred
+good ones, and he drove them all off to his tower. And when I said that
+you were always kind to poor churls like me as well as gentle lords and
+ladies, he made for me and would have killed me outright if he didn't
+want me to bring you message and made me swear that I would tell you.
+
+"He said, 'Tell the king that I have made a Round Table of my own in the
+North, and that whatever his knights swear not to do mine swear that
+they will do; and tell him his hour has come, and that the heathen are
+after him, and that his long lance is broken, and that his sword
+Excalibur is a straw.'"
+
+Then Arthur turned to Sir Kay the Seneschal and said: "Take this churl
+of mine and tend him very carefully as if he were the son of a king
+until all his hurts are healed," and as Sir Kay left the hall with the
+churl the king went on to Lancelot: "The heathen have been quiet for a
+long, long time, but now they are rising again in the North, and I will
+go with my younger knights to put them down, so as to make the whole
+island safe from one shore to the other. And while I go away, you, Sir
+Lancelot, will sit in my chair to-morrow at the tournament and be the
+judge there of the field. For why should you anyway care to go in again
+yourself, when you've already won the nine diamonds for the queen?"
+
+"Very well," replied Lancelot, "if you wish, although it would be better
+if you would let me go off with the younger knights and you stay here
+with the others and watch the tournament. But, if not, all is well?"
+
+"Is all really well?" cried the king, "or have I just dreamed that our
+knights are not quite so true and manly as they used to be and that my
+noble realm which has been built up by noble deeds and noble vows is
+going to fall back into beastly roughness and violence again?"
+
+He gathered all the younger Knights of the Round Table together and
+started away with them down the hilly streets of Camelot, and at the
+gateway turned sharply North.
+
+The next morning, the day of the Tournament, the Tournament of the Dead
+Innocence they called it, a wet wind blew. But the streets were hung
+with white samite, the fountains were filled with wine, and round each
+fountain twelve little girls, all dressed in purest white sat with the
+cups of gold and gave drinks to all that passed. The stately galleries
+were filled with white-robed ladies. Lancelot mounted the steps to the
+king's dragon-carved chair, the trumpets blew and the jousts began.
+
+[Illustration: TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED.]
+
+But Lancelot did not think of the sport before him, he was dreaming over
+and over again the words of the king about the kingdom, and many rules
+of the tournament were broken, and he didn't say a word. Once one of the
+knights, who was overthrown cursed the little baby girl, the dead
+innocence, and the king, and once one of the knight's helmets became
+unlaced and the wicked face of Modred peeped through like a vermin, but
+Lancelot didn't see.
+
+After a while a roar of welcome shouted all round the galleries and
+lists as a new knight came in dressed from his head to his feet in green
+armor all trimmed with tiny silver deer, with holly berries on his
+helmet crest. It was Sir Tristram of the Woods who had just crossed over
+the seas from Brittany. Lancelot had fought with him long ago and
+conquered him, and now he saw him and longed to fight him again. As
+many, many knights of the Round Table fell down before the new knight
+Lancelot gripped the golden dragons on each side of his throne to keep
+himself in his seat, and groaned with passion. "Craven crests! oh,
+shame!" he muttered, "the glory of the Round Table is gone."
+
+So Tristram won the jousts and Sir Lancelot gave him the jewels.
+
+"The hands with which you take these rubies are red," he said as he put
+the necklace in Tristram's hands.
+
+Then the thick rain began to fall, the plumes on the helmets of the
+knights drooped and the dresses of the ladies were mussed. When they
+went inside to feast the ladies took off their pure white gowns and
+robed themselves in all the colors of the rainbow and field flowers,
+like poppies, blue-bells, kingcups, and one said she was glad the time
+to wear the pure innocent simple white was over. They grew so loud in
+their frolics that at last the queen, who was angry that Sir Tristram
+had won the prize and angry with the lawless youths, broke up the
+banquet.
+
+The next morning as Sir Tristram stood before the hall little Dagonet,
+the fool, came dancing along and Sir Tristram threw his rubies round
+the little fool's neck as he skipped about like a withered leaf, asking
+him why he danced.
+
+"It's stupid to dance without music," Tristram said, and picked up his
+harp and began to twangle a tune on it; but as soon as Sir Tristram
+began to play Dagonet stopped his dance. "And why don't you go on
+skipping, Sir Fool?" asked Tristram.
+
+"Because I'd rather skip twenty years to the music of my little brain
+than skip a minute to the broken music you make."
+
+"And what music have I broken?" cried Sir Tristram. "Arthur the King's
+music," cried little Dagonet, skipping again and again as Sir Tristram
+ceased. Then down the city he danced all the way, while Sir Tristram
+passed out into the lonely avenues of the forests. He rode on toward
+Lyonesse and the West, thinking of Isolt, the White, whom he loved, and
+how he would put the rubies round her neck.
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN.]
+
+Arthur, meanwhile, with his hundred spearmen had gone far, far away,
+until at last over the countless reeds of marshes and islands he saw a
+huge tower glaring in the wide-winged sunset of the West. As he drew
+near he saw that the tower doors stood open and heard roars of rioting
+and wicked songs of ruffian men and women.
+
+"Look," cried one of his knights, for there high on a grim dead tree
+before the tower, a brother of the Round Table was swinging by his neck,
+his shield flowing with a shower of blood on a branch near by.
+
+All the knights wanted to dash forward and blow the great horn that hung
+beside the gate, but Arthur waved them back and went himself. He blew so
+hard that the horn roared until all the grasses of the marshes flared
+up, and out of the castle gate sallied a knight dressed from tip to toe
+in blood-red arms, the Red Knight.
+
+"Aren't you the king?" he bellowed, "the king that keeps us all with
+such strict vows that we can't have any pleasures, a milky-hearted king?
+Look to your life now!"
+
+Arthur scorned to speak to so vile a man or to fight him with his sword.
+He simply let the drunkard, stretching out from his horse to strike,
+fall head-heavy, over from the castle causeway to the swamp below.
+
+Then all the Round Table Knights roared and shouted, leaped down on the
+fallen man, trampled out his face in the mire, sank his head so that it
+could not be seen, and, still shouting, sprang through the open doors
+among the people within. They hurled their swords right and left on men
+and women, hurled over the tables and the wines and slew and slew until
+all the rafters rang with yells and all the pavements streamed with
+blood. Then they set the tower all afire and half the night through it
+flushed the long low meadows and marshlands and lazily plunging sea with
+its flames. That was how Arthur made the ways of the island safe from
+one shore to the other.
+
+Sir Tristram, not many nights after, reached Tintagil, where Isolt, the
+White, lived in a crown of towers, where she now sat with the low
+sea-sunset glorying her hair and glossy throat, thinking of him and of
+Mark, her Cornish lord.
+
+When Tristram's footsteps came grinding up the tower steps she flushed,
+started out to meet him and threw her white arms about him.
+
+"Not Mark, not Mark!" she cried. "At first your footsteps fluttered me,
+for Mark steals into his own castle like a cat."
+
+"No, it's I," said Sir Tristram, "and don't think about your Mark any
+more, for he isn't yours any longer."
+
+"But listen," she cried, "to-day he went away for a three days' hunt, he
+said, and that means that he may be back in an hour for that's his way.
+My God, my hate for him is as strong as my love for you. Let me tell you
+how I sat here one evening thinking of you, one black midsummer night,
+all alone, dreaming of you, and sometimes speaking your name aloud, when
+suddenly there Mark stood behind me, for that's his way to steal behind
+one in the dark.
+
+"'Tristram has married her!' he hissed out and then this tower shook
+with such a roar that I swooned away."
+
+"Come," cried Sir Tristram, laughing, "never mind, I'm hungry, give me
+some meat and wine."
+
+So they ate and drank, talked and laughed about Mark with his long
+crane-like legs, and Sir Tristram took a harp and sang a song. Then
+while the last light of the day glimmered away he swung the ruby
+necklace before Isolt.
+
+"It's the fruit of a magical oak-tree that grew mid air," he cried, "and
+was won by Sir Tristram as a tourney prize to bring to you."
+
+Flinging the rubies round her neck he had just touched her jeweled
+throat with his lips when behind him rose a shadow and a shriek.
+
+"Mark's way!" cried Mark, the Cornish king, and he clove Tristram
+through the brain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That very night Arthur came back from the North, and as he climbed up
+the tower steps to go to the queen, in the dark of the tower something
+pulled at him. It was little Dagonet.
+
+"Who are you?" said the king.
+
+"I'm little Dagonet, your fool," sobbed the little jester, "and I cry
+because I can never make you laugh again."
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.
+
+
+One night King Arthur saw Sir Gawain in a dream, and Gawain, who had
+been killed, shrilly called out to him through the wind:
+
+"Hail King! to-morrow you are going to pass away, and there's a land of
+rest for you. Farewell!"
+
+But when Arthur told his dream to Sir Bedivere, good old Sir Bedivere
+replied, "Don't mind what dreams tell you, but get your knights together
+and go out to the West to meet Sir Modred, who has stirred up against
+you so many of the knights you love. They all know in their hearts that
+you are king. Go and conquer them as of old."
+
+So the king took his army by night and pushed upon Modred league after
+league, until they reached the Western part of Lyonesse where the long
+mountains ended in the moaning sea. There Modred's men could flee no
+farther, so on the waste lands by the barren sea they began that last
+dim weird battle of the West.
+
+A white chill mist slept over all the land and water so that even Arthur
+became confused since he could not see which were his friends and which
+were his foes. Friends killed friends, some saw the faces of old ghosts
+looking in upon the battle. Spears were splintered, shields were broken,
+swords clashed, helmets were shattered, men shrieked and looked up to
+heaven for help but saw only the white, white mists. There were cries
+for light and moans.
+
+At last toward the close of the day a hush fell over the whole shore; a
+bitter wind from the North blew the mist aside and the pale king looked
+across the battlefield. But no one was there only the waves breaking in
+among the dead faces.
+
+But bold Bedivere said: "My King! the man who hates you stands there,
+Modred, the traitor of your house!"
+
+"Don't call this traitor a person of my house," the king replied. "The
+men of my house are not those who have lived under one roof with me, but
+those who always call me their king."
+
+With that, Arthur dashed after Modred. Modred struck at the king's
+helmet, which had grown thin with all his heathen wars. Arthur with his
+sword Excalibur struck Modred dead, then fell down himself almost killed
+with the wound through his helmet.
+
+Sir Bedivere lifted him up and carried him to a chapel near by.
+
+"Take my sword, Excalibur," said the King, "and fling it out into the
+middle of the sea, watch what happens to it and then come back at once
+and tell me."
+
+"It doesn't seem right to leave you all alone here," said Sir Bedivere,
+"when you are wounded and ill, but since you wish me to go, I will, and
+will do all that you have told me."
+
+He slipped away by zigzag paths, points and jutting rock to the shining
+level of the sea. There he drew out the sword Excalibur. The winter moon
+sparkled against its hilt and made it twinkle with its diamond sparks,
+with myriads of topaz lights and fine jewelry work. Bedivere gazed so
+long at it that both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, and he wondered
+whether he ought to throw away so beautiful a thing. At last he decided
+to hide it away among the water-flags that grew along shore.
+
+"Did you do as I said?" asked the king, when he saw him. "What did you
+see?"
+
+"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds," said Sir Bedivere, "and the
+wild water lapping on the rock."
+
+"You are not giving me a true answer," said the king, faint and pale.
+"It's shameful for men to lie. Quickly go again and as you are true and
+dear, do just as I bade you. Watch and bring me word."
+
+Then Sir Bedivere went the second time and paced up and down beside the
+pebbly water, counting the dewey pebbles, but when he saw the wonderful
+sword he clapped his hands together and cried:
+
+"If I threw that sword away, a precious thing will be lost forever. The
+King is ill; he does not know what he is doing. His great sword ought to
+be kept, then in long years hereafter people will look at it at the
+tournament and they will say: 'This was the great Arthur's sword
+Excalibur which was made by the lonely lady of the Lake, working in the
+deep sea for nine years.'"
+
+So the second time he hid Excalibur and strode very slowly back to the
+king.
+
+"What did you see or what did you hear?" asked Arthur breathing very
+heavily.
+
+"I heard the water lapping on the rock and the long ripples washing in
+the reeds."
+
+"Unkind! miserable! untrue! unknightly!" cried Arthur, filled with
+anger. "I see what you are, for you are the only one left me of all the
+knights, yet you would betray me for my sword, either to sell it or like
+a girl, because you love its beauty. Go out now the third time and if
+you do not throw out my sword Excalibur I'll get up and kill you with my
+hands."
+
+At this Sir Bedivere sprang up like a flash and ran down leaping lightly
+over the ridges, plunged into the beds of bulrushes, clutched the sword,
+wheeled it round strongly and threw it as far as he could.
+
+Excalibur made lightning in the moonlight as it flashed round and round
+and whirled in an arch, shooting far out to the water. But before it
+quite dipped into the sea an arm robed in white samite, mystic and
+wonderful, rose out of the waves, caught it by the hilt, brandished it
+three times and drew it under.
+
+"Now I can see by your eyes that you have done it!" cried the King.
+"Speak out; what have you seen or heard?"
+
+"Sir King," cried Sir Bedivere, "I closed my eyes when I picked it up so
+that I would not be turned from my purpose of throwing it into the
+water, for I could live three lives, Sir King, and I wouldn't again see
+such a wonderful thing as your sword. Sir, I threw it out with both
+hands, wheeling it round and when I looked an arm robed in white samite
+reached up out of the water and caught it by the hilt, brandished it
+three times and drew it under."
+
+"Carry me to the shore," said the king.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE.]
+
+So Bedivere lifted him up and walked as swiftly as he could from the
+ridge, heavily, heavily down to the beach. As they reached the shore
+they saw a black barge beside the water filled with stately people all
+dressed in black. Among the people were three queens wearing crowns of
+gold.
+
+"Put me into the barge," cried Arthur.
+
+So they came to the barge and the three queens held out their hands and
+took the king.
+
+The tallest and fairest of them held his head upon her lap loosed his
+shattered helmet and chafed his hands, and moaned tenderly over him.
+
+"Ah, my lord Arthur," cried Sir Bedivere, "where shall I go now? For
+the old times are past now and the whole Round Table is broken."
+
+"Go and pray," cried the king. "Farewell, for I am going a very long way
+to the lovely Island-valley of Avilion where it will never hail nor rain
+nor snow, and where the loud winds never blow. It lies in deep meadows,
+beautiful with lawns and fruit trees and flowery glens."
+
+Then the barge set sail and oar, and moved away from the shore.
+
+"The king is gone!" groaned Bedivere.
+
+He walked away from the shore and climbed up to the highest peaks and
+ridges about him and looked far, far away. And from far away out beyond
+the world he thought he heard sounds from a beautiful city as if every
+one in it all together were welcoming a great King who had just come
+back from his wars.
+
+END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+There are inconsistencies with italicising text that refers to
+illustrations. I have left these as in the original text.
+
+   Corrections made include the following:
+   p34. ecstacy => ecstasy
+   p37. meaintime => meantime
+   p52. magnificientn => magnificent
+   p66. Springly => Springing
+   p75. Geriant => Geraint
+   p90. jealously => jealousy
+   p100. though => through
+   p101. passed => past
+   p101. musn't => mustn't
+   p106. heathern => heathen
+   p106. Gunievere => Guinevere
+   p117. to => that
+   p146. Mordred => Modred
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Tennyson
+
+Author: Molly K. Bellew
+
+Illustrator: H. S. Campbell
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2011 [EBook #35598]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TENNYSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Peter Vickers, Juliet Sutherland
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/tennyson-cover.jpg" width="300" height="360" alt="TALES from TENNYSON" title="TALES from TENNYSON" />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img class="bbox" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="300" height="413" alt="THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS" title="THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS" />
+<span class="caption">THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="ibbox"><h1>TALES FROM<br />
+TENNYSON</h1></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="ibbox">
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>MOLLY K. BELLEW</h2>
+
+<p class="center">EDITOR OF<br />
+<span class="smcap">"Tales From Longfellow"<br />
+"Dickens' Christmas Stories for Children"<br />
+Etc., Etc.</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Illustrated by H. S. Campbell</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="ibbox"><p class="center">NEW YORK AND BOSTON<br />
+H. M. CALDWELL CO.<br />
+PUBLISHERS
+</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1902<br />
+by<br />
+Jamieson-Higgins Co.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" width="65%" cellspacing="5" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center"><h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS.</a></h2></td>
+<td class="rn"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#THE_COMING_OF_KING_ARTHUR">The Coming of King Arthur</a></td>
+<td class="rn">9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#GARETH_AND_LYNETTE">Gareth and Lynette</a></td>
+<td class="rn">29</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#THE_MARRIAGE_OF_GERAINT">The Marriage of Geraint</a></td>
+<td class="rn">46</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#GERAINTS_QUEST_OF_HONOR">Geraint's Quest of Honor</a></td>
+<td class="rn">64</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#MERLIN_AND_VIVIEN">Merlin and Vivien</a></td>
+<td class="rn">85</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#BALIN_AND_BALAN">Balin and Balan</a></td>
+<td class="rn">95</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#LANCELOT_AND_ELAINE">Lancelot and Elaine</a></td>
+<td class="rn">104</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#THE_HOLY_GRAIL">The Holy Grail</a></td>
+<td class="rn">119</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#PELLEAS_AND_ETTARRE">Pelleas and Ettarre</a></td>
+<td class="rn">132</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#THE_LAST_TOURNAMENT">The Last Tournament</a></td>
+<td class="rn">142</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#THE_PASSING_OF_ARTHUR">The Passing of Arthur</a></td>
+<td class="rn">150</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="To_my_Young_Readers" id="To_my_Young_Readers"></a>To my Young Readers.</h2>
+
+<p>Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and
+none, perhaps not even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly
+to the human heart. No other man's poems have caused
+as many readers to shed tears of sympathy nor have awakened
+higher sentiments in the human heart. The critics
+agree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his
+"Idylls from the King" are found the loftiest and proudest
+deeds of English history and even in the retelling of these
+in prose the high spirit that is an inspiration to the noblest
+deeds cannot fail to be preserved.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+MOLLY K. BELLEW.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_COMING_OF_KING_ARTHUR" id="THE_COMING_OF_KING_ARTHUR"></a>THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR.</h2>
+
+<p>Over a thousand years ago everybody was talking about
+the wonderful King Arthur and his brilliant Knights of
+the Round Table, who everywhere were pursuing bold quests,
+putting to rout the band of outlaws and robbers which in
+those days infested every highway and by-way of the country,
+going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and
+order among the rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the
+poor and the oppressed, and winning glorious renown for
+their valor and their successes.</p>
+
+<p>That was in England which at that time was not England as
+it is today, all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was
+divided into many bits of kingdoms each with its own king
+and all warring against each other. Arthur's kingdom was the
+most unpeaceful of all. This was because for twenty years or
+more, ever since the death of old King Uther, the country had
+been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a
+score of years before without leaving an heir to the throne,
+and all the nobles of the realm had immediately gone to war
+with one another each trying to get the most land and each
+trying to get the throne for himself.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus009.jpg" width="300" height="306" alt="OLD MERLIN APPEARS." title="OLD MERLIN APPEARS." />
+<span class="caption">OLD MERLIN APPEARS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been
+King Uther's magician, appeared one day in the royal council
+hall with a handsome young man, Arthur, and declared him to
+be the king of the realm. Arthur was crowned and for a time
+the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with a strong hand of iron,
+put down all the evils in his kingdom and everywhere gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+it peace and order. People in every part of the island sent for
+him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out
+of their difficulties. But presently the nobles became troublesome
+again; they said that Arthur was not the true king,
+that he was not the son of
+Uther and that, therefore,
+he had no right to reign
+over them. So there was
+fighting and unrest again,
+and in the midst of it
+Leodogran, the king of
+the Land of Cameliard,
+asked Arthur to come with
+his knights and drive away
+the enemies besetting
+him on every side. The
+country of Cameliard had
+gone to waste and ruin,
+because of the continual
+warfare that was waged with the kings that lived in the little
+neighboring countries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen
+peoples who invaded the land. And so it happened that Cameliard
+was ravaged with battles, its strong men were cut down
+with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, and bears from the tangled
+weeds came rooting up the green fields and wallowing
+into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole
+little children from the villages and nursed them like
+their own cubs, until finally these children grew up into a race
+of wolf-men who molested the land worse than the wolves
+themselves. Then another king fought Leodogran, and at
+last the heathen hordes came swarming from over the seas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+and made all the earth red with his soldiers' blood, and they made
+the sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people.</p>
+
+<p>Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help
+until at last he thought of young Arthur of the Round Table
+who recently had been
+crowned king. So Leodogran
+sent for Arthur
+beseeching him to come
+and help him, for between
+the men and the
+beasts his country was
+dying.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus010.jpg" width="300" height="459" alt="PRINCESS GUINEVERE." title="PRINCESS GUINEVERE." />
+<span class="caption">PRINCESS GUINEVERE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>King Arthur and
+his men welcomed the
+chance and went at
+once into the Land of
+Cameliard to drive
+away the heathen marauders.
+As he marched
+with his men past the
+castle walls, pretty Princess
+Guinevere stood
+outside to watch the
+glittering soldiers go by.
+Among so many richly
+dressed knights she
+did not particularly notice
+Arthur, for he wore nothing to show that he was king,
+although his kingly bearing and brave forehead might suggest
+leadership. But no royal arms were engraved upon his helmet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly so
+gorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img class="bbox" src="images/illus011.jpg" width="500" height="667" alt="HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY." title="HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY." />
+<span class="caption">HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur
+spied her beside the castle wall; he felt the light of her beautiful
+eyes glimmering out into his heart and setting it all aflame
+with a fire of love for her.</p>
+
+<p>He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched
+their tents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered
+away to their own territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts
+that had plundered the fields, cut down the forest trees so as
+to open out roads for the people of Cameliard to pass over from
+one part of their land to the other, then he traveled quietly
+away with his men, back to fight his own battles in his own
+country. For there was fighting everywhere in those days.
+But all the time in Arthur's heart, while he was doing those
+wonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of
+Leodogran, but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her.</p>
+
+<p>If only she could be his queen he thought they two together
+could rule on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and
+could exert a mighty power over all his people to make them
+good and wise and happy. Each day increased his love until
+he could not bear even to think for a moment of living without
+her. So from the very field of battle, while the swords were
+flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons and
+great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched
+three messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard.</p>
+
+<p>These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere,
+the very first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne.
+They went to Leodogran and said that if Arthur had been of any
+service to him in his recent troubles with the heathen and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+wild beasts, he should give the Princess Guinevere to be Arthur's
+wife as a mark of his good will.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus013.jpg" width="400" height="447" alt="ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN." title="ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN" />
+<span class="caption">ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what
+to do any better than when the heathen and the beasts had
+come upon him. For while he thought Arthur a very bold
+soldier and a very fine man, and, although he felt very grateful
+indeed to him for all the great things he had done, still he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For, as
+Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the
+wife of none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not
+know precisely who this King Arthur was; but he did know
+that the barons of Arthur's court had burst out into this
+uproar against him because they said he was not their true
+king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before him.
+Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others
+avowed that Sir Anton was his father.</p>
+
+<p>As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter
+himself, he sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who
+always had good counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he
+asked the chamberlain whether he had heard anything certainly
+as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlain told him that there
+were just two men in all the world who knew the truth with
+respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both
+these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was
+Merlin the wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in
+magic, who had written a book of his renowned pupil's wonders,
+which probably related everything regarding the secret of
+Arthur's birth.</p>
+
+<p>"If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than
+you have just now in my present trouble," the king answered
+the chamberlain, "I would have died long ago from the wild
+beasts and the heathen. Send me in Ulfius and Brastias and
+Bedivere again."</p>
+
+<p>So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came
+into Leodogran who spoke to them this way: "I have often
+seen a big cuckoo chased by little birds and understood why
+such tiny birds plagued him so, but why are the nobles in
+your country rebelling against their king and saying that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves
+think he is the child of King Uther."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus015.jpg" width="400" height="408" alt="SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT." title="SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT." />
+<span class="caption">SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but
+Bedivere, the first of all Arthur's knights, became very bold
+when anyone slandered his sovereign and he replied: "<i>Sir
+King, there are all sorts of stories about that</i>; some of the nobles
+hate him just because he is good and they are wicked; they
+cry out that he is no man because his ways are gentler than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+their rough manners, while others again think he must be
+an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts
+as I know them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago;
+they both loved Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and
+had no sons, but three daughters, one of them the Queen of
+Orkney who has clung to Arthur like a sister. The two rivals,
+Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other and Gerlois
+was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsome
+Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently.
+In a few months Uther died, and on that very
+night of his death Arthur was born. And as soon as he was
+born they carried him out by a secret back gateway to Merlin
+the magician, to be brought up far away from the court so
+that no one would hear about him until he was grown up
+ready to sit upon Uther's, his father, throne.</p>
+
+<p>"For those were wild lords in those years just like these of
+today, always struggling for the rule, and they would have
+shattered the helpless little prince to pieces had they known
+about him. So Merlin took the baby and gave him over to
+old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's, and Sir Anton's wife tended
+Arthur with her own little ones so that nobody knew who he
+was or where he had come from. But while the prince was
+growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and
+barons were fighting all the time among themselves and nobody
+ruled. But during this present year Arthur's time for ascending
+the throne had come, so Merlin brought him from out of
+his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and cried out to all
+the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, your king!' Of
+course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried
+back immediately: 'Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's
+the son of Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he
+won the day for the people, who were clamoring for a king and
+were glad to see Arthur crowned. But after it all was over
+the lords banded together and broke out in open war against
+Arthur. That is the whole story of this war."</p>
+
+<p>Although pleased with Bedivere's good account of Arthur,
+yet when it was ended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was
+Bedivere right, he thought to himself, or were the barons right?
+As he sat pondering over everything in his palace, <i>three great
+visitors came to the castle</i>; these were the Queen of Orkney,
+the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, with her two sons, Gawain
+and Modred. Leodogran
+made a great feast for
+them and while entertaining
+them at table remembered
+what Bedivere
+had said about Arthur
+and this queen. So he
+turned to the queen and
+remarked:</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus017.jpg" width="300" height="404" alt="THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE." title="THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE." />
+<span class="caption">THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"An insecure throne is
+no better than a mass of
+ice in a summer's sea; it
+all melts away. You are
+from Arthur's court; tell
+me, do you think this king
+with his few loyal Knights
+of the Round Table can
+triumph over the rebellious
+lords, and keep
+his throne?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O King, they are few indeed," the Queen of Orkney cried,
+"but so bold and true, and all of one mind with him. I was
+there at the coronation when the savage yells of the nobles
+died away, and Arthur sat crowned upon the dais with all his
+knights gathered round him to do his service for him forever.
+Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of great authority
+bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that when
+they rose from their knees one after the other, some of them
+looked as pale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were
+flushed in their faces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind
+with their awe as if not fully awake. Then he spoke to them,
+cheering them with divine words that are far more than my
+tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke every face flashed,
+for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifix
+above, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon
+the bright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends
+who stood silently beside his throne, and who will always be
+ready to help him if he is in need.</p>
+
+<p>"Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred
+years of art like so many hands of vassals to wait upon the
+young king. Near Merlin stood the mystical, marvelous Lady
+of the Lake, who knows a deeper magic than Merlin's own,
+dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all about her
+and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom. But when
+the holy hymns were sung a voice like flowing waters
+sounded through the music. It was the voice of the Lady
+of the Lake who lives in the lowest waters of the lake
+where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow
+over the earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above
+her can walk out upon their crests just as our Lord did.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>It was she who gave Arthur his remarkable sword</i> Excalibur,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+with its hilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen
+for you. That strange sword rose up from out the bosom
+of the lake, and Arthur rowed over in a little boat and took it.
+The sword is incrusted with rich jewels on the hilt, with a
+blade so bright that
+men are blinded by it.
+On one side the words
+'Take me' are graven
+upon it in the oldest
+language of the world,
+while on the other side
+the words 'Cast me
+away' are carved in the
+tongue that you speak.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus019.jpg" width="300" height="416" alt="SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD" title="SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD" />
+<span class="caption">SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Arthur became very
+sad when he saw the
+second inscription, but
+Merlin advised him to
+take the beautiful blade
+and use it; he told him
+that now was the time
+to strike and that the
+time to cast away was
+very, very far off. So
+Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat
+down his enemies, King Leodogran."</p>
+
+<p>Leodogran was pleased with the queen's words, but he
+wished to test the story Bedivere had told him, so he looked
+into her eyes narrowly as he observed, with a question in his
+tones, "The swallow and the swift are very near kin, but you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+are still closer to this noble prince as you are his own dear
+sister."</p>
+
+<p>"I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is why you are Arthur's sister," the king returned
+still questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>"These are secret things," the Queen of Orkney replied, and
+she motioned with her hand for her two sons to leave her alone
+in the room with the king.</p>
+
+<p>Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying
+after and frolicked outside like a frisky pony, <i>but cunning
+Modred laid his ear close beside the door to listen</i>, so that he half
+heard all the strange story his mother told the king. This is
+what the queen said in the beginning to the king.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus020.jpg" width="300" height="455" alt="CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR
+TO LISTEN" title="CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR
+TO LISTEN" />
+<span class="caption">CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR
+TO LISTEN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"What should I know about it?
+For my mother's hair and eyes
+were dark, and so were the eyes
+and hair of Gerlois, and Uther
+was dark too, almost black, but
+the King Arthur is fairer than
+anyone else in Britain. However,
+I remember how my mother used
+often to weep and say, 'O that
+you had some brother, pretty little
+one, to guard you from the
+rough ways of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? She said that?" Leodogran
+rejoined, "but when did
+you see Arthur first?"</p>
+
+<p>"O king, I will tell you all
+about it," cried the Queen of
+Orkney. "Once when I was a little bit of a girl and had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+beaten for some childish fault that I had not committed, I ran
+outside and flung myself on a grassy bank and hated all the
+world and everything in it, and wished I were dead. But all
+of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don't know how
+he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him,
+for Merlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if
+he will, but any rate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting
+me and drying my tears. After that Arthur came very often
+without anybody knowing it and we were children together, and
+in those golden days I felt sure he would be king.</p>
+
+<p>"But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who
+taught the magician Merlin. You know they both served King
+Uther, and just a little while ago when Bleys died he sent for
+me. He said he had something to tell me that I must know
+before he left the world. He said that they two, Merlin and
+he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night when the
+king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir
+to his throne. After the king's death as Merlin and Bleys
+walked out from the castle walls into the dismal misty night,
+they saw a wonderful fairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon
+sailing the heavens, with shining people collected on its decks;
+but in the twinkling of an eye the ship was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by the
+seashore to watch the billows, one after the other, as they
+lapped up against the beach. And as they looked at last a
+great wave gathered up one-half of the ocean and came full
+of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaring all the while.
+Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the wave and
+in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by
+the water to Merlin's very feet.</p>
+
+<p>"'The king!' cried Merlin. 'Here's an heir for Uther.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great
+flaming breaker lashed at him as he held up the baby; it rose
+up round him in a mantle of fire so that he and the child were
+clothed in fire. Then suddenly there was a calm, the stars
+looked out and the sky was open.</p>
+
+<p>"'And this same child,' Bleys whispered to me, 'is the young
+king who reigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story
+had been told.' Then Bleys passed away into the land where
+nobody can question him.</p>
+
+<p>"So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true
+about the shining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating
+down from heaven over on the glory of the seas; but Merlin
+just laughed, as he always does, and answered me in the riddles
+of the old song, this way:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A young man will be wiser by and by;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An old man's wit may wander ere he die.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And truth is this to me and that to thee;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And truth or clothed or naked let it be.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From the great deep to the great deep he goes!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but
+you must not be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere
+to this King Arthur. For great poets will sing of his brave
+deeds in long years after this; and Merlin has said, and not
+joking, either, that even although Arthur's enemies may
+wound him in battle he will never, never die, but will only pass
+away for a time, for a little while, and then will come to us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going
+to trample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the
+nations and all the men will call him their king."</p>
+
+<p>It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of
+Orkney told him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay
+thinking over it all, still puzzled as to whether he should say
+"yes" or "no" to the ambassadors whom Arthur had sent.
+As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very, very drowsy
+and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept
+he saw a wonderful vision in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that
+ascended higher and higher, field after field, to a very great
+height and at the top there was a lofty peak hidden in the
+heavy, hazy clouds; and on the peak a phantom king stood.
+One moment the king was there, and the next moment he was
+gone, while everything below him was in a frightful confusion,
+a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle falling
+back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up
+in streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king
+stood in the fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king
+spoke out through the haze, and some one here or there beneath
+would point upward toward him, but the rest all went on
+fighting. They cried out, "He is no king of ours, no son of
+Uther's, no king of ours." Then in a twinkling the dream
+all changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth
+below the peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful
+king remained, crowned with his diadems, standing in the
+heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep.
+He called for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they
+had come into this presence he told them that Arthur should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+marry the fair Princess Guinevere, and he sent them galloping
+back to Arthur's court.</p>
+
+<p>That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights
+delivered King Leodogran's message. He made ready at once
+for his sweet queen. He picked out Lancelot, his favorite
+Knight of the Round Table, whom he loved better than any
+other man in all the world, to ride over into the Land of
+Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as
+Lancelot mounted his
+dancing steed and rode
+away <i>Arthur watched him
+from the palace gates</i>,
+thinking of the lovely
+lady who would ride by
+his side when he returned.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus024.jpg" width="300" height="488" alt="LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED." title="LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED." />
+<span class="caption">LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lancelot's horse trampled
+away among the
+flowers; for it was April
+when he left the court of
+Arthur, and just one
+month later he came
+riding back among the
+flowers of the May-time.
+Guinevere was with him
+on her graceful palfrey.</p>
+
+<p>Then Dubric, the head
+of the whole church in
+Britain, went out to meet
+her. Happy Arthur was
+there too. They were
+married in the greatest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+and noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all
+the Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white
+clothes, gathered about them. And all the knights were as
+delighted as they could be because their king was so glad.
+Holy Dubric spread out his hands above the King and the
+lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better,
+and may your queen be one with you, and may all the Knights
+of the Order of the Round Table fulfill the boundless purposes
+of their king."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus025.jpg" width="400" height="484" alt="KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN." title="KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN." />
+<span class="caption">KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+came thither from far away Rome, which once was the mistress
+of all the world, but now was slowly fading away. These
+Roman lords called for the tribute from Arthur that they had
+always received from Britain ever since Cæsar with his Roman
+legions had conquered it long years before.</p>
+
+<p>But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy
+knights and said: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight
+for me in all my wars and to worship me as their king. The old
+order of things has passed away and a new order will take its
+place. We are fighting for our fair father Christ, while you
+have been growing so feeble and so weak and so old that
+you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman
+walls any more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be
+your slaves. This is to be our own free country which we will
+defend and maintain."</p>
+
+<p><i>The great lords from Rome drew back very angrily</i> and went
+home and told their king all about what Arthur had said. So
+Arthur had to battle with Rome, but he won in the end.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they
+all felt like one great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he
+became mightier than any of the other kings in any part of
+Britain. And when he fought with them he always conquered
+them. In that way he drew in all the little kingdoms
+under him, so that he was the one king of the land, and they all
+fought together for him.</p>
+
+<p>There were twelve great battles against the heathen hordes
+that had molested them from across the terrible seas, and
+each of these battles he won. So he made one great realm
+and he reigned over it, the king.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus027.jpg" width="500" height="601" alt="THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK." title="THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK." />
+<span class="caption">THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK.</span>
+</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="GARETH_AND_LYNETTE" id="GARETH_AND_LYNETTE"></a>GARETH AND LYNETTE.</h2>
+
+<p>Old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent had three sons.
+Gawain and Modred were Knights of the Round Table at
+Arthur's court, and young Gareth, who was his mother's pet,
+sighed to think he had to stay home and be cuddled and fondled
+like a baby boy instead of riding off like a venturesome
+soldier fighting gloriously for the king and winning a great
+name.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he cried impatiently, one chilly spring day as he
+stood by the brink of a rivulet and saw a bit of a pine tree
+caught from the bank by the dashing, swollen waters of the
+stream and whirled madly away. "That's the way the king's
+enemies would fall before my spear, if I had a spear to use!
+That stream can do no more than I can, even although it is
+merely icy water all cold with the snows while I'm tingling with
+hot blood and have strong arms. When Gawain came home
+last summer and asked me to tilt with him and Modred was
+the judge, didn't I shake him so in his saddle that he said I had
+half overcome him? Humph! and mother thinks I'm still a
+child!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Gareth went in to the queen</i> and said: "Mother, if you love
+me listen to a story I will tell. Once there was an egg which
+a great royal eagle laid high above on the rocks somewhere
+almost out of sight and there was a lad which saw the splendor
+sparkling from it, and the lightnings playing around it and
+the little birds crying and clashing in the nest. The boy
+thought if he could only reach that egg he would be richer
+than a houseful of kings, and he was nearly driven from his
+sense with his desire for it. But whenever he reached to clamber
+up for it some one who loved him restrained him saying,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+'If you love me do not climb, lest you break your neck.' So
+the boy did not climb, mother, and he did not break his neck,
+but he broke his heart pining for the glorious egg. How can
+you keep me tethered here, Mother? Let me go!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus029.jpg" width="500" height="614" alt="MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL." title="" />
+<span class="caption">MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Have you no pity for me?" Queen Bellicent asked. "Stay
+here by your poor old father and me; chase the deer in our fir
+trees and marry some lovely bride I will get for you. You're my
+best son and so young."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, a king once showed his son two brides and told him
+that he must either win the beautiful one, or, if he failed, wed
+the other. The pretty one was Fame and the other was
+Shame. Why should I follow the deer when I can follow the
+king? Why was I born a man if I cannot do a man's work?"</p>
+
+<p>"But some of the barons say he isn't the true king."</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't he conquered the Romans and driven off the heathen
+and made all the people free? Who has a right to be king if
+not the man who has done that? He is the true king."</p>
+
+<p>When Bellicent found that she could not turn Gareth from
+his purpose, she said that if he was determined he must do
+one thing before he asked the king to make him a knight.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything," cried Gareth. "Give me a hundred proofs.
+Only be quick."</p>
+
+<p>The queen looked at him very slowly and said: "You are a
+prince, Gareth, but before you are fit to serve the king you must
+go into Arthur's court disguised and hire yourself to serve his
+meats and drink among the scullions and kitchen knaves.
+And you must not tell your name to anyone and you must
+serve that way for a year and a day."</p>
+
+<p>The queen made this condition, thinking that Gareth would
+be too proud to play the slave. But he thought a moment, then
+answered: "A slave may be free in his soul, and I can see the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+jousts there. You are my mother so I must obey you and I
+will be a scullion in King Arthur's kitchen and keep my name
+a secret from everyone, even the king."</p>
+
+<p>So Bellicent grieved and watched Gareth every moment
+wherever he went, dreading the time when he should leave.
+And he waited until one windy night when she slept, then called
+two servants and slipped away with them, all three dressed
+like poor peasants of the field.</p>
+
+<p>They walked away towards the south and as they came to the
+plain stretching to the mountain of Camelot, they saw the royal
+city upon its brow. Sometimes its spires and towers flashed in
+the sunlight; sometimes only the great gate shone out before
+their eyes, or again the whole fair town vanished away. Then
+the servants said:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go no further, Lord. It's an enchanted city, and all
+a vision. The people say anyway, that Arthur isn't the true
+king, but only a changeling from fairyland, and that Merlin
+won his battles for him with magic."</p>
+
+<p>Gareth laughed and replied that he had magic enough in his
+blood and hopes to plunge old Merlin into the Arabian sea.
+And he pushed them on to the gate. There was no other gate
+like it under heaven. The Lady of the Lake stood barefooted
+on the keystone and held up the cornice. Drops of water fell
+from either hand and above were the three queens who were
+Arthur's friends, and on each side Arthur's wars were pictured
+in weird devices with dragons and elves so intertwined that
+they made men dizzy to look at them. The servants cried out,
+"Lord, the gateway is alive!" Then a blast of music pealed
+out of the city, and the three queens stepped aside while an
+old man with a long beard came out and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, my sons?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We are peasants," answered Gareth, "who have come to
+see the glories of your king, but the city looked so strange
+through the morning mist that my men are wondering whether
+it is not a fairy city or perhaps no city at all. So tell us the
+truth about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's a fairy city," the old man answered, "and a fairy
+king and queen came out of the mountain cleft at sunrise
+with harps in their hands and built it to music, which means it
+never was built at all, and therefore built forever."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you mock me so?" Gareth cried angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not mocking you so much as you are mocking me and
+every one who looks at you, for you are not what you seem, still
+I know what you truly are."</p>
+
+<p>Then the old man turned away and Gareth said to his men:
+"Our poor little white lie stands like a ghost at the very beginning
+of our enterprise. Blame my mother's love for it and
+not her nor me."</p>
+
+<p>So they all laughed and came into the city of Camelot with its
+shadowy and stately palaces. Here and there a knight passed
+in or out, his arms clashing and the sound was good to Gareth's
+ears. Or out of a casement window glanced the pure eyes of
+lovely women. But Gareth made at once for the hall of the
+king where his heart fairly hammered into his ears as he wondered
+whether Arthur would turn him aside because of the
+half shadow of a lie he had told the old man by the gate about
+being a peasant. There were many supplicants coming before
+the king to tell him of some hurt done them by marauders or
+the wild beasts, and each one was given a knight by the king
+to help them.</p>
+
+<p>When Gareth's turn came, he rested his arms, one on each
+servant, and stepped forward saying: "A boon, Sir King!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+Do you see how weak I seem, leaning on these men? Pray
+let me go into your kitchen and serve there for a year and a day,
+and do not ask me my name. After that I will fight for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a handsome youth," said the king, "and worth
+something better from the king, but if that is what you wish,
+go and serve under the seneschal, Sir Kay, Master of the Meats
+and Drinks."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Kay thought the boy had probably run away from the
+farm belonging to some Abbey where he had not had enough to
+eat, and he promised that if Gareth would work well he would
+feed him until he was as plump as a pigeon.</p>
+
+<p>But Lancelot, the king's favorite, said to Kay: "You don't
+understand boys as well as dogs and cattle. Can't you see by
+this lad's broad fair forehead and fine hands that he is nobly
+born? Treat him well or he may shame you."</p>
+
+<p>"Fair and fine, forsooth," cried Kay. "If he had been a
+gentleman he would have asked for a horse and armor."</p>
+
+<p>So he hustled and harried Garreth, <i>set him to draw water</i>, <i>hew
+wood</i> and labor harder than any of the grimy and smudgy
+kitchen knaves. Gareth did all with a noble sort of ease and
+graced the lowliest act, and when the knaves all gathered
+together of an evening to tell stories about Arthur on the
+battlefields or of Lancelot in the tournament, Gareth listened
+delightedly or made them all, with gaping mouths, listen
+charmed, to some prodigious tale of his own about wonderful
+knights cutting their scarlet way through twenty folds of
+twisted dragons. When there was a Joust and Sir Kay let him
+attend it, he went half beside himself in an ecstasy watching
+the warriors clash their springing spears, and the sniffing
+chargers reel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first month, lonely Queen Bellicent felt
+sorry for her poor, dear son, toiling and moiling among pots and
+pans, so she sent a servant to Camelot with the beaming armor
+of a knight and freed him from his vow. Gareth colored redder
+than any young girl and went alone in to the king and told him
+all.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus034.jpg" width="400" height="555" alt="SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD." title="SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD." />
+<span class="caption">SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Make me your knight in secret," he begged Arthur, "and
+give me the very next quest from your court!"</p>
+
+<p>"Son," answered the king, "my knights are sworn to vows
+of utter hardihood, of utter gentleness, of utter faithfulness in
+love and of utter obedience to the king."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gareth sprang lightly from his knees: "My king, I can
+promise you for my hardihood; respecting my obedience, ask
+Sir Kay, and as for love I have not loved yet, but God willing
+some day I will, and faithfully."</p>
+
+<p>The reply so pleased the great king, he laid his hand on
+Gareth's arm and smiled and knighted him.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later <i>a noble maiden</i> with a brow like a May-blossom
+and a saucy nose <i>passed
+into the king's hall with her page</i>
+and told Arthur that her name
+was Lynette, and that her beautiful
+sister, the Lady Lyonors lived
+in the Castle Perilous which was
+beset with bandit knights.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus035.jpg" width="300" height="433" alt="A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"A river courses about the castle
+in three loops," said she, "each
+loop has a bridge and every bridge
+is guarded by a wicked outlaw
+warrior, Sir Morning-star, Sir
+Noon-sun and Sir Evening-star,
+while a fourth called Death, a
+huge man-beast of boundless
+savageries, is besieging my sister
+in her own castle so as to break
+her will and make her wed with
+him. They are four fools," cried the maiden disdainfully,
+"but they are mighty men so I have come to ask for Lancelot to
+ride away with me to help us."</p>
+
+<p>Gareth was up in a twinkling with kindled eyes. "A boon,
+Sir King, this quest," he cried. "I am only a knave from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+your kitchen, but I can topple over a hundred such fellows.
+Your promise, king."</p>
+
+<p>"You are rough and sudden and worthy to be a knight.
+Therefore go," said Arthur to the great amazement of the
+court.</p>
+
+<p>"Fie on you, King!" exclaimed Lynette in a fury. "I asked
+you for your best knight, Lancelot, and you give me a slave
+from your kitchen," and she scampered down the aisle, leaped
+to her horse and flitted out of the weird white gate. "A
+kitchen slave!" she sputtered as she flew. "Why didn't the
+king send me a knight that fights for love and glory?"</p>
+
+<p>Gareth in the meantime had strode to the side doorway of
+the royal hall where he saw a war-horse awaiting him, the gift
+of Arthur and worth half the price of a town. His two servants
+stood by with his shield and helmet and spear. Dropping his
+coarse kitchen cloak to the floor, he instantly harnessed himself
+in his armor, leaped to the back of his beautiful steed
+and flashed out of the gateway while all his kitchen mates
+threw up their caps and cried, "God bless the king and all his
+fellowship!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maiden, the quest is mine," he said to Lynette as he overtook
+her, "Lead and I follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Away with you!" she cried, nipping her slender nose.
+"You smell of kitchen grease. See there, your master is
+coming!"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed she told the truth, for Sir Kay, infuriated with Gareth's
+boldness in the king's hall was hounding after them. "Don't
+you know me?" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, too well," returned Gareth. "I know you to be the
+most ungentle knight in Arthur's court."</p>
+
+<p>"Have at me, then," cried Kay, whereupon Gareth pounced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+upon him with his gleaming lance and struck him instantly to
+the earth, then turned for Lynette and said again, "Lead and
+I follow."</p>
+
+<p>But Lynette had hurried her galloping palfrey away and
+would not stop the beast until his heart had nearly burst with
+its violent throbbing. Then she turned and eyed Gareth as
+scornfully as ever. As he pranced to her side she observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose scullion, that I think any more of you now
+that by some good luck you have overthrown your master.
+You dishwasher and water-carrier, you smell of the kitchen
+quite as much as before."</p>
+
+<p>"Maiden," Gareth rejoined gently, "Say what you will, but
+whatever you say, I will not leave this quest until it is ended
+or I have died for it."</p>
+
+<p>"O, my, how the knave talks! But you'll soon meet with
+another knave whom in spite of all the kitchen concoctions ever
+brewed, you'll not dare look in the face."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try him," answered Gareth with a smile that maddened
+Lynette. And away she darted again far into the strange
+avenues of the limitless woods.</p>
+
+<p>Gareth plunged on through the pine trees after her and a
+serving-man came breaking through the black forest crying
+out, "They've bound my master and are throwing him into
+the lake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lead and I follow," cried Gareth to Lynette, and she led,
+plunging into the pine trees until they came upon a hollow sinking
+away into a lake, where six tall men up to their thighs in
+reeds and bulrushes were dragging a seventh man with a stone
+about his neck toward the water to drown him.</p>
+
+<p>Gareth sprang upon three and stilled them with his doughty
+blows, but three scurried away through the trees; then Gareth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+loosened the stone from the gentleman and set him on his feet.
+He proved to be a baron and a friend of Arthur and asked
+Gareth what he could do to show his gratitude for the saving of
+his life. Gareth said he would like a night's shelter for the
+lady who was with him. So they rode over toward the graceful
+manor house where the baron lived, and as they rode he
+said to Gareth.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you are of the Table," meaning that Gareth was a
+Knight of the Round Table.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is of the table after his own fashion," Lynette
+laughed, "for he serves in Arthur's kitchen." And turning
+toward Gareth she added, "Do not imagine that I admire you
+the more for having routed these miserable cowardly foresters;
+any thresher with his flail could have done that."</p>
+
+<p>And when they were seated at the baron's table, Gareth by
+Lynette's side, she cried out to their host, "It seems dreadfully
+rude in you, Lord Baron, to place this knave beside me. Listen
+to me: I went to King Arthur's court to ask for Sir Lancelot
+to come to help my sister, and as I ended my plea, up bawls
+this kitchen boy: 'Mine's the quest.' And Arthur goes mad
+and sends me this fellow who was made to kill pigs and not
+redress the wrongs of women."</p>
+
+<p>So Gareth was seated at another table and the baron came
+to him and asked him whether it might not be better for him
+to relinquish his quest, but the lad replied that the king had
+given it to him and he would carry it through. The next
+morning he said again to proud Lynette, "Lead and I follow."</p>
+
+<p>But the maiden responded, "We are almost at the place
+where one of the knaves is stationed. Don't you want to go
+home? He will slay you and then I'll go back to Arthur and
+shame him for giving me a knight from his kitchen cinders."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Just let me fight," cried Gareth, "and I'll have as good luck
+as little Cinderella who married the prince."</p>
+
+<p>So they came to the first coil of the river and on the other
+side saw a rich white pavilion with a purple dome and a slender
+crimson flag fluttering above. The lawless Sir Morning-star
+paced up and down outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Damsel, is this the knight you've brought me?" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a knight, but a knave. The king scorned you so he
+sent some one from his kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>"Come Daughters of the Dawn and arm me!" cried Sir
+Morning-star, and three bare-footed, bare-headed maidens in
+pink and gold dresses brought him a blue coat of mail and a
+blue shield.</p>
+
+<p>"A kitchen knave in scorn of me!" roared the blue knight.
+"I won't fight him. Go home, knave! It isn't proper for you
+to be riding abroad with a lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Dog, you lie! I'm sprung from nobler lineage than you,"
+and saying this, Gareth sprang fiercely at his adversary who
+met him in the middle of the bridge. The two spears were
+hurled so harshly that both knights were thrown from their
+horses like two stones but up they leaped instantly. Gareth
+drew forth his sword and drove his enemy back down the
+bridge and laid him at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I yield," Sir Morning-star cried, "don't kill me."</p>
+
+<p>"Your life is in the hands of this lady," Gareth replied. "If
+she asks me to spare you I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Scullion!" Lynette cried, reddening with shame. "Do
+you suppose I will ask a favor of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then he dies," and Gareth was about to slay the wounded
+knight when Lynette screamed and told him he ought not to
+think of killing a man of nobler birth than himself. So Gareth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+said, "Knight, your life is spared at this lady's command.
+Go to King Arthur's court and tell him that his kitchen knave
+sent you, and crave his pardon for breaking his laws."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought the smells of the odors of the kitchen grew fainter
+while you were fighting on the bridge," Lynette remarked to
+Gareth as he took his place behind her and told her to lead,
+"but now they are as strong as ever."</p>
+
+<p>So they rode on until they arrived at the second loop of the
+river where the knight of the Noonday-Sun flared with his
+burning shield that blazed so violently that Gareth saw scarlet
+blots before his eyes as he turned away from it.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a kitchen knave from Arthur's hall who has overthrown
+your brother," Lynette called across the river to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh!" returned Sir Noonday-Sun, raising his visor to reveal
+his round foolish face like a cipher, and with that he pushed his
+horse into the foaming stream.</p>
+
+<p>Gareth met him midway and struck him four blows of his
+sword. As he was about to deal the fifth stroke the horse of
+the Noonday-Sun slipped and the stream washed his dazzling
+master away. Gareth plucked him out of the water and sent
+him back to King Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"Lead and I follow," he said to Lynette.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fancy," she rejoined, as she guided him toward the
+third passing of the river, "that I thought you bold or brave
+when you overcame Sir Noonday-Sun; he just slipped on the
+river-bed. Here we are at the third fool in the allegory, Sir
+Evening-star. You see he looks naked but he is only wrapped
+in hardened skins that fit him like his own. They will turn
+the blade of your sword."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," Gareth said, "the wind may turn again and
+the kitchen odors grow faint."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Lynette called to the Evening-star:</p>
+
+<p>"Both of your brothers have gone down before this youth
+and so will you. Aren't you old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old with the strength of twenty boys," said Sir Evening-star.</p>
+
+<p>"Old in boasting," Gareth cried, "but the same strength
+that slew your brothers can slay you."</p>
+
+<p>Then the Evening-star blew a deadly note upon his horn and
+a storm-beaten, russet, grizzly old woman came out and armed
+him in a quantity of dingy weapons. The two knights clashed
+together on the bridge and Gareth brought the Evening-star
+groveling in a minute to his feet on his knees. But the other
+vaulted up again so quickly that Gareth panted and half despaired
+of winning the victory.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lynette cried: "Well done, knave; you are as noble
+as any knight. Now do not shame me; I said you would win.
+Strike! strike! and the wind will change again."</p>
+
+<p>Gareth struck harder, he hewed great pieces of armor from the
+old knight, but clashed in vain with his sword against the hard
+skin, until at last he lashed the Evening-star's sword and broke
+it at the hilt. "I have you now!" he shouted, but the cowardly
+knight of the Evening-star writhed his arms about the lad
+till Gareth was almost strangled. Yet straining himself to the
+uttermost he finally <i>tossed his foe headlong over the side of the
+bridge</i> to sink or to swim as the waves allowed.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus042.jpg" width="300" height="418" alt="TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE." title="TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE." />
+<span class="caption">TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Lead and I follow," Gareth said to Lynette.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is lead no longer," the maiden replied. "Ride beside
+me the knightliest of all kitchen knaves. Sir I am ashamed
+that I have treated you so. Pardon me. I do wonder who
+you are, you knave."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not to blame for anything," Gareth said, "except<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+for your mistrusting of the king when he sent you some one
+to defend you. You said what you thought and I answered
+by my actions."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment he
+heard the hoofs of a horse
+clattering in the road behind
+him. "Stay!" cried
+a knight with a veiled
+shield, "I have come to
+avenge my friend, Sir
+Kay."</p>
+
+<p>Gareth turned, and in a
+thrice had closed in upon
+the stranger, but when he
+felt the touch of the
+stranger knight's magical
+spear, which was the wonder
+of the world he fell to
+the earth. As he felt the
+grass in his hands he burst
+into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you laugh?"
+asked Lynette.</p>
+
+<p>"Because here am I, the son of old King Lot and good Queen
+Bellicent, the victor of the three bridges, and a knight of Arthur's
+thrown by no one knows whom."</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to help you and not harm you," said the
+strange knight, revealing himself. It was Lancelot, whom
+King Arthur had sent to keep a guardian eye upon young
+Gareth in this his first quest, to prevent him from being killed
+or taken away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And why did you refuse to come when I wanted you, and
+now come just in time to shame my poor defender just when
+I was beginning to feel proud of him?" asked Lynette.</p>
+
+<p>"But he isn't shamed," Lancelot answered. "What knight
+is not overthrown sometimes? By being defeated we learn
+to overcome, so hail Prince and Knight of our Round Table!"
+"You did well Gareth, only you and your horse were a little
+weary."</p>
+
+<p>Lynette led them into a glen and a cave where they found
+pleasant drinks and meat, and where Gareth fell asleep.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus043.jpg" width="400" height="341" alt="SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER." title="SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER." />
+<span class="caption">SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You have good reason to feel sleepy," cried Lynette.
+"Sleep soundly and wake strong." <i>And she tended him as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+gently as a mother</i>, and watched over him carefully as he slept.</p>
+
+<p>When Gareth woke Lancelot gave him his own horse and
+shield to use in fighting the last awful outlaw, but as they drew
+near Lynette clutched at the shield and pleaded with him:
+"Give it back to Lancelot," said she. "O curse my tongue
+that was reviling you so today. He must do the fighting now.
+You have done wonders, but you cannot do miracles. You
+have thrown three men today and that is glory enough. You
+will get all maimed and mangled if you go on now when you
+are tired. There, I vow you must not try the fourth."</p>
+
+<p>But Gareth told her that her sharp words during the day
+had just spurred him on to do his best and he said he must
+not now leave his quest until he had finished. So Lancelot
+advised him how best to manage his horse and his lance, his
+sword and his shield when meeting a foe that was stouter than
+himself, winning with fineness and skill where he lacked in
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>But Gareth replied that he knew but one rule in fighting and
+that was to dash against his foe and overcome him.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven help you," cried Lynette, and she made her palfrey
+halt. "There!" They were facing the camp of the Knight
+of Death.</p>
+
+<p>There was a huge black pavilion, a black banner and a black
+horn. Gareth blew the horn and heard hollow tramplings to
+and fro and muffled voices. Then on a night-black horse, in
+night-black arms rode forth the dread warrior. A white
+breast-bone showed in front. He spoke not a word which
+made him the more fearful.</p>
+
+<p>"Fool!" shouted Gareth sturdily. "People say that you
+have the strength of ten men; can't you trust to it without
+depending on these toggeries and tricks?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the Knight of Death said nothing. Lady Lyonors at
+her castle window wept, and one of her maids fainted away,
+and Gareth felt his head prickling beneath his helmet and
+Lancelot felt his blood turning cold. Every one stood aghast.</p>
+
+<p>Then the chargers bounded forward and Gareth struck
+Death to the ground. Drawing out his sword he split apart
+the vast skull; one half of it fell to the right and one half to the
+left. Then he was about to strike at the helmet when out of it
+peeped the face of a blooming young boy, as fresh as a flower.</p>
+
+<p>"O Knight!" cried the laddie. "Do not kill me. My three
+brothers made me do it to make a horror all about the castle.
+They never dreamed that anyone could pass the bridges."</p>
+
+<p>Then Lady Lyonors with all her house had a great party of
+dancing and revelry and song and making merry because the
+hideous Knight of Death that had terrified them so was only
+a pretty little boy. And there was mirth over Gareth's victorious
+quest.</p>
+
+<p>And some people say that Gareth married Lynette, but
+others who tell the story later say he wedded with Lyonors.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="THE_MARRIAGE_OF_GERAINT" id="THE_MARRIAGE_OF_GERAINT"></a>THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>King Arthur had come to the old city of Caerleon on the
+River Usk to hold his court, and was sitting high in his royal
+hall when a woodman, all bedraggled with the mists of the
+forests came tripping up in haste before his throne.</p>
+
+<p>"O noble King," he cried, "today I saw a wonderful deer,
+a hart all milky white running through among the trees, and,
+nothing like it has ever been seen here before."</p>
+
+<p>The king, who loved the chase, was very pleased and immediately
+gave orders that the royal horns should be blown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+for all the court to go a hunting after the beautiful white deer
+the following morning. Queen Guinevere wished to go with
+them to watch the hounds and huntsmen and dancing horses
+in the chase. She slept late, however, the next day with her
+pleasant dreams, and Arthur with his Knights of the Round
+Table had sped gloriously away on their snorting chargers
+when she arose, called one of her maids to come with her,
+mounted her palfrey and forded the River Usk to pass over by
+the forest.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus046.jpg" width="400" height="465" alt="A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS THRONE." title="A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS THRONE." />
+<span class="caption">A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS THRONE.</span>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There they climbed up on a little knoll and stood listening
+for the hounds, but instead of the barking of the king's dogs
+they heard the sound of a horse's hoofs trampling behind them.
+It was Prince Geraint's charger as he flashed over the shallow
+ford of the river, then galloped up the banks of the knoll to her
+side. He carried not a single weapon except his golden-hilted
+sword and wore, not his hunting-dress, but gay holiday silks
+with a purple scarf about him swinging an apple of gold at
+either end and glancing like a dragon-fly. He bowed low to
+the sweet, stately queen.</p>
+
+<p>"You're late, very late, Sir Prince," said she, "later even
+than we."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, noble queen," replied Geraint, "I'm so late that
+I'm not going to the hunt; I've come like you just to watch
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then stay with me," the queen said, "for here on this little
+knoll, if anywhere, you will have a good chance to see the
+hounds, often they dash by at its very feet."</p>
+
+<p>So Geraint stood by the queen, thinking he would catch
+particularly the baying of Cavall, Arthur's loudest dog, which
+would tell him that the hunters were coming. As they waited
+however, along the base of the knoll, came a knight, a lady
+and a dwarf riding slowly by on their horses. The knight
+wore his visor up showing his imperious and very haughty
+young face. The dwarf lagged behind.</p>
+
+<p>"That knight doesn't belong to the Round Table, does he?"
+asked the queen. "I don't know him."</p>
+
+<p>"No, nor I," replied Geraint.</p>
+
+<p>So the queen sent her maid over to the dwarf to find out
+the name of his master. But the dwarf was old and crotchety
+and would not tell her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll ask your master himself," cried the maid.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, you shall not!" cried the dwarf, "you are not
+fit even to speak of him," and as the girl turned her horse to
+approach the proud young knight, the misshapen little dwarf
+of a servant struck at her with his whip, and she came scampering
+back indignantly to the queen.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus048.jpg" width="400" height="409" alt="HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE&#39;S CHEEK." title="HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE&#39;S CHEEK." />
+<span class="caption">HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE&#39;S CHEEK.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I'll learn his name for you," Geraint exclaimed, and he
+rode off sharply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the impudent dwarf answered just as before and when
+Prince Geraint moved on toward his master he struck out his
+whip and cut the prince's cheek so that the blood streamed
+upon the purple scarf dyeing it red. Instantly Geraint reached
+for the hilt of his sword to strike down the vicious little midget
+but then remembering that he was a prince and disdaining to
+fight with a dwarf, he did not even say a word, but cantered
+back to Queen Guinevere's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Noble Queen," he cried fiercely. "I am going to avenge
+this insult that has been done you. I'll track these vermin to
+the earth. For even although I am riding unarmed just now,
+as we go along I will come to some place where I can borrow
+weapons or hire them. And then when I have my man I'll
+fight him, and on the third day from today I'll be back again
+unless I die in the fight. So good-bye, farewell."</p>
+
+<p>"Farewell, handsome prince," the queen answered. "Good
+fortune in your quest and may you live to marry your first love
+whoever that may be. But whether she will be a princess or a
+beggar from the hedgerows, before you wed with her bring her
+back to me and I will robe her for her wedding day."</p>
+
+<p>Prince Geraint bowed and with that he was off. One minute
+he thought he heard the noble milk-white deer brought to bay
+by the dogs, the next he thought he heard the hunter's horn
+far away and felt a little vexed to think he must be following
+this stupid dwarf while all the others were at the chase. But
+he had determined to avenge the queen and up and down the
+grassy glades and valleys pursued the three enemies until at
+last at sundown they emerged from the forest, climbed up
+on the ridge of a hill where they looked like shadows against
+the dark sky, then sank again on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Below on the other side of the ridge ran the long street of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+clamoring little town in a long valley, on one side a new white
+fortress and on the other, across a ravine and a bridge, a fallen
+old castle in decay. The knight, the lady and the dwarf rode
+on to the white fortress, then vanished within its walls.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" cried Geraint, "now I have him! I have tracked
+him to his hole, and tomorrow when I'm rested I'll fight him."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned wearily down the long street of the noisy
+village to look for his night's lodging, but he found every inn
+and tavern crowded, and everywhere horses in the stables
+were being shod and young fellows were busy burnishing their
+master's armor.</p>
+
+<p>"What does all this hubbub mean?" asked Geraint of one of
+these youths.</p>
+
+<p>The lad did not stop his work one instant, but went on
+scouring and replied, "It's the sparrow-hawk."</p>
+
+<p>As Prince Geraint did not know what was meant by the
+sparrow-hawk he trotted a little farther along the street until
+he came to a quiet old man trudging by with a sack of corn
+on his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Why is your town so noisy and busy to-night, good old
+fellow?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! the sparrow-hawk!" the old fellow said gruffly.</p>
+
+<p>So the prince rode his horse yet a little farther until he saw
+an armor-maker's shop. The armor-maker sat inside with his
+back turned, all doubled over a helmet which he was riveting
+together upon his knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Armorer," cried Geraint, "what is going on? Why is there
+such a din?"</p>
+
+<p>The man did not pause in his riveting even to turn about and
+face the stranger, but said quickly as if to finish speaking as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+rapidly as he could, "Friend, the people who are working for
+the sparrow-hawk have no time for idle questions."</p>
+
+<p>At this Geraint flashed up angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"A fig for your sparrow-hawk! I wish all the bits of birds
+of the air would peck him dead. You imagine that this little
+cackle in your baby town is all the noise and murmur of the
+great world. What do I care about it? It is nothing to me.
+Listen to me, now, if you are not gone hawk-mad like the rest,
+where can I get a lodging for the night, and more than that,
+where can I get some arms, arms, arms, to fight my enemy?
+Tell me."</p>
+
+<p>The hurrying armor-maker looked about in amazement to see
+this gorgeous cavalier in purple silks standing before his bit of
+a shop.</p>
+
+<p>"O pardon me, stranger knight," said he very politely. "We
+are holding a great tournament here tomorrow morning and
+there is hardly any time to do one-half the work that has to be
+finished before then. Arms, did you say? Indeed I cannot
+tell you where to get any; all that there are in this town are
+needed for to-morrow in the lists. And as for lodging, I don't
+know unless perhaps at Earl Yniol's in the old castle across
+the bridge." Then he again picked up his helmet and turned
+his back to the prince.</p>
+
+<p>So Geraint, still a wee mite vexed, rode over the bridge that
+spanned the ravine, to go to the ruined castle. There upon the
+farther side sat the hoary-headed Earl Yniol, dressed in some
+magnificent shabby old clothes which had been fit for a king's
+parties when they were new.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, son?" he queried of Geraint, waking
+from his reveries and dreaminess.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O friend, I'm looking for some shelter for the night," Geraint
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in then," Yniol said, "and accept of my hospitality.
+Our house was rich once and now it is poor, but it always keeps
+its door open to the stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, anything will do for me," cried Geraint. "If only
+you won't serve me sparrow-hawks for my supper I'll eat with
+all the passion of a whole day's fast."</p>
+
+<p>The old earl smiled and sighed as he rejoined, "I have more
+serious reason than you to curse this sparrow-hawk. But go
+in and we will not have a word about him even jokingly unless
+you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Geraint passed into the desolate castle court,
+where the stones of the pavement were all broken and overgrown
+with wild plants, and the turrets and walls were shattered.
+As he stood awaiting the Earl Yniol, the voice of a young girl
+singing like a nightingale rang out from one of the open castle
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>It was the voice of Enid, Earl Yniol's daughter as she sang
+the song of Fortune and her Wheel:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Turn, Fortune, thy wheel with smile or frown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With that wild wheel we go not up or down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"The song of that little bird describes the nest she lives
+in," cried Earl Yniol approaching. "Enter."</p>
+
+<p>Geraint alighted from his charger and stepped within the
+large dusky cobwebbed hall, where an aged lady sat, with Enid
+moving about her, like a little flower in a wilted sheath of a
+faded silk gown.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Enid, the good knight's horse is standing in the court,"
+cried the earl. "Take him to the stall and give him some corn,
+then go to town and buy us some meat and wine."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus053.jpg" width="400" height="571" alt="GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL." title="GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL." />
+<span class="caption">GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Geraint wished that he might do this servant's work instead
+of this pretty young lady, but as he started to follow her the
+old gray earl stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"We're old and poor," he said, "but not so poor and old as
+to let our guests wait upon themselves."</p>
+
+<p>So Enid fetched the wine and the meat and the cakes and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+bread; and she served at the table while her mother, father
+and Geraint sat around. Geraint wished that he might stoop
+to kiss her tender little thumb as it held the platter when she
+laid it down.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus054.jpg" width="400" height="528" alt="ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES." title="ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES." />
+<span class="caption">ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Fair host and Earl," he said after his refreshing supper,
+"who is this sparrow-hawk that everybody in the town is
+talking about? And yet I do not wish you to give me his
+name, for perhaps he is the knight I saw riding into the new
+fortress the other side of the bridge at the other end of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+the town. His name I am going to have from his own lips,
+for I am Geraint of Devon. This morning when the queen
+sent her maid to find out his name he struck at the girl with
+his whip, and I've sworn vengeance for such a great insult
+done our queen, and have followed him to his hold, and as
+soon as I can get arms I will fight him."</p>
+
+<p>"And are you the renowned Geraint?" cried Earl Yniol
+beaming. "Well, as soon as I saw you coming toward me on
+the bridge I knew that you were no ordinary man. By the
+state and presence of your bearing I might have guessed
+you to be one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table at
+Camelot. Pray do not suppose that I am flattering you
+foolishly. This dear child of mine has often heard me telling
+glorious stories of all the famous things you have done for the
+king and the people. And she has asked me to repeat them
+again and again.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor thing, there never has lived a woman with such
+miserable lovers as she has had. The first was Limours, who
+did nothing but drink and brawl, even when he was making
+love to her. And the second was the 'sparrow-hawk,' my
+nephew, my curse. I will not let his name slip from me if
+I can help it. When I told him that he could not marry
+my daughter he spread a false rumour all round here among
+the people that his father had left him a great sum of money
+in my keeping and that I had never passed it over to him
+but had retained it for myself. He bribed all my servants with
+large promises and stirred up this whole little old town of
+mine against me, my own town. That was the night of
+Enid's birthday nearly three years ago. They sacked my
+house, ousted me from my earldom, threw us into this dilapidated,
+dingy old place and built up that grand new white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+fort. He would kill me if he did not despise me too much
+to do so; and sometimes I believe I despise myself for letting
+him have his way. I scarcely know whether I am very wise
+or very silly, very manly or very base to suffer it all so patiently."</p>
+
+<p>"Well said," cried Geraint eagerly. "But the arms, the
+arms, where can I get arms for myself? Then if the sparrow-hawk
+will fight tomorrow in the tourney I may be able
+to bring down his terrible pride a little."</p>
+
+<p>"I have arms," said Yniol, "although they are old and
+rusty, Prince Geraint, and you would be welcome to have
+them for the asking. But in this tournament of tomorrow
+no knight is allowed to tilt unless the lady he loves best come
+there too. The forks are fastened into the meadow ground
+and over them is placed a silver wand, above that a golden
+sparrow-hawk, the prize of beauty for the fairest woman
+there. And whoever wins in the tourney presents this to the
+lady-love whom he has brought with him. Since my nephew
+is a man of very large bone and is clever with his lance he
+has always won it for his lady. That is how he has earned
+his title of sparrow-hawk. But you have no lady so you will
+not be able to fight."</p>
+
+<p>Then Geraint leaned forward toward the earl.</p>
+
+<p>"With your leave, noble Earl Yniol," he replied, "I will
+do battle for your daughter. For although I have seen all
+the beauties of the day never have I come upon anything so
+wonderfully lovely as she. If it should happen that I prove
+victor, as true as heaven, I will make her my wife!"</p>
+
+<p>Yniol's heart danced in his bosom for joy, and he turned
+about for Enid, but she had fluttered away as soon as her name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+had been mentioned, so he tenderly grasped the hands of her
+mother in his own and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, young girls are shy little things and best understood
+by their own mothers. Before you go to rest to night,
+find out what Enid will think about this."</p>
+
+<p>So the earl's wife passed out to speak with Enid, and Enid
+became so glad and excited that she could not sleep the entire
+happy night long. But very early the next morning, as soon
+as the pale sky began to redden with the sun she arose, then
+called her mother, and hand in hand, tripped over with her to
+the place of the tournament. There they awaited for Yniol
+and Geraint. Geraint came wearing the Earl's rusty, worn
+old arms, yet in spite of them looked stately and princely.</p>
+
+<p>Many other knights in blazing armor gathered there for
+the jousts, with many fine ladies, and by and by the whole
+town full of people flooded in, settling in a circle around the
+lists. Then the two forks were fixed into the earth, above
+them a wand of silver was laid, and over it the golden sparrow-hawk.
+The trumpet was blown and Yniol's nephew
+rose and spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Come forward, my lady," he cried to the maiden who had
+come with him. "Fairest of the fair, take the prize of beauty
+which I have won for you during the past two years."</p>
+
+<p>"Stay!" Prince Geraint cried loudly. "There is a worthier
+beauty here."</p>
+
+<p>The earl's nephew looked round with surprise and disdain
+to see his uncle's family and the prince.</p>
+
+<p>"Do battle for it then," he shouted angrily.</p>
+
+<p>Geraint sprang forward and the tourney was begun. Three
+times the two warriors clashed together. <i>Three times they
+broke their spears.</i> Then both were thrown from their horses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+They now drew their swords; and with them lashed at one
+another so frequently and with such dreadfully hard strokes
+that all the crowd wondered. Now and again from the distant
+walls came the sounds of applause, like the clapping of
+phantom hands. The perspiration and the blood flowed
+together down the strong bodies of the combatants. Each
+was as sturdy as the other.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img class="bbox" src="images/illus058.jpg" width="500" height="691" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Remember the great insult done our queen!" Earl Yniol
+cried at last.</p>
+
+<p>This so inflamed Geraint that he heaved his vast sword-blade
+aloft, cracked through his enemy's helmet, bit into
+the bone of his head, felled the haughty knight, and set his
+feet upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name!" demanded Geraint.</p>
+
+<p>"Edryn, the son of Nudd," groaned the fallen warrior.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then Edryn, the son of Nudd," returned Geraint,
+"you must do these two things or else you will have to die.
+First, you with your lady and your dwarf must ride to Arthur's
+court at Caerleon and crave their pardon for the insult you
+did the queen yesterday morning, and you must bide her
+decree in the punishment she awards you. Secondly, you
+must give back the earldom to your uncle the Earl of Yniol.
+You will do these two things or you die."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do them," cried Edryn. "For never before was I
+ever overcome. But now all of my pride is broken down,
+for Enid has seen me fall."</p>
+
+<p>With that Edryn rose from the ground like a man, took his
+lady and the dwarf on their horses to Arthur's court. There
+receiving the sweet forgiveness of the queen, he became a
+true knight of the Round Table, and at the last died in battle
+while he fought for his king.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Geraint when the tourney was over and he had come
+back to the castle, drew Enid aside to tell her that early the
+next morning he would have to start for Caerleon and that
+she should be ready to ride away with him to be married at the
+court with tremendous pomp. For that would be three days
+after the King's chase, when the prince had promised Queen
+Guinevere he would be back. But of that he did not speak
+to Enid, who wondered why he was so bent on returning immediately,
+and why she could not have time at home to prepare
+herself some pretty robes to wear.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine, she thought, such a grand and frightful thing as a
+court, the queen's court, with all the graceful ladies staring at
+her in that faded old silk dress! And although she promised
+Geraint that she would go as he wished, when she woke to
+the dread day for making her appearance at court, she still
+yearned that he would only stay yet a little while so that
+she could sew herself some clothes, that she had the flowered
+silk which her mother had given her three years ago for her
+birthday and which Edryn's men had robbed from her when
+they sacked the house and scattered everything she ever
+owned to all the winds. How she wished that handsome
+Geraint had known her then, those three years ago when she
+wore so many pretty dresses and jewels!</p>
+
+<p>But while she lay dreamily thinking, softly in trod her
+mother bearing on her arm a gorgeous, delicate robe.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recognize it, child?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>It was that self-same birthday dress, three years old, but
+as beautiful as new and never worn.</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday after the jousts your father went through all the
+town from house to house and ordered that all sack and plunder
+which the men had taken from us should be brought back, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+he was again to be in his earldom. So last evening while you
+were talking with the prince some one came up from the
+town and placed this in my
+hands. I did not tell you about
+it then for I wished to keep it as
+a sweet surprise for you this
+morning. And it is a sweet surprise,
+isn't it? For although the
+prince yesterday did say that you
+were the fairest of the fair there
+is no handsome girl in the world
+but looks handsomer in new
+clothes than in old. And it
+would have been a shame for you
+to go to the court in your poor
+old faded silk which you have
+worn so long and so patiently.
+The great ladies there might say
+that Prince Geraint had plucked
+up some ragged robin from the hedges."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus061.jpg" width="300" height="435" alt="BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE." title="BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE." />
+<span class="caption">BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So Enid was put into the fine flowered robe.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother said that after she had gone to the queen's
+court, she, the poor old mother at home, who was too feeble
+to journey so far with her daughter, would think over and
+over again of her pretty princess at Camelot. And the old
+gray Earl Yniol went in to tell Geraint of Enid's fanciful
+apparel.</p>
+
+<p>But Geraint was not delighted with the magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>"Say to her," he answered the earl, "that by all my love
+for her, although I give her no other reason, I entreat Enid
+to wear that faded old silk dress of hers and no other."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This amazing and hard message from Geraint made poor
+little Enid's face fall like a meadowful of corn blasted by a
+rainstorm. Still she willingly laid aside her gold finery for
+his sake, slipped into the faded silk, and pattered down the
+steps to meet Geraint. He scanned her so eagerly from her tip
+to her toe that both her rosy cheeks burned like flames. Then
+as he noted her mother's clouded face he said very kindly:</p>
+
+<p>"My new mother don't be very angry, or grieved with your
+new son because of what I have just asked Enid to do. I had
+a very good reason for it and I will explain it all to you. The
+other day when I left the queen at Caerleon to avenge the
+insult done her by Edryn, the son of Nudd, she made me two
+wishes. The one was that I should be successful with my
+quest and the other was that I should wed with my first love.
+Then she promised that whoever my bride should be she herself
+with her own royal hands would dress her for her wedding
+day, splendidly, like the very sun in the skies. So when I
+found this lovely Enid of yours in her shabby clothes I vowed
+that the queen's hands only should array her in handsome
+new robes that befitted her grace and beauty. But never
+mind, dear mother, some day you will come to see Enid and
+then she will wear the golden, flowered birthday dress which
+you gave her three years ago."</p>
+
+<p>Then the earl's wife smiled through her tears, wrapped
+Enid in a mantle, kissed her gentle farewells, and in a moment
+saw her riding far, far away beside Geraint.</p>
+
+<p>The queen Guinevere that day had three times climbed the
+royal tower at Caerleon to look far into the valley for some
+sign of Geraint, who had promised to be back that day, if he
+did not fall in battle, and who would certainly come now,
+since Edryn had been vanquished and had come to the court.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+At last when evening had fallen she spied the prince's charger
+pacing nobly along the road, and Enid's palfrey at his side.
+Instantly Queen Guinevere sped down from the small window
+in the high turret, tripped out to the gate to greet him and
+embrace the lovely Enid as a long-loved friend.</p>
+
+<p>The old City of Caerleon was gay for one whole week, over
+the wedding week of Geraint and Enid. The queen herself
+dressed Enid for her marriage like the very sunlight, Dubric,
+the highest saint of the church, married them, and they
+lived for nearly a year at the court with Arthur and sweet
+Guinevere.</p>
+
+<p>And so the insult done the queen was avenged, and her two
+wishes were fulfilled. For Geraint overcame his enemy and
+wedded with his first-love, dressed for her marriage by the
+queen.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="GERAINTS_QUEST_OF_HONOR" id="GERAINTS_QUEST_OF_HONOR"></a>GERAINT'S QUEST OF HONOR.</h2>
+
+<p>One morning Prince Geraint went into Arthur's hall and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"O King, my princedom is in danger. It lies close to the
+territory which is infested with bandits, earls and caitiff
+knights, assassins and all sorts of outlaws. Give me your
+kind good leave and I will go there to defend my lands."</p>
+
+<p>The king said the prince might go, and sent fifty armed
+knights to protect him and pretty Enid as they traveled away
+on their horses across the Severn River into their own country,
+the Land of Devon.</p>
+
+<p>After Geraint had come into Devon he forgot what he had
+said to the king of ridding his princedom of outlawry, he forgot
+the chase where he had always been so clever in tracking his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+game, forgot the tournament where he had won victory after
+victory, forgot all his former glory and his name, forgot his
+lands and their cares, forgot everything he ever did, and did
+nothing at all but lie about at home and talk with Enid.
+At last all his people began to gossip about their fine prince
+who once had been illustrious everywhere and now had become
+an idle stay-at-home who spent his time in making
+love to his wife.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus064.jpg" width="400" height="572" alt="ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER." title="ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER." />
+<span class="caption">ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Enid heard of the tattling about Geraint from her hair-dresser,
+and one morning as he lay abed, she went over it all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+to herself, talking aloud. She wished, that he would not
+abandon all his knightly pursuits but would hunt and fight
+again and add to his lustre. She felt very bashful about mentioning
+the matter to him as she was very shy by nature and
+lived in a time when wives were altogether over-ruled by
+their husbands, yet to say nothing she thought would not be
+showing herself a true wife to Geraint. All this and more
+Enid went over to herself.</p>
+
+<p>The drowsy prince, half awake, just half heard her and
+quite misunderstood her meaning. When she said that in
+keeping quiet about the gossip she was not a true wife to him
+he supposed she meant that she no longer cared for him, that
+he was not a handsome and strong enough man to suit her.
+This grieved him deeply and made him very angry with her,
+for Geraint had really given up all the glory of the king's
+court just to be alone with Enid, although no one knew it.
+And the thought that now she looked down upon him infuriated
+all his heart. A word would have made everything right
+but he didn't say it.</p>
+
+<p>Springing up quickly from his bed he roused his squire and
+said, "Get ready our horses, my charger and the princess'
+palfrey. And you," turning a frowning face to the princess,
+"put on the worst looking, meanest, poorest dress you have
+and come away with me. We are going on a quest of honor
+and then you will see what sort of soldier I am."</p>
+
+<p>Enid wondered why her lord was so vexed with her and replied,
+"If I have displeased you surely you will tell me why."</p>
+
+<p>But Geraint would not say; he could not bear to speak of it.
+So Enid hurried after her poor old faded silk gown with the
+summer flowers among its folds, which she had worn to ride
+from her old home to Caerleon, and hastily dressed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do not ride at my side," Geraint said as they both mounted
+their horses to start away. "Ride ahead of me, a good way
+ahead of me, and no matter what may happen, do not speak
+a word to me, no not a word."</p>
+
+<p>Enid listened, wondering what had come over her lord.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he cried as they were off, "we will make our way
+along with our iron weapons, not with gold money." So
+saying, he loosed the great purse which dangled from his
+belt and tossed it back to his squire who stood on the marble
+threshold of the doorway where the golden coins flashed and
+clattered as they scattered every which-way over the floor.
+"Now then, Enid, to the wild woods!"</p>
+
+<p>At that they made for the swampy, desolated forest lands
+that were famous for their perilous paths and their bandits,
+Enid with a white face going before, Geraint coming gloomily
+nearly a quarter of a mile after.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was only half begun when the white princess
+became aware that behind a rock hiding in the shadow stood
+three tall knights on horseback, armed from tip to toe, bandit
+outlaws lying in wait to fall upon whoever should pass. She
+heard one saying to his comrades as he pointed toward
+Geraint:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here comes some lazy-bones who seems just about as
+bold as a dog who has had the worst of it in a fight. Come,
+we will kill him, and then we will take his horse and armor and
+his lady."</p>
+
+<p>Enid thought, "I'll go back a little way to Geraint and tell
+him about these ruffians, for even if it will madden him I should
+rather have him kill me than to have him fall into their hands."</p>
+
+<p>She guided her palfrey backward and bravely met the frowning
+face which greeted her, saying timidly:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My lord, there are three bandit knights behind a rock a
+little way beyond us who are boasting that they will slay you
+and steal your horse and armor and make me their captive."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I tell you," cried Geraint angrily, "that you should
+warn me of any danger. There was only one thing which I
+told you to do and that was to keep quiet; and this is the way
+you have heeded me! a pretty way! But win or lose, you shall
+see by these fellows that my vigor is not lost."</p>
+
+<p>Then Enid stood back as the three outlaws flashed out of
+their ambush and bore down upon the prince.</p>
+
+<p>Geraint aimed first for the middle one, driving his long spear
+into the bandit's breast and out on the other side. The two
+others in the meanwhile had dashed upon him with their
+lances, but they had broken on his magnificent armor like so
+many icicles. He now turned upon them with his broadsword,
+swinging it first to the right and then to the left, first stunning
+them with his blows, then slaying them outright. And when
+all three had fallen he dismounted, and like a hunter skinning
+the wild beasts he has shot, he stripped the three robber
+knights of their gay suits of armor, and leaving the bodies lie,
+bound each man's sword, spear and coat of arms to his horse,
+tied the three bridle reins of the three empty horses together
+and cried to Enid.</p>
+
+<p>"Drive these on before you."</p>
+
+<p>Enid drove them on across the wastelands, Geraint following
+after. As she passed into the first shallow shade of the
+forest she described three more horsemen partly hidden in the
+gloom of three sturdy oak-trees. All were armed and one was
+a veritable giant, so tall and bulky, towering above his companions.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img class="bbox" src="images/illus068.jpg" width="500" height="693" alt="THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE." title="THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE." />
+<span class="caption">THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"See there, a prize!" bellowed the giant and set Enid's pulses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+in a quiver. "Three horses and three suits of armor, and all
+in charge of&mdash;whom? A girl! Isn't that simple? Lay on,
+my men!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," cried the second, "behind is coming a knight. A
+coward and a fool, for see how he hangs his head."</p>
+
+<p>The giant thundered back gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? Only one? Wait here and as he goes by make for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go no farther until Geraint comes," Enid said to herself
+stopping her horse. "And then I will tell him about
+these villains. He must be so weary with his other fight and
+they will fall upon him unawares. I shall have to disobey him
+again for his own sake. How could I dare to obey him and
+let him be harmed? I must speak; if he kills me for it I shall
+only have lost my own life to save a life that is dearer to me
+than my own."</p>
+
+<p>So she waited until the prince approached when she said
+with a timid firmness, "Have I your leave to speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"You take it without asking when you speak," he replied,
+and she continued:</p>
+
+<p>"There are three men lurking in the woods behind some oaks
+and one of them is larger than you, a perfect giant. He told
+them to attack you as you passed by them."</p>
+
+<p>"If there were a hundred men in the wood and each of them
+a giant and if they all made for me together I vow it would not
+anger me so as to have you disobey me. Stand aside while
+we do battle and when we are done stand by the victor."</p>
+
+<p>At this, while Enid fell back breathing short fits of prayer
+but not daring to watch, Geraint proceeded to meet his assailants.
+The giant was the first to dash out for him aiming his
+lance at Geraint's helmet, but the lance missed and went to one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+side. Geraint's spear had been a little strained with his
+first encounter, but it struck through the bulky giant's corselet
+and pierced his breast, then broke, one-half of it still fast
+in the flesh as the giant knight fell to the earth. The other two
+bandits now felt that their support and hero was gone, and
+when Geraint darted rapidly on them, uttering his terrible
+warcry as if there were a thousand men behind him to come
+to his aid, they flew into the woods. But they were soon
+overtaken and pitilessly put to death. Then Geraint, selecting
+the best lance, the brightest and strongest among their spears
+to replace the one he had broken on the giant, he plucked off
+the gaudy armor from each brigand's body, laid it on the backs
+of the three horses, tied the bridle reins together and handed
+them to Enid with the words, "Drive them on before you."</p>
+
+<p>So Enid now followed the wild paths of the gloomy forest
+with two sets of three horses, each horse laden with his master's
+jingling weapons and coat of mail. Geraint came after. As
+they passed out of the wood into the open sky they came to a
+little town with towers upon a rocky hill, and beneath it a wide
+meadowland with mowers in it, mowing the hay. Down a
+stony pathway from the town skipped a fair-haired lad carrying
+a basket of lunch for the laborers in the field.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend!" cried Geraint, as the lad trotted past him, for he
+saw that Enid looked very white, "let my lady have something
+to eat. She is so faint."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly," the youth answered, "and you too, my lord,
+even although this feed is very coarse and only fit for the
+mowers."</p>
+
+<p>He set down his basket and Enid and Geraint alighted and
+put all the horses to graze, while they sat down on the green
+sward to have some bread and barley. Enid felt too faint at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+heart, thinking of the prince's strange conduct, to care a great
+deal for food, but Geraint was hungry enough and had all the
+mowers' basket emptied almost before he knew it.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy," he cried half-ashamed, "everything is gone, which
+is a disgrace. But take one of my horses and his arms by way
+of payment, choose the very best."</p>
+
+<p>The poor lad, who might as well have had a kingdom given
+him, reddened with his extreme surprise and delight.</p>
+
+<p>"My lord, you are over-paying me fifty times," he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be all the wealthier then," returned the prince,
+gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it as free gift, then," the lad answered. "The
+food is not worth much. While your lady is resting here I can
+easily go back and fetch more, some more for the earl's mowers.
+For all these mowers belong to our great earl, and all
+these fields are his, and I am his, too. I'll tell him what a
+fine man you are, and he will have you to his palace and serve
+you with costly dinners."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish no better fare than I have had," Geraint said, "I
+never ate better in my life than just now when I left your
+poor mowers dinnerless. And I will go into no earl's palace.
+If he desires to see me, let him come to me. Now you go hire
+us some pleasant room in the town, stall our horses and when
+you return with the food for these men tell us about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my kind lord," the glad youth cried, and he held his
+head high and thought he was a gorgeous knight off to the
+wars as he disappeared up the rocky path leading his handsome
+horse.</p>
+
+<p>The prince turned himself sleepily to watch the lusty
+mowers laboring under the sun as it blazed on their scythes,
+while Enid plucked the long grass by the meadows' edge to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+weave it round and round her wedding ring, until the boy returned
+and showed them the room he had got in the town.</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish anything, call the woman of the house,"
+Prince Geraint said to Enid as the door closed behind them.
+"Do not speak to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord," returned Enid, still marvelling at his cold
+ways.</p>
+
+<p>Silently they sat down, she at one end, he at the other, as
+quiet as pictures. But suddenly a mass of voices sounded up
+the street, and heel after heel echoing upon the pavement.
+In a twinkling the door to their room was pushed back to the
+wall while a mob of boisterous young gentlemen tumbled in
+led by the Earl of Limours, the wild lord of the town, and
+Enid's old suitor whom her father had rejected long ago, a
+man as beautiful as a woman and very graceful. He seized
+the prince's hand warmly, welcomed him to the town and
+stealthily, out of the corner of his eye, caught a glimpse of
+unhappy Enid nestled all alone at the farther end of the room.</p>
+
+<p>The prince immediately sent for every sort of delicious
+things to eat and drink from the town, told the earl, to bid
+all his friends for a feast and soon was gaily making merry
+with the men, drinking, laughing, joking.</p>
+
+<p>"May I have your leave, my lord," cried Earl Limours, "to
+cross the room and speak a word with your lady who seems
+so lonely?"</p>
+
+<p>"My free leave," cried the merry Prince Geraint, who did
+not know the earl, "Get her to speak with you; she has nothing
+to say to me."</p>
+
+<p>As Limours stepped to Enid's side he lifted his eyes adoringly,
+bowed at her side and said in a whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Enid, you pilot star of my life, I see that Geraint is very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+unkind to you and loves you no longer. What a laughing
+stock he is making of you with that wretched old dress you
+have on! But I, I love you still as always. Just say the word
+and I will have him put into the keep and you will come with
+me. I will be kind to you forever."</p>
+
+<p>The tears fluttered into the earl's eyes as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Earl," replied Enid, "if you love me as you used to do in
+the years long ago, and are not joking now, come in the morning
+and take me by force from the prince. But leave me tonight.
+I am wearied to death."</p>
+
+<p>So the earl made a low bow, brandishing his plumes until
+they brushed his very insteps, while the stout prince bade
+him a loud good night,
+and he moved away talking
+to his men.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus073.jpg" width="300" height="284" alt="THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW." title="THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW." />
+<span class="caption">THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But as soon as he was
+gone Enid began to plan
+how she could escape with
+Geraint before Earl Limours
+should come after her
+in the morning. She was
+too afraid of Geraint to
+speak with him about it,
+but when he had fallen
+asleep she stepped lightly
+about the room and
+gathered the pieces of his armor together in one place
+ready for an early departure on the morrow. Then she
+dropped off into slumber. But suddenly she heard a loud
+sound, the earl with his wild following blowing his trumpet
+to call her to come out, she thought. But it was only the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+great red cock in the yard below crowing at the daylight
+which had begun to glimmer now across the heap of
+Geraint's armor. She rose immediately in her fright to see
+that all was well, went over to examine the weapons and unwittingly
+let the casque fall jangling to the floor. This woke
+Geraint, who started up and stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"My lord," began Enid, and then she told him all that Earl
+Limours had said to her and how she had put him off by telling
+him to come this morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Call the woman of the house and tell her to bring the
+charger and the palfrey," Geraint cried angrily. "Your
+sweet face makes fools of good fellows." Geraint loved Enid
+still and he was in as great perplexity as she, for after misunderstanding
+what she had said he no more knew whether
+she cared for him truly than she knew what was troubling
+him and making him act in this unaccountable manner.</p>
+
+<p>Enid slipped through the sleeping household like a ghost
+to deliver the prince's message to the landlord, hurried back
+to help Geraint with his armor and came down with him to
+spring upon her palfrey.</p>
+
+<p>"What do I owe you, friends?" the prince asked his host,
+but before the man could reply he added "take those five
+horses and their burdens of arms."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord, I have scarcely spent the price of one of them on
+you!" cried the landlord astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have all the more riches then," the prince laughed,
+then turning to Enid, "today I charge you more particularly
+than ever before that whatever you may see, hear, fancy or
+imagine, do not speak to me, but obey."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord," answered Enid, "I know your wish and
+should like to obey, but when I go riding ahead, I hear all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+violent threats you do not hear and see the danger you cannot
+see, and then not to give you warning seems hard, almost
+beyond me. Yet, I wish to obey you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so, then," said he. "Do not be too wise, seeing that
+you are married, not to a clown but a strong man with arms to
+guard his own head and yours, too."</p>
+
+<p>The broad beaten path which they now took passed through
+toward the wasted lands bordering on the castle of Earl Doorm,
+the Bull, as his people called him, because of his ferocity.</p>
+
+<p>It was still early morning when Enid caught the sound of
+quantities of hoofs galloping up the road. Turning round she
+saw cloudsful of dust and the points of lances sparkling in it.
+Then, not to disobey the prince, yet to give him warning, she
+held up her finger and pointed toward the dust. Geraint was
+pleased at her cunning, and immediately stopped his horse.
+The moment after, the Earl of Limours dashed in upon him on
+a charger as black and as stormy as a thunder-cloud.</p>
+
+<p>Geraint closed with the earl, bore down on him with his spear,
+and in a minute brought him stunned or dead to the ground.
+Then he turned to the next-comer after Limours, overthrew
+him and blindly rushed back upon all the men behind. But
+they were so startled at the flash and movement of the prince
+that they scrambled away in a panic, leaving their leader lying
+on the public highway. The horses also of the fallen warriors
+whisked off from their wounded masters and wildly flew away
+to mix with the vanishing mob.</p>
+
+<p>"Horse and man, all of one mind," remarked Geraint,
+smiling, "not a hoof of them left. What do you say, Enid,
+shall we strip the earl and pay for a dinner or shall we fast?
+Fast? Then go on and let us pray heaven to send us some Earl
+of Doorm's men so that we can earn ourselves something to eat."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Enid sadly eyed her bridle-reins and led the way, Geraint
+coming after, scarcely knowing that he had been pricked by
+Limours in his side, and that he was bleeding secretly beneath
+his armor. But at last his head and helmet began to wag unsteadily,
+and at a sudden swerving of the road he was tossed
+from his horse upon a bank of grass. Enid heard the clashing
+of the fall, and too terrified to cry out, came back all pale. Then
+she dismounted, loosed the fastenings of his armor and bound
+up his wounds with her veil. Then she sat down desolately
+and began to cry, wondering what ever she should do.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus076.jpg" width="400" height="459" alt="ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY." title="ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY." />
+<span class="caption">ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Many men passed by but no one took any notice of her. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+in that lawless, turbulent earldom no one minded a woman
+weeping for a murdered lover than they now mind a summer
+shower. One man scurrying as fast as ever he could travel
+toward the bandit earl's castle, drove the sand sweeping into
+her poor eyes, and another coming in the opposite direction
+from out the earl's castle park in seeming hot haste, turned
+all the long dusty road into a column of smoke behind him,
+and frightened her little palfrey so that it scoured off into
+the coppices and was lost. But the prince's charger stood
+beside them and grieved over the mishap like a man.</p>
+
+<p>At noon a huge warrior with a big face and russet beard and
+eyes rolling about in search of prey, came riding hard by with
+a hundred spearmen at his back all bound for some foray. It
+was the frightful Earl Doorm.</p>
+
+<p>"What, is he dead?" cried the earl loudly to Enid, as he
+spied her on the wayside.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, not dead," she quickly answered. "Would
+some of your kind people take him up and bear him off somewhere
+out of this cruel sun? I am very sure, quite sure that
+he is not dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if he isn't dead, why should you cry for him so?
+Dead or not dead, you just spoil your pretty face with idiotic
+tears. They will not help him. But since it is a pretty face,
+come fellows, some of you, and take him to our hall. If he lives
+he will be one of our band, and if not, why there is earth enough
+to bury him in. See that you take his charger, too, a noble
+one."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, the rude earl passed on, while two brawny
+horsemen came forward growling to think they might lose their
+chance of booty from the morning's raid all for this dead man.
+They raised the prince upon a litter, laying him in the hollow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+of his shield, and brought him into the barren hall of Doorm,
+while Enid and the gentle charger followed after. They tossed
+him and his litter down on an oaken settle in the hall, and then
+shot away for the woods.</p>
+
+<p>Enid sat through long hours all alone with Geraint besides
+the oaken settle, propping his head and chafing his hands, but
+in the late afternoon she saw the huge Earl Doorm returning
+with his lusty spearmen and their plunder. Each hurled
+down a heap of spoils on the floor, threw aside his lance and
+doffed his helmet, while a tribe of brightly gowned gentle-women
+fluttered into the hall and began to talk with them.
+Earl Doorm struck his knife against the table and bellowed for
+meat, and wine. In a moment the place fairly steamed and
+smoked with whole roast hogs and oxen, and everybody sat
+down in a hodge-podge and ate like cattle feeding in their stalls,
+while Enid shrank far back startled, into her nook.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly, when Earl Doorm had eaten all he would, and
+all he could for the moment, he revolved his eyes about the
+bare hall and caught a glimpse of the fair little lady drooping
+in her niche. Then he recollected how she had crouched weeping
+by the roadside for her fallen lord that morning. A wild
+pity filled his gruff heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat, eat!" he shouted. "I never before saw any thing so
+pale. Be yourself. Isn't your lord lucky, for were I dead who
+is there in all the world who would mourn for me? Sweet lady,
+never have I ever seen a lily like you. If there were a bit of
+color living in your cheeks there is not one among my gentle-women
+here who would be fit to wear your slippers for gloves.
+But listen to me and you will share my earldom with me, girl,
+and we will live like two birds in a nest and I will bring you all
+sorts of finery from every part of the world to make you happy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>"</p>
+
+<p>As the earl spoke his two cheeks bulged with the two tremendous
+morsels of meat which he had tucked into his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Enid was more alarmed than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I be happy over anything," replied she, "until
+my lord is well again?"</p>
+
+<p>The earl laughed, then plucked her up out of the corner, carried
+her over to the table, thrust a dish of food before her and
+held a horn of wine to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"By all heaven," cried Enid, "I will not drink until my lord
+gets up and drinks and eats with me. And if he will not rise
+again I will not drink any wine until I die."</p>
+
+<p>At this the earl turned perfectly red and paced up and down
+the hall, gnawing first his upper and then his lower lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Girl," shouted he, "why wail over a man who shames your
+beauty so, by dressing it in that rag? Put off those beggar-woman's
+weeds and robe yourself in this which my gentle-woman
+has brought you."</p>
+
+<p>It was a gorgeous, wonderful dress, colored in the tints of a
+shallow sea with the blue playing into the green, and gemmed
+with precious stones all down the front of it as thick as dewdrops
+on the grass. But Enid was harder to move than any cold
+tyrant on his throne, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Earl, in this poor gown my dear lord found me first and loved
+me while I was living with my father; in this poor gown I rode
+with him to court and was presented to the queen; in this poor
+gown he bade me ride as we came out on this fatal quest of
+honor, and in this poor gown I am going to stay until he gets up
+again, a live, strong man, and tells me to put it away. I have
+griefs enough, pray be gentle with me, let me be. O God! I
+beg of your gentleness, since he is as he is, to let me be."</p>
+
+<p>Then the brutal earl strode up and down the hall and cried out:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is of no more use to be gentle with you than to be rough.
+So take my salute," and with that he slapped her lightly on her
+white cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Enid shrieked. Instantly the fallen Geraint was up on his
+feet with the sword that had laid beside him in the hollow of
+the shield, making a single bound for the earl, and with one
+sweep of it sheared through the swarthy neck. The rolling
+eyes turned glassy, the russet-bearded head tumbled over the
+floor like a ball, and all the bandit knights and the gentle-women
+in the hall flitted, scampering pell-mell away, yelling
+as if they had seen a ghoul. Enid and Geraint were left alone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus080.jpg" width="400" height="386" alt="THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A BALL."
+title="THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A BALL." />
+<span class="caption">THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A BALL.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now Geraint had come out of his swoon before the earl had
+returned, and he had lain perfectly silent and immovable because
+he wished to test Enid and see what she would do when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+she thought he was sleeping or fainted away, or perhaps dead.
+So he had listened to all that had taken place and had heard
+everything that Earl Doorm had said to her and all that Enid
+had replied, so now he knew that she loved him as ever and that
+she stood steadfast by him. All his heart filled with pity and
+remorse that he had brought her away on this hard, hard quest,
+and had made her suffer so much and had been so rough and
+cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Enid," said the prince tenderly, very tenderly. "I have
+used you worse than that big dead brute of a man used you.
+I have done you more wrong than he. I misunderstood you.
+Now, now you are three times mine."</p>
+
+<p>Geraint's kindness burst upon Enid so abruptly and was so
+unforeseen that she could not speak a word only this:</p>
+
+<p>"Fly, Geraint, they will kill you, they will come back. Fly.
+Your horse is outside, my poor little thing is lost."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall ride behind me, then, Enid."</p>
+
+<p>So they slipped quickly outside, found the stately charger
+and mounted him, first Geraint, then Enid, climbing up the
+prince's feet, and throwing her arms about him to hold herself
+firm as they bounded off.</p>
+
+<p>But as the horse dashed outside of the earl's gateway there
+before them in the highroad stood a knight of Arthur's court
+holding his lance as if ready to spring upon Geraint.</p>
+
+<p>"Stranger!" shrieked Enid, thinking of the prince's wound
+and loss of blood, "do not kill a dead man!"</p>
+
+<p>"The voice of Enid!" cried the stranger knight.</p>
+
+<p>Then Enid saw that he was Edryn, the son of Nudd, and
+feeling the more terrified as she remembered the jousts, cried
+out:</p>
+
+<p>"O, cousin, this is the man who spared your life!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus082.jpg" width="400" height="481" alt="BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR&#39;S COURT."
+title="BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR&#39;S COURT." />
+<span class="caption">BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR&#39;S COURT.
+</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Edryn stepped forward. "My lord Geraint," he said, "I took
+you for some bandit knight of Doorm's. Do not fear, Enid,
+that I will attack the prince. I love him. When he overthrew
+me at the lists he threw me higher. For now I have
+been made a Knight of the Round Table and am altogether
+changed. But since I used to know Earl Doorm in the old
+days when I was lawless and half a bandit myself, I have come
+as the mouthpiece of our king to tell Doorm to disband all his
+men and become subject to Arthur, who is now on his way
+hither."</p>
+
+<p>"Doorm is now before the King of Kings," Geraint replied,
+"And his men are already scattered," and the prince pointed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+to groups in the thickets or still running off in their panic. Then
+back to the people all aghast whom they could see huddling, he
+related fully to Edryn how he had slain the huge earl in his own
+hall.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus083.jpg" width="400" height="529" alt="TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM."
+title="TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM." />
+<span class="caption">TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Come with me to the king," astonished Edryn said.</p>
+
+<p>So they all traveled off to the royal camp where Arthur himself
+came out to greet them, lifted Enid from her saddle, kissed
+her and showed her a tent where his own physician came in to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+attend to Geraint's wound. When that was healed he rode
+away with them to Caerleon for a visit with Queen Guinevere,
+who dressed Enid again in magnificent clothes. Then fifty
+armed knights escorted Enid and the prince as far as the banks
+of the Severn River, where they crossed over into the land of
+Devon. And all their people welcomed them back.</p>
+
+<p>Geraint after that never forgot his princedom or the tournament,
+but was known through all the country round as the
+cleverest and bravest warrior, while his princess was called
+Enid the Good.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="MERLIN_AND_VIVIEN" id="MERLIN_AND_VIVIEN"></a>MERLIN AND VIVIEN.</h2>
+
+<p>Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who
+wanted to become a greater magician than even the great Merlin,
+who was the most famous man of all his times, who understood
+all the arts, who had built the king's harbors, ships and halls,
+who was a fine poet and who could read the future in the stars
+in the skies.</p>
+
+<p>He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to
+make people invisible. Whenever he worked it upon anyone
+that person would seem to be imprisoned within the four walls
+of a tower and could not get out. The person would seem dead,
+lost to every one, and could be seen only by the person who
+worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charm
+was, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one
+would know where he was and she could become a great enchantress
+in the realm, as she foolishly thought. And she
+planned very cleverly so as to find out the wise old man's
+secret.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first
+she played about him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and
+he watched and laughed at her as
+if she were a playful kitten. Then
+as she saw that he half disdained
+her she began to put on very
+grave and serious fits, turned red
+and pale when he came near her,
+or sighed or gazed at him, so
+silently and with such sweet devotion
+that he half believed that
+she really loved him truly.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus085.jpg" width="300" height="426" alt="HE LAUGHED AT HER." title="HE LAUGHED AT HER." />
+<span class="caption">HE LAUGHED AT HER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But after a while a great melancholy
+fell over Merlin, he felt
+so terribly sad that he passed
+away out of the kings' court and
+went down to the beach. There
+he found a little boat and stepped
+into it. Vivien had followed him
+without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat and while
+he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were
+driven across the sea with a strong wind and came to the
+shores of Brittany. Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed
+him all the way into the wild woods of Broceliande. Every
+step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet.</p>
+
+<p>They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his
+feet as if in the deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was
+wound round her hair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung
+about her beautiful limbs. As she kissed his feet she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+through the world and I will worship you. Tread me down
+and I will kiss you for it."</p>
+
+<p>But Merlin still said not a word.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus086.jpg" width="300" height="521" alt="MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD." title="MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD." />
+<span class="caption">MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Merlin do you love me?" at last cried Vivien, with her face
+sadly appealing to him. And again, "O, Merlin, do you love
+me?" "Great Master, do you love me?" she cried for the third
+time.</p>
+
+<p>And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward
+him, slid upon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles,
+curved her arms about his neck and used one of her hands as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+white comb to run through his long ashy beard which she
+drew all across her neck down to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"See! I'm clothing myself with wisdom," she cried. "I'm a
+golden summer butterfly that's been caught in a great old
+tyrant spider's web that's going to eat me up in this big wild
+wood without a word to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of
+yours?" cried Merlin at last. "What do you want me to give
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Vivien, smiling saucily, "have you found your
+tongue at last? Now yesterday you didn't open your lips once
+except to drink. And then I, with my own lady hands, made
+a pretty cup and offered you your water kneeling before you
+and you drank it, but gave me not a word of thanks. And
+when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with your
+feet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed
+through you know that I bathed your feet before I bathed my
+own. But yet no thanks from you. And all through this wild
+wood, all through this morning when I fondled you, still not a
+word of thanks."</p>
+
+<p>Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, "Vivien, have
+you never seen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to
+break? Well, I've been seeing a wave that was ready to break
+on me. It seemed to me that some dark, tremendous wave
+was going to come and sweep me away from my hold on the
+world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my great
+name. That's why I came away from Arthur's court to make
+me forget it and feel better. And when I saw you coming after
+me it seemed to me that you were that wave that was going to
+roll all over me. But pardon me, now, child, your pretty ways
+have brightened everything again, and now tell me what you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+would like to have from me. For I owe you something three
+times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for
+your goodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of
+yours. So tell me now, what will you have?"</p>
+
+<p>Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered:</p>
+
+<p>"I've always been afraid that you were not really mine, that
+you didn't love me truly, that you didn't quite trust me, and
+now you yourself have owned it. Don't you see, dear love,
+how this strange mood of yours must make me feel it more than
+ever? must make me yearn still more to prove that you are mine,
+must make me wish still more to know that great charm of
+waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about,
+just as a proof that you trust me? If you told that to me I
+should know that you are mine, and I should have the great
+proof of your love, because I think that however wise you may
+be you do not know me yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien," said Merlin,
+"than when I told you about that charm. Why won't you ask
+me for another boon?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid
+that ever lived, burst into tears and said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me,
+let me feel myself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for
+another boon. I don't suppose that you know the old rhyme,
+'Trust not at all or all in all?'"</p>
+
+<p>Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said.
+Her voice was so tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so
+sweetly gleaming behind her tears.</p>
+
+<p>He locked her hand in his again and said, "If you should
+know this charm you might sometimes in a wild moment of
+anger or a mood of overstrained affection when you wanted me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+all to yourself or when you were jealous in a sudden fit, you
+might work it on me."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Vivien, as if she were angry, "I am not
+trusted. Well, hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and
+when I've found it beware, look out for Vivien! When you
+use me so it's a wonder that I can love you at all, and as for
+jealousy, it seems to me this wonderful charm was invented
+just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot of pretty
+girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world
+with it."</p>
+
+<p>Then the great master laughed merrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Long, long years ago," he said, "there lived a King in the
+farthest East of the East. A tawny pirate who had plundered
+twenty islands or more anchored his boat in the King's
+port, and in the boat was a woman. For, as he had passed one
+of the islands the pirates had seen two cities full of men in boats
+fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed up his black
+boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of them and
+brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She
+was a maiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light
+seemed to come from her as she walked. When the pirate came
+upon the shore of the Eastern King's island the King asked him
+for the woman, but he would not give her up. So the King
+imprisoned the pirate and made the woman his queen.</p>
+
+<p>"All the people adored her, the King's councilmen and all
+his soldiers, the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down
+before her unbidden, and the black slaves of the mountains
+rang her golden ankle bells just to see her smile. So little
+wonder that the King grew very jealous. He had his horns
+blown through all the hundred under-kingdoms which he
+ruled, telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+teach him some charm to work upon the queen and make her
+all his own. To the wizard who could do this he promised a
+league of mountain land full of golden mines, a province with
+a hundred miles of coast, a palace and a princess. But all the
+wizards who failed should be killed and their heads would be
+hung on the city gates until they mouldered away.</p>
+
+<p>"So there were many, many wizards all through the hundred
+kingdoms who tried to work the charm, but failed; many
+wizard heads bleached on the walls, and for weeks a troupe
+of carrion crows hung like a cloud above the towers of the city
+gateways. But at last the king's men found a little glassy
+headed, hairless man who lived alone in a great wilderness and
+ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always
+reading had got grated down, filed away and lean, with monstrous
+eyes and his skin clinging to his bones. But since he
+never tasted wine or flesh&mdash;the wall that separates people from
+spirits became crystal to him. He could see through it, perceive
+the spirits as they walked and hear them talking; so
+he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rain
+across a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and
+the pine woods roared he made everything calm again.</p>
+
+<p>"He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to
+the king's court by force, he didn't want to go. There he
+taught the king how to charm the queen so that no one could
+see her again, and she could see no one except the king as he
+passed about the palace. She lay as if quite dead and lost to
+life. But when the king offered the magician his league of
+golden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast,
+the palace and the princess, the old man turned away, went
+back to his wilderness and lived on grass and vanished away.
+But his book came down to me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You have the book!" cried Vivian smiling saucily. "The
+charm is written in it. Good, take my advice and let me know
+the secret at once, for if you should hide it away like a puzzle in
+a chest, if you should put chest upon chest, and lock and padlock
+each chest thirty times and bury them all away under
+some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on the battle-field,
+still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, of picking it,
+of opening it and reading the charm. And <i>then</i> if I tried it on
+you who would blame me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You read the book, my pretty Vivien?" cried Merlin.
+"Well, it's only twenty pages long, but such pages! Every
+page has a square of text that looks like a blot, the letters no
+longer than fleas' legs written in a language that has long gone
+by, and all the borders and margins scribbled, crossed and
+crammed with notes. You read that book! No one, not
+even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out
+the notes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin.
+Oh, it is simple enough. Any child might work it and then
+not be able to undo it. Don't ask me again for it, because
+even although you would love me too much to try it on me,
+still you might try it on some of the knights of the Round
+Table."</p>
+
+<p>"O, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or
+sung about in song!" cried Vivien. She clapped her hands
+together and wailed out a shriek. "I'm stabbed to the heart! I
+only wished that prove to you that were wholly mine, that you
+loved me and now I'm killed with a word. There's nothing
+left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave, and if the
+wolves won't tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away,
+killed with unutterable unkindness!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair
+uncoiled itself. Then she wept afresh.</p>
+
+<p>The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out of the storm," he called over to her, "come here
+into the hollow old oak tree."</p>
+
+<p>Then since she didn't answer, he tried three times to calm
+her but quite in vain. At last, however, she let herself be
+conquered, came back to her old perch, and nestled there,
+half falling from his knees. Gentle Merlin saw the slow tears
+still standing in her eyes and threw his arms kindly about her.
+But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with her arms crossed
+upon her bosom and fled away.</p>
+
+<p>"No more love between us two," she cried, "for you do not
+trust me. Oh, it would have been better if I had died three
+times over than to have asked you once! Farewell, think
+gently of me and I will go. But before I leave you let me
+swear once more that if I've been planning against you in all
+this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the
+sky to burn me to a cinder!"</p>
+
+<p>Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky,
+and sliced the giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and
+spikes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!" cried Vivien, terrified lest
+the heavens had heard her oath and were going to kill her.
+And she flew back to his arms. She called him her dear
+protector, her lord and liege, her seer, her bard, her silver
+star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the one passionate love
+of her life, and hugged him close.</p>
+
+<p>All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches
+snapped above them in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+and neck seemed to come and go before Merlin's eyes with the
+lightning. At last the storm had spent its passion, the woodland
+was all in peace again, and Merlin, overtalked and overworn
+had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus093.jpg" width="300" height="436" alt="IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD."
+title="IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD." />
+<span class="caption">IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven
+footsteps and waving arms, and in the hollow of the old oak
+tree left him lying dead to all life, use and fame and name.</p>
+
+<p>"I have made his glory mine! O fool!" she shrieked, and
+she sprang down through the great forest, the thicket closed
+about her behind her and all the woods echoed, "Fool!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="BALIN_AND_BALAN" id="BALIN_AND_BALAN"></a>BALIN AND BALAN.</h2>
+
+<p>King Pellam owed Arthur some tribute money so Arthur
+told three of his knights to go see about it and collect it for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said one of the knights, "but listen, on the way
+to King Pellam's country, near Camelot, there are two strange
+knights sitting beside a fountain. They challenge and overthrow
+every knight that passes. Shall I stop to fight them as
+we go by and send them back to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur laughed, "No, don't stop for anything; let them
+wait until they can find some one stronger themselves."</p>
+
+<p>With that the three men left. But after they had gone
+Arthur, who loved a good fight himself, started away early one
+morning for the fountain side of Camelot. On its right hand
+he saw the knight Balin sitting under an alder tree, with his
+horse beside him, and on the left hand under a poplar tree
+with his horse at his side sat the knight Balan.</p>
+
+<p>"Fair sirs," cried Arthur, "why are you sitting here?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the sake of glory," they answered. "We're stronger
+than all Arthur's court. We've proved that because we easily
+overthrow every knight that comes by here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm of Arthur's court, too," replied the king, "although
+I've never done so much in jousts as in real wars. But
+see whether you can overthrow me so easily too."</p>
+
+<p>So the two brothers came out boldly and fought with Arthur,
+but he struck them both lightly down, then softly came away
+and nobody knew anything about it.</p>
+
+<p>But that evening while Balin and Balan sat very meekly
+by the bubbling water a spangled messenger came riding by
+and cried out to them: "Sirs, you are sent for by the King."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So they followed the man back to the court. "Tell me your
+names," demanded Arthur, "and why do you sit there by the
+fountain?"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus095.jpg" width="400" height="357" alt="TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS." title="TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS." />
+<span class="caption">TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"My name is Balin," answered one of the men, "and my
+brother's name is Balan. Three years ago I struck down one
+of your slaves whom I heard had spoken ill of me, and you
+sent me away for a three years' exile. Then I thought that
+if we would sit by the well and would overcome every knight
+who passed by you would be a more willing to take me back.
+But today some man of yours came along and conquered us
+both. What do you wish with me?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Be wiser for falling," Arthur said. "Your chair is in the
+hall vacant. Take it again and be my knight once more."</p>
+
+<p>So Balin went back into the old hall of the Knights of the
+Round Table, and they all clashed their cups together drinking
+his welcome, and sang until all of Arthur's banners of war
+hanging overhead began to stir as they always did on the
+battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the men who had gone to collect the taxes from
+King Pellam returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir King," they cried to Arthur, "We scarcely could see
+Pellam for the gloom in his hall. That man who used to be
+one of your roughest and most riotous enemies is now living like
+a monk in his castle and has all sorts of holy things about him,
+and says he has given up all matters of the world. He wouldn't
+even talk about the tribute money and told us that his heir
+Sir Garlon, attended to his business for him, so we went to
+Garlon and after a struggle we got it. Then we came away, but
+as we passed through the deep woods we found one of your
+knights lying dead, killed by a spear. After we had buried
+him, we talked with an old woodman who told us that there's a
+demon of the woods who had probably slain the knight. This
+demon, he said, was once a man who lived all alone and learned
+black magic. He hated people so much that when he died he
+became a fiend. The woodman showed us the cave where he
+has seen the demon go in and out and where he lives. We
+saw the print of a horse's hoof, but no more."</p>
+
+<p>"Foully and villainously slain!" cried Arthur thinking of
+his poor killed knight in the woods. "Who will go hunt this
+demon of the woods for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I!" exclaimed Balan, ready to dart instantly away, but
+first he embraced Balin, saying, "Good brother, hear; don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+let your angry passions conquer you, fight them away. Remember
+how these knights of the Round Table welcomed you
+back. Be a loving brother with them and don't imagine that
+there is hatred among them here any more than there is in
+heaven itself."</p>
+
+<p>When bad Balan left, Balin set himself to learn how to curb
+his wildness and become a courteous and manly knight. He
+always hovered about Lancelot, the pattern knight
+of all the court, to see how he did, and when he noticed
+Lancelot's sweet smiles and his little pleasant words that
+gladdened every knight or churl or child that he passed, Balin
+sighed like some lame boy who longed to scale a mountain top
+and could scarcely limp up one hundred feet from the base.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Lancelot's worship of the queen that helps to make him
+gentle," said he to himself. "If I want to be gentle I must
+serve and worship lovely Queen Guinevere too. Suppose I ask
+the King to let me have some token of hers on my shield instead
+of these pictures of wild beasts with big teeth and grins. Then
+whenever I see it I'll forget my wild heats and violences."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you like to bear on your shield?" asked the
+king when Balin spoke to him about his wish.</p>
+
+<p>"The queen's own crown-royal," replied Balin.</p>
+
+<p>Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. "The crown
+is only the shadow of the king," she said, "and this crown
+is the shadow of that shadow. But let him have it if it will
+help him out of his violences."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no shadow to me, my queen," cried Balan, "no shadow
+to me, king. It's a light for me."</p>
+
+<p>So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and whenever
+he looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and
+patient.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But one morning as he heard Lancelot and the queen talking
+together on the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere's
+bower, all his old passions seemed to come back and filled him
+and he darted madly away on his horse, not stopping until
+he had passed the fount where he had sat with his brother
+Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond. There
+the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a
+branch of a tree.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus098.jpg" width="400" height="536" alt="BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD."
+title="BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD." />
+<span class="caption">BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD.</span>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Give me your axe, Churl," cried Balin, and with one sharp
+cut he struck it down.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord!" cried the woodman, "you could kill the devil of
+this woods if any one can. Just yesterday I saw a flash of him.
+Some people say that our Sir Garlon has learned black magic
+too and can ride armed unseen. Just look into the demon's
+cave."</p>
+
+<p>But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off through
+the glades with a drooping head. He did not notice that on
+his right a great cavern chasm yawned out of the darkness.
+Once he heard the mosses beneath him thud and tremble and
+then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and ran along
+the ground. The light of somebody's armor flashed by him
+and vanished into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that
+he stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from
+his horse. He sprang to his feet and darted off again not knowing
+where he was going until the massy battlements of King
+Pellam's castle appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield?" Pellam's
+men asked him as soon as they saw him.</p>
+
+<p>"The fairest and best of ladies living gave it to me," Balin
+replied, as he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the
+banquet hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you wear the royal crown?" Sir Garlon asked him
+as they sat at table.</p>
+
+<p>"The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest,
+best and purest gave it to me to wear," said Balin.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir Garlon only hissed at him and made fun of what he
+said, and Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with
+a sacred picture to hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+gentle queen about whom he was talking soothed his temper.
+The next morning, however, in the court Sir Garlon mocked
+him again and Balin's face grew black with anger. He tore
+out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, "Ha!
+I'll make a ghost of you!" struck Garlon hard on the helmet.</p>
+
+<p>The blade flew and splintered into six parts which clinked
+upon the stones below while Garlon reeled slowly backward
+and fell. Balin dragged him by the banneret of his helmet
+and struck again, but in a minute twenty warriors with
+pointed lances were making for him from the castle. Balin
+dashed his fist against the foremost face then dipped through
+a low doorway out along a glimmering gallery until he saw
+the open portals of King Pellam's chapel. He slipped inside
+this and crept behind the door while the others howled past
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>Before the golden altar he noticed lying the brightest
+lance he had ever seen with its point painted red with blood.
+Seizing it he pushed it out through an open casement, leaned
+on it and leaped in a half-circle to the ground outside. Running
+along a path he found his horse, mounted him and
+scudded away. An arrow whizzed to his right, another to
+his left and a third over his head while he heard Pellam crying
+out feebly, "Catch him, catch him! he mustn't pollute holy
+things!"</p>
+
+<p>But Balin quickly dove beneath the tree boughs and raced
+through miles of thick groves and open meadowland until his
+good horse, at last wearied and uncertain in his footsteps,
+stumbled over a fallen oak and threw Balin headlong.</p>
+
+<p>As Balin rose to his feet he looked at the Queen's crown on
+his shield and then drew the shield from off his neck. "I have
+shamed you," he cried. "I won't carry you any more," and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+he hung it up on a branch and threw himself on the ground in
+a passionate sleep.</p>
+
+<p>While he slept there the beautiful wicked Vivien came
+riding by through the woodland alleys with her squire, warbling
+a song.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" she cried as she noticed the shield on the
+tree, "a shield with a crown upon it. And there's a horse.
+Where's the rider? Oh! there he is sleeping. Hail royal
+knight, I'm flying away from a bad king and the knight I was
+riding with was hurt, and my poor squire isn't of much use in
+helping me. But you, Sir Prince, will surely guide me to the
+Warrior King Arthur, the Blameless, to get me some shelter."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I'll never go to Arthur's court again," cried Balin.
+"I'm not a prince any more, or a knight. I have brought the
+Queen's crown to shame."</p>
+
+<p>Then Vivien laughed shrilly, and told Balin a wicked story
+about the Queen which she just imagined in her wicked mind.
+But she told it so cunningly and smiled so sunnily as she talked
+that Balin believed her and he flew into the more passionate
+rage because he thought he had been deceived in the Queen
+whom he had worshipped.</p>
+
+<p>He ground his teeth together, sprang up with a yell, tore
+the shield from the branch and cast it on the ground, drove
+his heel <i>into the royal crown</i>, stamped and trampled upon it
+until it was all spoiled, then hurled the shield from him out
+among the forest weeds and cursed the story, the queen and
+Vivien.</p>
+
+<p>His weird yell had thrilled through the woods where Balan
+was lurking for his foe. "There! that's the scream of the
+wood-devil I'm looking for," he thought. "He has killed
+some knight and trampled on his shield to show his loathing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+of our order and the queen. Devil or man, whichever you
+are, take care of your head!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus102.jpg" width="300" height="394" alt="HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN." title="HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN." />
+<span class="caption">HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>With that he made swiftly for his poor brother whom he did
+not recognize. Sir Balin spoke not a word but snatched the
+buckler from Vivien's squire, vaulted on his horse and in a
+moment had clashed with his brother's armor. King Pellam's
+holy spear reddened with blood as it pricked through
+Balan's shield to his flesh. Then Balin's horse, wearied to
+death, rolled back over his rider and crushed him inward and
+both men fell and swooned away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The fools!" cried Vivien to her young squire. "Come, you
+Sir Chick, loosen their casques and see who they are. They
+must be rivals for the same woman to fight so hard."</p>
+
+<p>"They are happy," her gentle squire answered, "if they
+died for love. And Vivien, though you beat me like your dog
+I would die for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't die, Sir Boy," cried Vivien, "I'd rather have a live
+dog than a dead lion. Come away, I don't like to look at
+them," and she made her palfrey leap off over the fallen oak
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>Balin was the first to wake from his swoon. As soon as he
+saw his brother's face he crawled over to his side moaning.
+Then Balan faintly opened his eyes and seeing who was with
+him kissed Balin's forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"O Balin," he cried, "why didn't you carry your own
+shield which I knew, and why did you trample all over this
+one which bears the queen's own crown which I know?"</p>
+
+<p>So Balin slowly gasped out the whole story of his shield.
+Then they each said good-night to the other and closed their
+eyes, locked in each other's arms.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LANCELOT_AND_ELAINE" id="LANCELOT_AND_ELAINE"></a>LANCELOT AND ELAINE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Long before Arthur was crowned king while he was roving
+one night over the trackless realms of Lyonesse he came upon
+a glen with a gray boulder and a lake. As he rode up the
+highway in the misty moonshine he suddenly stepped upon a
+white skeleton of a man with a crown of diamonds upon its
+skull. The skull broke off from the body and rolled away
+into the lake. Arthur alighted, reached down and picked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+up the crown and set it on his head murmuring to himself,
+"<i>You too shall be king some day</i>," for the skeleton was the
+bones of a king who had fought with his brother there and
+been killed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus104.jpg" width="400" height="388" alt="YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY." title="YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY." />
+<span class="caption">YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Arthur was crowned he plucked the nine gems out of
+the crown he had found on the skeleton and showed them to
+his knights with the words:</p>
+
+<p>"These jewels belong to the whole kingdom for everybody's
+use and not to the king. Hereafter there is to be joust for
+one of them every year and in that way in nine years time
+we will learn who is the mightiest in the kingdom and we will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+race with each other to become skilful in the use of arms until
+at last we shall be able to drive away the heathen horde
+from the land."</p>
+
+<p>Eight years had now passed and there had been eight jousts.
+Lancelot had won the diamond every year and intended when
+he had been victorious in all the jousts, to give the nine gems
+to the queen. When the ninth year came Arthur proclaimed
+the tournament for the central and largest diamond to be held
+at Camelot, where he was holding his court. But the queen
+became ill as the time for the tour jousts drew near and he asked
+her whether she was too feeble to go to see Lancelot in the
+lists.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord," replied Guinevere, "and you know it,"
+and she looked up languidly to Lancelot who stood near.</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot thinking that she would rather have him near
+while she was ill than to receive all the diamonds of the crown,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir King, that old wound of mine is not quite healed so I
+can hardly ride in my saddle."</p>
+
+<p>So the king went, excused Lancelot, and rode away alone to
+the lists while Lancelot remained, but as soon as Arthur was
+gone the <i>queen told Lancelot that he ought by all means go too and
+fight</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I go now," replied Lancelot, "after what I
+have said to the king."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you what to do," said Guinevere. "Everybody
+says that men go down before your spear just because of your
+great name. They are afraid as soon as you appear and of
+course, they are conquered. Go in today entirely unknown
+and win for yourself, then after all is over the king will be
+pleased with you for being so clever."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus106.jpg" width="400" height="416" alt="THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS FIGHT." title="THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS FIGHT." />
+<span class="caption">THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS FIGHT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lancelot quickly got his horse and leaving the beaten
+thoroughfare, chose a green path among the downs to take
+him to the lists. It was a new road to him however and he
+lost his way and did not know where to go until at last he
+came upon a faintly traced pathway that led to the castle
+of Astolat far away on a hill. He went thither, blew the horn
+at the gate where a <i>dumb, wrinkled old man came to let him in</i>.
+In the castle court he met the lord of Astolat with his two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+young sons, Sir Torre and Sir Lavaine and behind them the
+lily maiden Elaine, Astolat's daughter. They were jesting
+and laughing as they came.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus107.jpg" width="400" height="404" alt="A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN." title="A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN." />
+<span class="caption">A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Where do you come from, my guest, and what is your
+name?" asked Astolat. "By your state and presence I
+would guess you to be the chief of Arthur's court, for I have
+seen him although the other knights of the Round Table are
+strangers to me."</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight replied, "I am of Arthur's
+court and I am known, and my shield which I have happened
+to bring with me, is known too. But as I am going to joust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+for the diamond at Camelot as a stranger do not ask me my
+name. After it is over you shall know me and my shield.
+If you have some blank shield around, or one with a strange
+device, pray lend it to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is Torre's," the Lord of Astolat replied. "He was
+hurt in his first tilt and so his shield is blank enough, God
+knows. You can have his."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Sir Torre simply, "since I can't use it you
+may have it."</p>
+
+<p>His father laughed. "Fie, Churl, is that an answer for a
+noble knight? You must pardon him, but Lavaine, my
+younger boy, is so full of life he will ride in the lists, joust for
+the diamond, win and bring it in one hour to set upon his
+sister's golden hair and make her three times as wilful as before."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, good father! don't shame me before this noble
+knight. It was all a joke. Elaine dreamed that some one
+had put the diamond into her hand and it was so slippery it
+dropped into a pool of water. Then I told her that if I fought
+and won it for her she must keep it safer than that. But it
+was all in fun. However, if you'll give me your leave, I'll
+ride to Camelot with this noble knight. I shall not win but
+I'll do my best to win."</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot smiled a moment. "If you'll give me the pleasure
+of your company over the downs where I lost myself I'll be
+glad to have you as a friend and guide. You shall win the
+diamond if you can and then give it to your sister if you wish."</p>
+
+<p>"Such diamonds are for queens and not for simple little
+girls," said Sir Torre.</p>
+
+<p>Elaine flushed at this and Lancelot said, "If beautiful things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+are for beautiful people this maiden may wear as fine jewels
+as there are in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Then the lily maid lifted her eyes and thought that Lancelot
+was the greatest man that had ever lived. She loved his
+bruised and bronzed face seamed across with an old sword-cut.</p>
+
+<p>They took the pet knight of Arthur's court into the rude
+hall of Astolat where they entertained him with their best
+meats, wines and minstrel melodies. They told him about
+the dumb old man at the gate, how ten years ago he had
+warned Astolat of the heathen fighters coming, and how they
+had all escaped to the woods and lived in a boatman's hut by
+the river while the old man had been caught and had his tongue
+cut off.</p>
+
+<p>"Those were dull days," said the Lord of Astolat, "until
+Arthur came and drove the heathen away."</p>
+
+<p>"O, great Lord!" cried Lavaine to Lancelot, "you fought
+in those glorious wars with Arthur. Tell us about them!"</p>
+
+<p>So Lancelot told him all about the fight all day long at the
+white mouth of the river Glenn, the four loud battles on the
+shore of Duglas where the glorious king wore on his cuirass an
+emerald carved into Our Lady's head. "On the mount of
+Badon," he said, "I saw him charge at the head of all of his
+Round Table and break the heathen hosts. Afterward he
+stood on a heap of the killed, all red, from his spurs to the
+plumes of his helmet, with their blood, and he cried to me:
+'They are broken! they are broken!' In this heathen war the
+fire of God filled him, I never saw anyone like him, there is no
+greater leader."</p>
+
+<p>"Except yourself," thought the lily maid Elaine. All
+through the night she saw his dark, splendid face living before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+her eyes and early in the morning she arose as if to bid goodbye
+to Lavaine, stole step after step down the long tower
+stairs and passed out to the court where Lancelot was smoothing
+the glossy shoulders of his horse. She drew nearer and
+stood in the dewy light,
+studying his face as
+though it was a god. He
+had never dreamed she
+was so beautiful.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus110.jpg" width="300" height="381" alt="&quot;FAIR LORD,&quot; SAID ELAINE.
+" title="&quot;FAIR LORD,&quot; SAID ELAINE.
+" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;FAIR LORD,&quot; SAID ELAINE.
+</span>
+</div>
+<p>"Fair lord," said
+Elaine, "I don't know
+your name but I believe
+it is the noblest himself
+of them all. Will you
+wear a token of me at the
+tournament today?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, pretty lady," said
+he, "for I've never worn
+a token of any woman in
+the lists; as every one who
+knows me knows."</p>
+
+<p>"Then by wearing
+mine you'll be less likely to be found out this time."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, my child, well, I'll wear it. Fetch it out to
+me. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"A red sleeve bordered with pearls," replied Elaine, and
+she went in and brought it out to him.</p>
+
+<p>Then he wound it round his helmet and said he had never
+before done so much for any girl in the world. The blood
+sprang to Elaine's face as he said that, and filled her with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+delight, although she grew all the paler as Lavaine came out
+and handed Sir Torre's shield to Lancelot. Lancelot gave
+his own shield to Elaine saying, "Do me this favor, child, keep
+my shield for me until I come back."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a favor to me," she replied smiling, "I'll be your
+squire."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Lily Maid," cried Lavaine, "you'll be a lily maid
+in earnest if you don't get to bed and have some sleep," and
+he kissed her good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot kissed her hand as they moved away. She watched
+them at the gateway until their sparkling arms dipped below
+the downs, then climbed up to her tower with the shield and
+there she studied it and mused over it every day.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Lancelot and Lavaine passed far over the long
+downs until they reached an old hermit who lived in a white
+rock. Here they spent the night. The next morning as they
+rode away Lancelot said, "Listen to me, but keep what I say
+a secret, you're riding with Lancelot of the Lake."</p>
+
+<p>"The great Lancelot?" stammered Lavaine, catching his
+breath with surprise. "There is only one other great man to
+see, and that is Britain's king of kings, Arthur. And he's
+going to be at the tournament, too."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they reached the lists in the meadows by Camelot,
+Lancelot pointed out the king who, as he sat in the peopled
+gallery was very easy to recognize because of his five dragons.
+A golden dragon clung to his crown, another writhed down
+his robe while two others in gilded carved wood-work formed
+the arms of his chair. The canopy above him blazed with
+the last big diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"You call me great," cried Lancelot, "I'm not great, there's
+the man."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lavaine gaped at Arthur as if he were something miraculous.
+Then the trumpets blew. The two sides, those who held the
+lists and those who attacked them, set their lances in rest,
+then struck their spurs, moved out suddenly and shocked
+in the center of the field. The ground shook and there was
+a low thunder of arms. Lancelot waited a little until he saw
+which was the weaker side, then sprang into the fight with
+them. In those days of his glory, whomever he struck he
+overthrew, whether they were kings, dukes, earls, counts or
+barons. But that day in the field some of his relatives were
+holding the lists who did not know him and who could not
+bear the idea that any stranger knight should out do the feats
+of their own Lancelot.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this?" one of them asked, "Isn't it Lancelot?"</p>
+
+<p>"When has Lancelot ever worn a lady's token?" the others
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it then?" they cried, furious to guard the name of
+Lancelot. They pricked their steeds and moving all together
+bore down upon him like a wild wave that upsets a ship. One
+spear lamed Lancelot's charger and another pierced through
+Lancelot's side, snapped there and stuck. Lavaine now did
+splendidly for he brought a famous old knight down by Lancelot's
+side. Lancelot in the meantime rose to his feet in all
+his agony and by a sort of miracle as it seemed to those who
+were on his side, drove all his opponents back to the barrier.
+Then the trumpet blew and proclaimed that the knight who
+wore the scarlet sleeve with pearls was victor.</p>
+
+<p>"Go up and get your diamond," his men said to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't give me any diamonds," said Lancelot. "My prize
+is death, I'll leave and don't follow."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he vanished into the poplar grove where he told
+Lavaine to draw out the lance head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you'll die, if I do," cried Lavaine.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm dying now with it," said Lancelot, so Lavaine drew
+it out and Lancelot gave a wonderful shriek and swooned
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Then the old hermit came out, carried him into the white
+rock and stanched his wound.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after he had left the field the men of his side
+went to the king and said that the knight who had won the day
+had left without receiving his prize.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a knight as that must not go uncared for," said
+the king. "Gawain, ride out and find him and since he didn't
+come for his diamond we will send it to him. Don't leave
+your quest until you have him."</p>
+
+<p>Gawain the courteous was a good young knight but he
+didn't like it that he had to leave the banquet and the king's
+side to look for a stranger knight, so he mounted his horse
+rather crossly. He rode all round the country to every
+place except the right one, poplar grove, and at last very late
+reached the Castle of Astolat.</p>
+
+<p>"What news from Camelot?" cried Elaine as soon as she
+saw him, "What about the knight with the red sleeve?"</p>
+
+<p>"He won."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"But he left the jousts wounded in his side."</p>
+
+<p>Then Elaine almost swooned away. When the Lord of
+Astolat came out and heard about Gawain's quest, "Stay
+with us, noble prince," said he. "For the knight was here
+and left his shield with us, so he will certainly come back or
+send for it. Besides my son is with him."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gawain thought he would have a pleasant time with Elaine
+so he stayed. But Elaine rebelled against his pretty love-making
+and asked him why he neglected the king's quest and
+why he didn't ask to see the knight's shield.</p>
+
+<p>"I've lost my quest in the light of your blue eyes," said
+Gawain, "but let me see the shield. Ah! the king was
+right!" he cried out when Elaine showed it to him. "It
+was our Lancelot."</p>
+
+<p>"I was right too," Elaine said merrily, "for I dreamed that
+my knight was the greatest of them all."</p>
+
+<p>"And suppose that I dreamed that you love this greatest
+knight?" returned Gawain.</p>
+
+<p>"What do I know?" Elaine answered simply. "I don't
+know whether I know what love is, but I do know that if I
+do not love him there isn't another man whom I can love."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you love him well," said Gawain. "And I suppose
+you know just where your greatest knight is hidden, so let me
+leave my quest with you. If you love him it will be sweet to you
+to give him the diamond and if he loves you it will be sweet
+to him to receive it from you, while even if he doesn't love you,
+a diamond is always a diamond. Farewell a thousand times.
+If he loves you I may see you at court after while."</p>
+
+<p>Then Gawain lightly kissed her hand as he laid the diamond
+in it, and, wearied of his quest, leaped on his horse and carrolling
+a love-ballad airily rode away to the court where it was soon
+buzzed abroad that a maid of Astolat loved Lancelot and that
+Lancelot loved a maid of Astolat.</p>
+
+<p>The maid meanwhile crept up to her father one day and received
+his leave to take the diamond to Sir Lancelot. Sir
+Torre went with her to the gates of Camelot where they saw
+Lavaine capering about on a horse.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lavaine!" she cried, "how is it with my lord Sir Lancelot?"
+and she told him about the diamond. Then Sir Torre went on
+into the city while Lavaine guided Elaine to the hermit's cave.
+As she saw her handsome knight on the floor, a sort of skeleton
+of himself, she gave a little tender dolorous cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Your prize, the diamond, sent you by the king," said she,
+as she put it into his hand and explained how she had received
+it from Gawain. Then he kissed her as a father would kiss a
+dear little daughter and she went back to the dim, rich city
+of Camelot for the night. But the next morning she was back
+in the cave, and day after day she came, caring for him more
+mildly, tenderly and kindly than any mother could with a
+child, until at last the old hermit said she had nursed him back
+to life, then all three rode back together one morning
+to Astolat where Lancelot asked Elaine to tell him the dearest
+wish of her heart so that he could grant it to her. Elaine
+turned as pale as a ghost when he first spoke but at last one
+day she told him. She said she wanted him to love her, she
+wanted to be his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had chosen to wed," Lancelot replied, slowly, "I
+would have been married long before this. But now I shall
+never marry, sweet Elaine."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," cried Elaine, "it won't matter if I can't be your
+wife, if I can only go with you always and go round the world
+with you and serve you."</p>
+
+<p>But Lancelot said that would be a poor way for him to
+requite the love and kindness her father and brothers had
+shown him. "Noble maid," he went on, "this is only the
+first flash of love with you. After awhile you will smile at
+yourself about it when you find a knight who is fitter for you
+to marry and not three times older than you as I am, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+I will give you broad lands and territories even to a half of
+my kingdom across the seas and I'll always be ready to fight
+for you in your troubles. I'll do this, dear girl, but more I
+cannot."</p>
+
+<p>"Of all this I care for nothing," Elaine said growing deathly
+pale and falling in a swoon.</p>
+
+<p>That evening Lancelot sent for his shield from the tower
+where Elaine sat with it, and as his horse's hoofs clattered off
+upon the stone of the highway she looked down from her
+tower, but he did not glance back.</p>
+
+<p>After that Elaine dreamed her time sadly away in the tower
+and only wished that she could die. She begged her father to
+send for the priest to confess her and asked Lavaine to write
+a letter for her to Lancelot. Then she arranged it that when
+she died the dumb old man at the gate was to take her in the
+barge down the river to the king's palace. Eleven days later
+this was done. Elaine was dressed like a little sleeping queen
+and floated along the stream with her letter in one hand and
+a lily in the other.</p>
+
+<p>That day Lancelot was with the queen and as he looked out
+of the casement upon the river he saw the barge hung with
+rich black samite, the dumb old man and the lily maid of
+Astolat gliding up to the palace door.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" cried everybody streaming round. "A pale
+fairy queen come to take Arthur to fairy land?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad
+carry her reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came
+and wondered at her and Lancelot came and mused over her,
+and the queen came and pitied her. But King Arthur spied
+a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the lords and ladies.
+It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus117.jpg" width="400" height="324" alt="A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND." title="A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND." />
+<span class="caption">A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and
+how he had promised to give her his lands and riches when she
+should be ready to marry some knight of her own age.
+The king said that he should see that she was buried very grandly.
+So they had a procession with all the pomp of a queen, with
+gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all the
+Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then
+they laid the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her
+hand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_HOLY_GRAIL" id="THE_HOLY_GRAIL"></a>THE HOLY GRAIL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot.
+There was something about him different from all the other
+monks there. He was so
+polished and clever that
+old Ambrosious who had
+lived in the old monastery
+for fifty years and had
+never seen a bit of the
+world guessed in a minute
+that the new brother had
+come from King Arthur's
+court. And one windy
+April morning as Ambrosious
+stood under the yew
+tree with this gentle monk
+he asked him why he
+left the Knights of the
+Round Table.</p>
+
+<p>Then Sir Percival answered:</p>
+
+<p>"It was the sweet vision
+of the Holy Grail."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus118.jpg" width="300" height="409" alt="&quot;THE HOLY GRAIL,&quot; CRIED AMBROSIOUS." title="&quot;THE HOLY GRAIL,&quot; CRIED AMBROSIOUS." />
+<span class="caption">&quot;THE HOLY GRAIL,&quot; CRIED AMBROSIOUS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I
+don't know much, but what is that, the phantom of a cup that
+comes and goes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's
+the cup that our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and
+after he died Joseph of Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at
+Christmas time, and there it stayed a while and every one who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+looked at it or touched it was healed of their sicknesses.
+But the times grew so wicked that the cup was caught up into
+heaven where nobody could see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious,
+"how Joseph built a lonely little church at Glastonbury
+on the marsh, but that was long ago. Who first saw the vision
+of the Holy Grail to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a
+holy maid if ever there was one. The old man to whom she
+used to tell her sins (or what she called her sins), often spoke
+to her about the legend of the Holy Grail which had been
+handed down through six people, each of them a hundred years
+old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order
+of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a
+time this old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come
+back again. 'O Christ!' he used to say to my sister, 'if only
+it would come back and help all the world of its wickedness!'
+And then my sister asked him whether it might come to her
+by prayer and fasting.</p>
+
+<p>"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.'</p>
+
+<p>"So she prayed and fasted until the sun shone and the wind
+blew through her and one day she sent for me. Her eyes were
+so beautiful with the light of holiness that I did not know them.</p>
+
+<p>"'Sweet Brother,' she said, 'I have seen the Holy Grail.
+I heard a sound like a silver horn but sweeter than any music
+we can make, and then a cold silver beam of light streamed in
+through my cell, and down the beam stole the Holy Grail,
+rose red and throbbing as if it were alive. All the walls of
+my cell grew rosy red with quivering rosy colors. Then the
+music faded away, the Holy Grail vanished and the colors died<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+out in the darkness. So now we know the Holy Thing is here
+again, Brother fast, too, and pray, and tell your brother-knights
+about it, then perhaps the vision may be seen by you
+all, and the whole world will be healed.'</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus120.jpg" width="300" height="401" alt="MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH." title="MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH." />
+<span class="caption">MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"So I told all the knights and we fasted and prayed for many
+weeks. Then my sister cut off all her long streaming silken
+hair which used to fall to her feet and out of it braided a strong
+sword belt and with silver and crimson thread she wove into it
+a crimson grail in a silver beam. Then she bound it on our
+beautiful boy knight, Sir Galahad, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'My knight of heaven, go forth, for you shall see what I have
+seen and far in the spiritual city you will be crowned king.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+Then she sent the deathless passion of her eyes through him
+and he believed what she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then came a year of miracles. In our great hall there stood
+a chair which Merlin had fashioned carved with strange figures
+like a serpent and in and out among the strange figures ran a
+scroll of strange letters in a language nobody knew like a serpent.
+Merlin called it the Seat Perilous, because he said if any one
+sat in it he would get lost. And Galahad said that if he got
+lost in it he would save himself. So one summer night Sir
+Galahad sat down in the chair and all at once there was a
+cracking of the roofs above us, and a blast and thunder, and in
+the thunder there was a cry and in the blast there was a beam
+of light seven times clearer than the daylight. Down the
+beam stole the Holy Grail all covered over with a luminous
+cloud. Then it passed away but every knight saw his brother
+knight's faces in a glory and we all rose and stared at each other
+until at last I found my voice and swore a vow.</p>
+
+<p>"I swore that because I had not seen the Holy Grail behind
+the cloud I would ride away a year and a day in quest of it until
+I could see it as my sister saw it. Galahad swore too, and good
+Sir Bors, and Lancelot and many others, knights, and Gawain
+louder than all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"The king was not in the hall that day for he had gone out
+to help some poor maiden, but as he came back over the plains
+beyond Camelot he saw the roofs rolling in smoke and thought
+that his wonderfully dear, beautiful hall which Merlin had
+built for him so wonderfully was afire. So he rode fast and
+rushed into the tumult of knights and asked me what it all
+meant.</p>
+
+<p>"'Woe is me!' cried the king when I told him. 'Had I
+been here you would not have sworn the vows.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'My king,' I answered boldly, had you been here you would
+have sworn the vows yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, yes,' said he, 'are you so bold when you didn't see the
+Grail? You didn't see farther than the cloud, and what can you
+expect to see now if you go out into the wilderness?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no, Lord, I didn't see the Grail, I heard the sound, I
+saw the light and since I didn't see the holy thing I swore the
+vow that I would follow it until I did see.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then he asked us, knight by knight, whether we had seen
+it and each one said, 'No, no, Lord, that was why we swore our
+vows,' but suddenly Galahad called out, 'But I saw the
+Holy Grail, Sir Arthur, and heard the cry, "O Galahad, follow
+me."'</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the king, 'the vision is for
+such as you and for your holy nun but not for these. Are
+you all Galahads or all Percivals? No, no, you are just men
+with the strength to right the wrongs and violences of the
+land. But now since one has seen, all the blind want to see.
+However, since you have made the vow, go. But oh, how
+often the distressed people of the kingdom will come into the
+hall for you to help them and all your chairs will be vacant
+while you are out chasing a fire in the quagmire! Many of
+you, yes, most of you will never come back again! But come
+to-morrow before you go, let us have one more day of field sports
+so that before you go I can rejoice in the unbroken strength
+of the Order I have made.'</p>
+
+<p>"So the next day there was the greatest tournament that
+Camelot had ever seen, and Galahad and I, with a strength
+which we had received from the vision, overthrew so many
+knights that all the people cheered hotly for Sir Galahad and
+Sir Percival. The next morning all the rich balconies along<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+the streets of Camelot were laden with ladies and showers
+of flowers fell over us as we passed out and men and boys
+astride lions and dragons, griffins and swans at the street
+corners, called us all by name and cried, 'God Speed!' while
+many lords and ladies wept. Then we came down to the gate
+of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own way.</p>
+
+<p>"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought
+the sky never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my
+blood danced within me for I knew that I would see the Holy
+Grail. But after a while I thought of the dark warning of
+the king. I looked about and saw that I was quite alone in a
+sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of thirst. Then
+I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees
+overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and
+eating of the apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and
+thirsty again in among the sands and thorns. Next I saw
+a woman spinning beside a beautiful house. She rose to greet
+me and stretched out her arms to welcome me into her house
+to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell to dust, and the
+house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and then it
+fell to dust too.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was
+a walled city, the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up
+to the sky, and at the gateway there was a crowd of people
+who cried out to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men!"</p>
+
+<p>"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I
+passed through to the ruined old city and found only one person
+a very, very old man. 'Where is the crowd who called out
+to me?' I asked him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are
+you from and who are you?' and then fell to dust.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus124.jpg" width="300" height="560" alt="NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING." title="NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING." />
+<span class="caption">NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I
+should see the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble
+into dust. From there I passed down into a deep valley, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+low down as the city was high up, where I found a chapel with
+a hermit in a hermitage near by. I told him about all these
+phantoms.</p>
+
+<p>"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother
+of all virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as
+Galahad did.'</p>
+
+<p>"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in
+silver armor. He laid his lance beside the chapel door and
+we all went in and knelt in prayer. Then my thirst was
+quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw only the holy
+elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon
+the shrine.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever
+since we came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at
+night. In its strength I have overcome evil customs wherever
+I have gone, and have passed through Pagan lands and clashed
+with Pagan hordes and broken them down everywhere. But
+the time is very near now when I shall go into the spiritual
+city far away where some one will crown me king. Come with
+me for you will see the Holy Grail in a vision when I go.'</p>
+
+<p>"At the close of the day I started away with him. We came
+to a hill which only a man could climb, scarred all over with
+a hundred frozen streams, and when we reached the top there
+was a wild storm. Galahad's armor flashed and darkened again
+every instant with quick, thick lightnings which struck the
+dead old tree trunks on every side until at last they blazed into
+a fire. At the base was a great black swamp partly whitened
+with bones of dead men. A chain of bridges lead across it to
+the great sea, and Galahad crossed them, one after the other,
+but each one burned away as soon as he had passed over so that
+I had to stay behind. When he reached the great sea the Holy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+Grail hung over his head in a brilliant cloud. Then a boat came
+swiftly by and when the sky brightened again with the lightning
+I could see him floating away, either in a boat with full sails
+or a winged creature which was flying, I couldn't tell which.
+Above him hung the Holy Grail rosy red without the cloud.
+I had seen the holy thing at last. When I saw Sir Galahad
+again he looked like a silver star in the sky, and beyond the
+star was the spiritual city with all her spires and gateways in a
+glory like one pearl, no larger than a pearl. From the star a
+rosy red sparkle from the Grail shot across to the city. But
+while I looked a flood of rain came down in torrents, and
+how I ever came away I don't know, but anyway at the dawn
+of the next day I had reached the little chapel again. There
+I got my horse from the hermit and rode back to the gates of
+Camelot.</p>
+
+<p>"Just once I met one of the other knights. That was one
+night when the full moon was rising and the pelican of Sir
+Bors' casque made a shadow on it. I spurred on my horse,
+hailed him and we were both very glad to see each other.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where is Sir Lancelot,' he asked. 'Have you seen him?
+Once he dashed across me very madly, maddening his horse.
+When I asked him why he rode so hotly on a holy quest he
+shouted, 'Don't keep me, I was a sluggard, and now I'm going
+fast for there's a lion in the way.' Then he vanished.
+When I saw how mad he was I felt very sad for I love him,
+and I cared no more whether I saw the Holy Grail, or not;
+but I rode on until I came to the loneliest parts of the country
+where some magicians told me I followed a mocking fire.
+This vexed me and when the people saw that I quarrelled with
+their priests they bound me and put me into a cell of stones.
+I lay there for hours until one night a miracle happened. One<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+of the stones slipped away without any one touching it or
+any wind blowing. Through the gap it made I saw the
+seven clear stars which we have always called the stars of the
+Round Table and across the seven stars the sweet Grail glided
+past. Close after a clap of thunder pealed. Then a maiden
+came to me in secret and loosed me and let me go.'</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus127.jpg" width="400" height="520" alt="ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST." title="ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST." />
+<span class="caption">ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST.</span>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sir Bors and I rode along together and when we reached
+the city our horses stumbled over heaps of ruined bits of
+houses that fell as they trod along the streets. At last brought
+us to Arthur's hall.</p>
+
+<p>"As we came in we saw Arthur sitting on his throne with
+just a tenth of the knights who had gone out on the quest
+of the Holy Grail standing before him, wasted and worn, also
+the knights who had stayed at home. When he saw me he
+rose and said he was glad to see me back, that he had been
+worrying about me because of the fierce gale that had made
+havoc through the town and shaken even the new strong hall
+and half wrenched the statue Merlin made for him.</p>
+
+<p>"'But the quest,' the king went on, 'have you seen the cup
+that Joseph brought long ago to Glastonbury?'</p>
+
+<p>"Then when I told him all that you have been hearing just
+now and how I was going to give up the tournament and tilt
+and pass into the quiet of the life of the monk, he answered
+not a word, but turning quickly to Gawain asked,</p>
+
+<p>"'Gawain, was this quest for you?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, Lord,' replied Gawain, 'not for such as I. I talked
+with a saintly old man about that and he made me very sure
+that it wasn't for me. I was very tired of it. But I found a
+silk pavilion in the field with a lot of merry girls in it, then this
+gale tore it off from the tenting pin and blew my merry maidens
+all about with a great deal of discomfort. If it hadn't been
+for that storm my twelve months and a day would have passed
+very pleasantly for me.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then Arthur turned to Sir Bors, who had pushed across
+the throng at once to Lancelot's side, caught him by the hand
+and held it there half hidden beside him until the king spied
+them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Hail, Bors, if ever a true and loyal man could see the Grail
+you have seen it,' cried Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't ask me about it,' replied Sir Bors with tears in his
+eyes 'I may not speak about it; I saw it.'</p>
+
+<p>"The others spoke only about the perils of their storm, and
+then it was Lancelot's turn. Perhaps Arthur kept his best
+for the last.</p>
+
+<p>"'My Lancelot,' said the king, 'our Strongest, has the
+quest availed for you?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Our strongest, O King!' groaned Lancelot and as he
+paused I thought I saw a dying fire of madness in his eyes.
+'O King, my friend, a sin lived in me that was so strange that
+everything pure, noble and knightly in me twined and clung
+around it until the good and the poisonous in me grew together,
+and when your knights swore to make the quest I
+swore only in the hope that could I see or touch the Holy
+Grail they might be pulled apart. Then I spoke to a holy
+saint who said that if they could not be plucked apart my
+quest would be all in vain. So I vowed to him that I would
+do just as he told me, and while I was out trying to tear them
+away from each other my old madness came back to me and
+whipped me off into waste fields far away.</p>
+
+<p>"There I was beaten down by little knights whom at one
+time I would have frightened away just by the shadow of my
+spear. From there I rode over to the sea-shore where such
+a blast of wind began to blow that you could not hear the
+waves even although they were heaped up in mountains and
+drove the sea like a cataract, while the sand on the beach
+swept by like a river. A boat, half-swallowed by the seafoam,
+was moored to the shore by a chain. I said to myself that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+would embark in the boat and lose myself and wash away my
+sin in the great sea.</p>
+
+<p>"For seven days I rode around over the dreary water and on
+the seventh night I felt the boat striking ground. In front of
+me rose the enchanted towers of Carbonek, a castle like a rock
+upon a rock, with portals open to the sea and steps that met
+the waves. A lion sat on each side of them. I went up the
+steps and drew my sword. Suddenly flaring their manes the
+lions stood up like men and gripped me on my shoulders.
+When I was about to strike them a voice said to me, 'Don't
+be afraid, or the beasts will tear you to pieces; go on.' Then
+my sword was dashed violently from my hand and fell. Up
+into the sounding hall I passed but saw not a bench, table,
+picture, shield or anything else except the moon over the sea
+through the oriel window, but I heard a sweet voice as clear
+as a lark singing in the topmost tower to the east. I climbed
+up a thousand steps with great pain. It seemed as though I
+was climbing forever but at last I reached a door with light
+shining through the crannies and I heard voices singing 'Glory
+and joy and honor to our Lord and the Holy Vessel, the
+Grail.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then I madly tried the door, it gave way and through
+a stormy glare of heat that burned me and made me swoon
+away I thought I saw the Grail, all veiled with crimson samite
+and around it great angels, awful shapes and wings and eyes!'</p>
+
+<p>"The long hall was silent after Lancelot was done, until airy
+Gawain began with a sudden.</p>
+
+<p>"'O King, my liege, my good friend Percival and your
+holy nun have driven men mad. By my eyes and ears I swear
+I'll be deeper than a blue-eyed cat and three times as blind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+as any owl at noon-time hereafter to any holy virgins in their
+ecstasies.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Gawain,' replied the king, 'don't try to become blinder;
+you're too blind now to want to see. If a sign really came
+from heaven Bors, Lancelot and Percival are blessed for they
+have each seen according to their sight.'"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PELLEAS_AND_ETTARRE" id="PELLEAS_AND_ETTARRE"></a>PELLEAS AND ETTARRE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When his knights went after the Holy Grail Arthur made
+many new knights to fill the gaps made by their absence.
+As he sat in his hall one day at old Caerleon the high doors
+were softly parted and through these in came a youth, and
+with him the outer sunshine and the sweet scent of meadows.</p>
+
+<p>"Make me your knight, Sir King!" he cried, "because I
+know all about everything that belongs to a knight and because
+I love a maiden."</p>
+
+<p>This youth was Sir Pelleas-of-the-Isles who had heard that
+the king had proclaimed a great tournament at Caerleon with
+a sword for the victor and a golden crown for the victor's
+sweetheart as the prize. He longed to win them, the circlet
+for his lady love, the sword for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Just a few days before, while riding across the Forest of
+Dean to find the king's palace hall at Caerleon, Pelleas had
+felt the sun beating on his helmet so sharply that he reeled
+and almost fell from his horse. Then, seeing a hillock near-by
+overgrown with stately beech trees and flowers here and
+there beneath, he tied his horse to a tree, threw himself down
+and was very soon lost in sweet dreams about a maiden, not
+any particular maiden for he had no sweetheart at that time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly he was wakened with a sound of chatter and
+laughing at the outskirts of the grove, and glancing through
+fern he saw a party of young girls in many colors like the
+clouds at sunset, all of them riding on richly dressed horses.
+They were all talking together in a hodgepodge, some pointing
+this way, some that, for they had lost their way.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus132.jpg" width="400" height="471" alt="WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN."
+title="WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN." />
+<span class="caption">WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Pelleas sprang up, loosed his horse and led him into the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>"Just in time!" cried the lady who seemed to be the leader
+of the party. "See, our pilot-star! Youth, we are wandering
+damsels riding armed, as you see, ready to tilt against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+knights at Caerleon, but we've lost our way. To the right?
+to the left? straight on? forward? backward? which is it? tell
+us quickly."</p>
+
+<p>Pelleas gazed at her and wondered to himself whether the
+famous Queen Guinevere herself was as beautiful as this
+maiden. For her violet eyes, scornful eyes, were large and
+the bloom on her cheeks was like the rosy dawn. Her beauty
+made Pelleas timid and when she spoke to him he could
+not answer but only stammered, for he had come from far
+away waste islands where besides his sisters, he had scarcely
+known any women but the tough wives of the islands who
+made fish nets.</p>
+
+<p>With a slow smile the lady turned round to her companions
+the smile spreading to them all. For she was Ettarre, a
+very great lady in her land.</p>
+
+<p>"O, wild man of the woods," she cried, "don't you understand
+our language, or has heaven given you a beautiful face
+and no tongue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lady," he answered, "I just woke from my dreams, and
+coming out of the gloomy woods I was dazzled by the sudden
+light, and beg your pardon. But are you going to Caerleon?
+I'm going too. Shall I lead you to the king?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lead," said she.</p>
+
+<p>So through the woods they went together but his tender
+manner, his awe of her and his bashfulness bothered her. "I've
+lighted on a fool," she muttered to herself, "so raw and yet
+so stale!"</p>
+
+<p>But since she wished to be crowned the Queen of Beauty
+in the king's tournament, and since Pelleas looked strong
+she thought perhaps he would fight for her, so she flattered
+him and was very pleasant and kind. Her three knights and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+maidens were kind to him too, for she was a very great lady
+and they had to do as she did. When they reached Caerleon
+before she passed on to her lodgings she took Pelleas by the
+hand and said:</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus134.jpg" width="300" height="380" alt="SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND." title="SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND." />
+<span class="caption">SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"O, how strong your hand is! See; look at my poor little
+weak one! Will you fight for me and win me the crown, Pelleas,
+so that I may love you?"</p>
+
+<p>Pelleas' heart danced. "Yes! Yes!" he cried, "and will
+you love me if I win?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that I will," answered Ettarre laughing and flinging
+away his hand as she peeped round to her knights and ladies
+until they all laughed with her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O what a happy world!" thought glad Pelleas, "everybody
+seems happy and I am the happiest of all."</p>
+
+<p>He couldn't sleep that night for joy and on the next day
+when he was knighted he swore to love one maiden only.
+As he came away from the king's hall the men who met
+him all turned around to look at his face, for it flamed with
+happiness, and at the great banquets which Arthur gave to
+knights from all parts of the country Pelleas looked the noblest
+of the noble. For he dreamed that his lady loved him and
+he knew that he was loved by the king.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning when the jousts began the first that was
+called was the tournament of youth. Arthur wanted to
+keep the older, stronger men out of it so that young Pelleas
+might win his lady's love as she had promised, and be lord
+of the tourney. Down by the field along the river Usk where
+it was held the gilded parapets were crowned with faces and
+the great tower filled with eyes up to its top. Then the
+trumpets blew for the tournament to begin.</p>
+
+<p>All day long Sir Pelleas held the field. At the close a shout
+rang round the galleries as Ettarre caught the gold crown
+from his lance and crowned herself before all the people. Her
+eyes sparkled as she looked at him, but that was the last time
+she was kind to her knight.</p>
+
+<p>She lingered a few days at Caerleon, sunny to all the other
+people but always frowning at him.</p>
+
+<p>Still when she left for home with her knights and maidens
+Sir Pelleas followed.</p>
+
+<p>"Damsels," cried she as she saw him coming, "I ought to be
+ashamed to say it and yet I can't bear that Sir Baby. Keep
+him back with yourselves. I'd rather have some rough old
+knight who knows the ways of the world to chatter and joke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+with; so don't let him come near me. Tell him all sorts of
+baby fables that good mothers tell their little boys, and if he
+runs off for us&mdash;it doesn't matter."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus136.jpg" width="400" height="747" alt="ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE." title="ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE." />
+<span class="caption">ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So the young women didn't let him go near Ettarre but
+made him stay with them, and as soon as they had all passed
+into Ettarre's castle gate up sprang the drawbridge, down
+rang the iron grating, and Sir Pelleas was left outside all alone.</p>
+
+<p>"These are only the ways of ladies with their lovers when
+the ladies want to find out whether the lovers are true or not.
+Well, she can try me with anything, I'll be true through all."</p>
+
+<p>So he stayed there until dark, then went to a priory not far
+off and the next morning came back. Every day he did the
+same whether it rained or shone, armed on his charger, and
+stayed all the day beneath the walls, although nobody opened
+the gate for him.</p>
+
+<p>This made Ettarre's scorn turn to anger. She told her three
+knights to go out and drive him away. But when they came
+out Pelleas overthrew them all as they dashed upon him one
+after the other. So they went back inside and he kept his
+watch as before. This turned Ettarre's anger into hate. As
+she walked on top of the walls with her three knights about a
+week later she pointed down to Pelleas and said:</p>
+
+<p>"He haunts me, look, he besieges me! I can't breathe.
+Strike him down, put my hate into your blows and drive
+him away from my walls."</p>
+
+<p>So down they went but Pelleas overthrew them all again
+so Ettarre called down from the tower above, "Bind him and
+bring him in."</p>
+
+<p>Pelleas heard her say this so he did not resist, but let the
+men bind him and take him into his lady love. "See me, Lady,"
+he said cheerily, "your prisoner, and if you keep me in your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+dungeon here I'll be quite content if you'll just let me see your
+face every day. For I've sworn my vows and you've given
+me your promise and I know that when you've done proving
+me you will give me your love and have me for your knight."</p>
+
+<p>But she made fun of his vows and told her knights to put
+him outside again and "if he isn't a fool to the middle of his
+bones," said she, "he'll never come back." Then the three
+knights laughed and thrust him out of the gates.</p>
+
+<p>But a week later Ettarre called them again, "He's watching
+there yet. He comes just like a dog that's been kicked out of
+his master's door. Don't you hate him? Go after him, all
+of you at once, and if you don't kill him bind him as you did
+before and bring him in."</p>
+
+<p>So the three knights couched their spears all together, three
+against one, ready to dash upon Pelleas, low down beneath
+the shadow of the towers.</p>
+
+<p>Gawain passing by on a lonely adventure saw them.</p>
+
+<p>"The villains!" he shouted to Pelleas, "I'll strike for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," cried Pelleas, "when one's doing a lady's will one
+doesn't need any help."</p>
+
+<p>Gawain stood by quivering to fight while the three knights
+sprang down upon Pelleas, but Pelleas all alone beat the three
+of them together. Then they rose to their feet, and he stood
+still while they bound him and took him into their lady.</p>
+
+<p>"You're scarcely fit to touch your victor, you dogs!" she
+cried to her men, "far less bind him; but take him out as he
+is and let whoever wants to untie him. Then if he comes
+again&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She paused just a minute and Pelleas broke in at once with,
+"Lady, I loved you and thought you very beautiful, but if you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+don't love me don't trouble yourself about it; you won't see
+me again."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Pelleas was put outside the gate Gawain sprang
+forward, loosed his bonds, flung them over the walls and cried
+out:</p>
+
+<p>"My faith, and why did you let those wretches tie you up
+so when you were victor of all the jousts?"</p>
+
+<p>"O," said Pelleas, "they were just obeying the wishes of my
+lady, and her wishes are mine."</p>
+
+<p>Gawain laughed. "Lend me your horse and armor," he
+said, "and I'll tell her I've killed you. Then she'll let me in
+just to hear all about it and when I've made her listen I'll
+tell her all about you, what a great and good fellow you are.
+Give me three days to melt her and on the third evening I'll
+bring you golden news."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't betray me," cried Pelleas, as he handed over his
+horse and all his weapons except his sword. "Aren't you the
+knight they call 'Light-of-love?'"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just because women are so light," Gawain rejoined,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Then he rode up to the castle gate, and blew the bugle so
+musically that all the hidden echoes in the walls rang out.</p>
+
+<p>"Away with you!" cried Ettarre's maidens, running up to
+the tower window. "Our lady doesn't love you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Gawain from Arthur's court," cried Gawain, lifting
+his vizor so that they could see his face. "I've killed Pelleas
+whom you hate so. Open the gates and I'll make you merry
+with my story."</p>
+
+<p>The ladies ran down crying out to Ettarre, "Pelleas is dead!
+Sir Gawain of Arthur's court has killed him and is blowing
+the bugle to come in to tell us."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let him in," said Ettarre.</p>
+
+<p>Then they opened the gates and Gawain rode inside.</p>
+
+<p>For three days Pelleas wandered all about, doing nothing
+but thinking of Gawain and Ettarre, and on the third night,
+when Gawain did not come, he wondered why Gawain lingered
+with his golden news. At last he rode up to Ettarre's castle,
+tied his horse outside and walked in through the wide open
+gates. The court he found all dark and empty, not a light
+glimmering from anywhere, so he passed out by the back gate,
+into the large gardens beyond of red and white roses, where he
+saw three pavilions. In one he found the three knights with
+their squires, all red with revelling, and all asleep, in the second
+he saw the girls with their scornful smiles frozen stiff in
+slumber, and in the third lay Gawain with Ettarre, the golden
+crown he had won for her at the joust on her forehead, both
+sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>Pelleas drew back as if he had touched a snake.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll kill them just as they lie," he cried in a passion. "O!
+to think that any knight could be so false!"</p>
+
+<p>But he was too manly to kill anyone in sleep, so he just laid
+his sword across their throats and passed out to his horse,
+crushed his saddle with his thighs, clenched his hands together
+and groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"I loathe her now just as much as I loved her!" he cried,
+and dashing his spurs into his horse he bounded out into the
+darkness and never came back.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Ettarre, feeling the cold sword on her neck,
+awoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Liar!" she cried to Gawain, as she saw that it was the sword
+of Pelleas, "you haven't killed Pelleas, for he's been here and
+could have killed us both just now."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And ever after that, as those who tell the story say, the proud
+and scornful Ettarre sighed for Pelleas, the one true knight in
+the world, her only faithful lover, and at last pined away because
+he never came back.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_LAST_TOURNAMENT" id="THE_LAST_TOURNAMENT"></a>THE LAST TOURNAMENT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>One day while King Arthur and Sir Lancelot were riding
+far, far beneath a winding wall of rock they heard the wail
+of a child.</p>
+
+<p>A half-dead oak tree climbed up the sides of the rock and
+up in mid-air it held an eagle's nest. Through its branches
+rushed a rainy wind and through the wind came the voice of
+a little child. Lancelot sprang up the crag and from the nest
+at the tree-top he brought down a baby girl. Round her neck
+was twined a necklace of rubies, wound round and round three
+times.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur took the baby and gave it to Queen Guinevere, who
+soon loved it very tenderly and named her "Nestling." But
+Nestling had caught a terrible cold in her strange little home
+in the wild eagle's nest and died. And after that whenever
+the Queen looked at the ruby necklace it made her very sad
+so she gave it to Arthur and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Take these jewels of our Dead Innocence and make them
+a prize at a tournament."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you wish," cried the King, "but why don't you
+wear the diamonds that I found for you in the tarn, which
+Lancelot won for you at the jousts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know that they slipped out of my hands the
+very day that he gave them to me, while I was leaning out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+the window to see Elaine in the barge on the river? But these
+rubies will bring better luck than that to the lady who gets
+them, for they didn't come from a dead king's skeleton, but
+from the body of a sweet baby girl. Perhaps, who knows, the
+purest of your knights will win them at the jousts for the
+purest of my ladies."</p>
+
+<p>So the great jousts were proclaimed with trumpets that blew
+all along the streets of Camelot and out across the faded fields
+to the farthest towers, and everywhere the knights armed
+themselves for a day of glory before the king.</p>
+
+<p>But just the day before they were to be held, as King
+Arthur sat in his great hall, a churl staggered in through the
+door; his face was all striped with the lashes of a dog whip,
+his nose was broken, one eye was out, a hand was off and the
+other hand dangled at his side with shattered fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Churl," cried the king, full of indignant pity,
+"what beast or fiend has been after you? Or was it a man
+who hurt you so?"</p>
+
+<p>"He took them all away," sputtered the churl, "a hundred
+good ones. It was the Red Knight. He&mdash;Lord, I was tending
+sheep, my pigs, a hundred good ones, and he drove them
+all off to his tower. And when I said that you were always
+kind to poor churls like me as well as gentle lords and ladies,
+he made for me and would have killed me outright if he didn't
+want me to bring you message and made me swear that I would
+tell you.</p>
+
+<p>"He said, 'Tell the king that I have made a Round Table
+of my own in the North, and that whatever his knights swear
+not to do mine swear that they will do; and tell him his hour
+has come, and that the heathen are after him, and that his long
+lance is broken, and that his sword Excalibur is a straw.'"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Arthur turned to Sir Kay the Seneschal and said:
+"Take this churl of mine and tend him very carefully as if he
+were the son of a king until all his hurts are healed," and as
+Sir Kay left the hall with the churl the king went on to Lancelot:
+"The heathen have been quiet for a long, long time,
+but now they are rising again in the North, and I will go with
+my younger knights to put them down, so as to make the
+whole island safe from one shore to the other. And while I go
+away, you, Sir Lancelot, will sit in my chair to-morrow at the
+tournament and be the judge there of the field. For why
+should you anyway care to go in again yourself, when you've
+already won the nine diamonds for the queen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied Lancelot, "if you wish, although it
+would be better if you would let me go off with the younger
+knights and you stay here with the others and watch the tournament.
+But, if not, all is well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is all really well?" cried the king, "or have I just dreamed
+that our knights are not quite so true and manly as they used
+to be and that my noble realm which has been built up by
+noble deeds and noble vows is going to fall back into beastly
+roughness and violence again?"</p>
+
+<p>He gathered all the younger Knights of the Round Table
+together and started away with them down the hilly streets
+of Camelot, and at the gateway turned sharply North.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, the day of the Tournament, the Tournament
+of the Dead Innocence they called it, a wet wind blew.
+But the streets were hung with white samite, the fountains
+were filled with wine, and round each fountain twelve little
+girls, all dressed in purest white sat with the cups of gold and
+gave drinks to all that passed. The stately galleries were
+filled with white-robed ladies. Lancelot mounted the steps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+to the king's dragon-carved chair, the trumpets blew and the
+jousts began.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus144.jpg" width="400" height="441" alt="TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED." title="TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED." />
+<span class="caption">TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But Lancelot did not think of the sport before him, he was
+dreaming over and over again the words of the king about the
+kingdom, and many rules of the tournament were broken, and
+he didn't say a word. Once one of the knights, who was overthrown
+cursed the little baby girl, the dead innocence, and
+the king, and once one of the knight's helmets became unlaced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+and the wicked face of Modred peeped through like a
+vermin, but Lancelot didn't see.</p>
+
+<p>After a while a roar of welcome shouted all round the galleries
+and lists as a new knight came in dressed from his head
+to his feet in green armor all trimmed with tiny silver deer,
+with holly berries on his helmet crest. It was Sir Tristram
+of the Woods who had just crossed over the seas from Brittany.
+Lancelot had fought with him long ago and conquered him,
+and now he saw him and longed to fight him again. As many,
+many knights of the Round Table fell down before the new
+knight Lancelot gripped the golden dragons on each side of
+his throne to keep himself in his seat, and groaned with passion.
+"Craven crests! oh, shame!" he muttered, "the glory of the
+Round Table is gone."</p>
+
+<p>So Tristram won the jousts and Sir Lancelot gave him the
+jewels.</p>
+
+<p>"The hands with which you take these rubies are red," he
+said as he put the necklace in Tristram's hands.</p>
+
+<p>Then the thick rain began to fall, the plumes on the helmets
+of the knights drooped and the dresses of the ladies were mussed.
+When they went inside to feast the ladies took off their pure
+white gowns and robed themselves in all the colors of the
+rainbow and field flowers, like poppies, blue-bells, kingcups,
+and one said she was glad the time to wear the pure innocent
+simple white was over. They grew so loud in their frolics
+that at last the queen, who was angry that Sir Tristram had
+won the prize and angry with the lawless youths, broke up the
+banquet.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning as Sir Tristram stood before the hall little
+Dagonet, the fool, came dancing along and Sir Tristram threw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+his rubies round the little fool's neck as he skipped about like
+a withered leaf, asking him why he danced.</p>
+
+<p>"It's stupid to dance
+without music," Tristram
+said, and picked up his harp
+and began to twangle a tune
+on it; but as soon as Sir
+Tristram began to play
+Dagonet stopped his dance.
+"And why don't you go on
+skipping, Sir Fool?" asked
+Tristram.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I'd rather skip
+twenty years to the music
+of my little brain than skip
+a minute to the broken music
+you make."</p>
+
+<p>"And what music have I
+broken?" cried Sir Tristram.
+"Arthur the King's
+music," cried little Dagonet,
+skipping again and again as
+Sir Tristram ceased. Then
+down the city he danced all the way, while Sir Tristram
+passed out into the lonely avenues of the forests. He rode
+on toward Lyonesse and the West, thinking of Isolt, the
+White, whom he loved, and how he would put the rubies
+round her neck.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus146.jpg" width="300" height="443" alt="LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN." title="LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN." />
+<span class="caption">LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Arthur, meanwhile, with his hundred spearmen had gone
+far, far away, until at last over the countless reeds of marshes
+and islands he saw a huge tower glaring in the wide-winged
+sunset of the West. As he drew near he saw that the tower<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+doors stood open and heard roars of rioting and wicked songs
+of ruffian men and women.</p>
+
+<p>"Look," cried one of his knights, for there high on a grim
+dead tree before the tower, a brother of the Round Table was
+swinging by his neck, his shield flowing with a shower of blood
+on a branch near by.</p>
+
+<p>All the knights wanted to dash forward and blow the great
+horn that hung beside the gate, but Arthur waved them back
+and went himself. He blew so hard that the horn roared until
+all the grasses of the marshes flared up, and out of the castle
+gate sallied a knight dressed from tip to toe in blood-red
+arms, the Red Knight.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you the king?" he bellowed, "the king that keeps
+us all with such strict vows that we can't have any pleasures,
+a milky-hearted king? Look to your life now!"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur scorned to speak to so vile a man or to fight him with
+his sword. He simply let the drunkard, stretching out from
+his horse to strike, fall head-heavy, over from the castle causeway
+to the swamp below.</p>
+
+<p>Then all the Round Table Knights roared and shouted,
+leaped down on the fallen man, trampled out his face in the
+mire, sank his head so that it could not be seen, and, still
+shouting, sprang through the open doors among the people
+within. They hurled their swords right and left on men and
+women, hurled over the tables and the wines and slew and
+slew until all the rafters rang with yells and all the pavements
+streamed with blood. Then they set the tower all afire and half
+the night through it flushed the long low meadows and marshlands
+and lazily plunging sea with its flames. That was how
+Arthur made the ways of the island safe from one shore to the
+other.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sir Tristram, not many nights after, reached Tintagil, where
+Isolt, the White, lived in a crown of towers, where she now sat
+with the low sea-sunset glorying her hair and glossy throat,
+thinking of him and of Mark, her Cornish lord.</p>
+
+<p>When Tristram's footsteps came grinding up the tower
+steps she flushed, started out to meet him and threw her white
+arms about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Not Mark, not Mark!" she cried. "At first your footsteps
+fluttered me, for Mark steals into his own castle like a cat."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it's I," said Sir Tristram, "and don't think about your
+Mark any more, for he isn't yours any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"But listen," she cried, "to-day he went away for a three
+days' hunt, he said, and that means that he may be back in
+an hour for that's his way. My God, my hate for him is as
+strong as my love for you. Let me tell you how I sat here
+one evening thinking of you, one black midsummer night,
+all alone, dreaming of you, and sometimes speaking your name
+aloud, when suddenly there Mark stood behind me, for that's
+his way to steal behind one in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tristram has married her!' he hissed out and then this
+tower shook with such a roar that I swooned away."</p>
+
+<p>"Come," cried Sir Tristram, laughing, "never mind, I'm
+hungry, give me some meat and wine."</p>
+
+<p>So they ate and drank, talked and laughed about Mark with
+his long crane-like legs, and Sir Tristram took a harp and sang
+a song. Then while the last light of the day glimmered away
+he swung the ruby necklace before Isolt.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the fruit of a magical oak-tree that grew mid air," he
+cried, "and was won by Sir Tristram as a tourney prize to
+bring to you."</p>
+
+<p>Flinging the rubies round her neck he had just touched her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+jeweled throat with his lips when behind him rose a shadow
+and a shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Mark's way!" cried Mark, the Cornish king, and he clove
+Tristram through the brain.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>That very night Arthur came back from the North, and as
+he climbed up the tower steps to go to the queen, in the dark
+of the tower something pulled at him. It was little Dagonet.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" said the king.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm little Dagonet, your fool," sobbed the little jester,
+"and I cry because I can never make you laugh again."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PASSING_OF_ARTHUR" id="THE_PASSING_OF_ARTHUR"></a>THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.</h2>
+
+
+<p>One night King Arthur saw Sir Gawain in a dream, and
+Gawain, who had been killed, shrilly called out to him through
+the wind:</p>
+
+<p>"Hail King! to-morrow you are going to pass away, and
+there's a land of rest for you. Farewell!"</p>
+
+<p>But when Arthur told his dream to Sir Bedivere, good old
+Sir Bedivere replied, "Don't mind what dreams tell you, but
+get your knights together and go out to the West to meet Sir
+Modred, who has stirred up against you so many of the knights
+you love. They all know in their hearts that you are king.
+Go and conquer them as of old."</p>
+
+<p>So the king took his army by night and pushed upon Modred
+league after league, until they reached the Western part of
+Lyonesse where the long mountains ended in the moaning
+sea. There Modred's men could flee no farther, so on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+waste lands by the barren sea they began that last dim weird
+battle of the West.</p>
+
+<p>A white chill mist slept over all the land and water so that
+even Arthur became confused since he could not see which were
+his friends and which were his foes. Friends killed friends,
+some saw the faces of old ghosts looking in upon the battle.
+Spears were splintered, shields were broken, swords clashed,
+helmets were shattered, men shrieked and looked up to heaven
+for help but saw only the white, white mists. There were
+cries for light and moans.</p>
+
+<p>At last toward the close of the day a hush fell over the whole
+shore; a bitter wind from the North blew the mist aside and
+the pale king looked across the battlefield. But no one was
+there only the waves breaking in among the dead faces.</p>
+
+<p>But bold Bedivere said: "My King! the man who hates
+you stands there, Modred, the traitor of your house!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call this traitor a person of my house," the king
+replied. "The men of my house are not those who have
+lived under one roof with me, but those who always call me
+their king."</p>
+
+<p>With that, Arthur dashed after Modred. Modred struck
+at the king's helmet, which had grown thin with all his
+heathen wars. Arthur with his sword Excalibur struck
+Modred dead, then fell down himself almost killed with the
+wound through his helmet.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Bedivere lifted him up and carried him to a chapel near
+by.</p>
+
+<p>"Take my sword, Excalibur," said the King, "and fling
+it out into the middle of the sea, watch what happens to it and
+then come back at once and tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't seem right to leave you all alone here," said Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+Bedivere, "when you are wounded and ill, but since you wish
+me to go, I will, and will do all that you have told me."</p>
+
+<p>He slipped away by zigzag paths, points and jutting rock
+to the shining level of the sea. There he drew out the sword
+Excalibur. The winter moon sparkled against its hilt and
+made it twinkle with its diamond sparks, with myriads of
+topaz lights and fine jewelry work. Bedivere gazed so long
+at it that both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, and he wondered
+whether he ought to throw away so beautiful a thing.
+At last he decided to hide it away among the water-flags that
+grew along shore.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you do as I said?" asked the king, when he saw him.
+"What did you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds," said Sir Bedivere,
+"and the wild water lapping on the rock."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not giving me a true answer," said the king,
+faint and pale. "It's shameful for men to lie. Quickly go
+again and as you are true and dear, do just as I bade you.
+Watch and bring me word."</p>
+
+<p>Then Sir Bedivere went the second time and paced up and
+down beside the pebbly water, counting the dewey pebbles,
+but when he saw the wonderful sword he clapped his hands
+together and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"If I threw that sword away, a precious thing will be lost
+forever. The King is ill; he does not know what he is doing.
+His great sword ought to be kept, then in long years hereafter
+people will look at it at the tournament and they will say:
+'This was the great Arthur's sword Excalibur which was made
+by the lonely lady of the Lake, working in the deep sea for nine
+years.'"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So the second time he hid Excalibur and strode very slowly
+back to the king.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you see or what did you hear?" asked Arthur
+breathing very heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the water lapping on the rock and the long
+ripples washing in the reeds."</p>
+
+<p>"Unkind! miserable! untrue! unknightly!" cried Arthur,
+filled with anger. "I see what you are, for you are the only
+one left me of all the knights, yet you would betray me for my
+sword, either to sell it or like a girl, because you love its beauty.
+Go out now the third time and if you do not throw out my
+sword Excalibur I'll get up and kill you with my hands."</p>
+
+<p>At this Sir Bedivere sprang up like a flash and ran down
+leaping lightly over the ridges, plunged into the beds of bulrushes,
+clutched the sword, wheeled it round strongly and
+threw it as far as he could.</p>
+
+<p>Excalibur made lightning in the moonlight as it flashed
+round and round and whirled in an arch, shooting far out to
+the water. But before it quite dipped into the sea an arm
+robed in white samite, mystic and wonderful, rose out of the
+waves, caught it by the hilt, brandished it three times and
+drew it under.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I can see by your eyes that you have done it!" cried
+the King. "Speak out; what have you seen or heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir King," cried Sir Bedivere, "I closed my eyes when I
+picked it up so that I would not be turned from my purpose
+of throwing it into the water, for I could live three lives, Sir
+King, and I wouldn't again see such a wonderful thing as your
+sword. Sir, I threw it out with both hands, wheeling it round
+and when I looked an arm robed in white samite reached up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+out of the water and caught it by the hilt, brandished it three
+times and drew it under."</p>
+
+<p>"Carry me to the shore," said the king.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus153.jpg" width="400" height="367" alt="AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE." title="AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE." />
+<span class="caption">AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So Bedivere lifted him up and walked as swiftly as he could
+from the ridge, heavily, heavily down to the beach. As they
+reached the shore they saw a black barge beside the water
+filled with stately people all dressed in black. Among the people
+were three queens wearing crowns of gold.</p>
+
+<p>"Put me into the barge," cried Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>So they came to the barge and the three queens held out
+their hands and took the king.</p>
+
+<p>The tallest and fairest of them held his head upon her lap
+loosed his shattered helmet and chafed his hands, and moaned
+tenderly over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my lord Arthur," cried Sir Bedivere, "where shall I go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+now? For the old times are past now and the whole Round
+Table is broken."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and pray," cried the king. "Farewell, for I am going
+a very long way to the lovely Island-valley of Avilion where
+it will never hail nor rain nor snow, and where the loud winds
+never blow. It lies in deep meadows, beautiful with lawns
+and fruit trees and flowery glens."</p>
+
+<p>Then the barge set sail and oar, and moved away from the
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>"The king is gone!" groaned Bedivere.</p>
+
+<p>He walked away from the shore and climbed up to the
+highest peaks and ridges about him and looked far, far away.
+And from far away out beyond the world he thought he heard
+sounds from a beautiful city as if every one in it all together
+were welcoming a great King who had just come back from
+his wars.</p>
+
+<p class="center">END.</p>
+
+<div class="tranotes">
+<span class="smcap">Transcriber's Note:</span><br /><br />
+Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
+note. There are inconsistencies with italicising text that refers
+to illustrations. I have left these as in the original text.<br />
+Corrections made include the following:<br />
+p34. ecstacy => ecstasy<br />
+p37. meaintime => meantime<br />
+p52. magnificient => magnificent<br />
+p66. Springly => Springing<br />
+p75. Geriant => Geraint<br />
+p90. jealously => jealousy<br />
+p100. though => through<br />
+p101. passed => past<br />
+p101. musn't => mustn't<br />
+p106. heathern => heathen<br />
+p106. Gunievere => Guinevere<br />
+p117. to => that<br />
+p146. Mordred => Modred<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,4417 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Tennyson
+
+Author: Molly K. Bellew
+
+Illustrator: H. S. Campbell
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2011 [EBook #35598]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TENNYSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Peter Vickers, Juliet Sutherland
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS]
+
+   TALES FROM TENNYSON
+
+   BY
+   MOLLY K. BELLEW
+
+   EDITOR OF
+   "TALES FROM LONGFELLOW"
+   "DICKENS' CHRISTMAS STORIES FOR CHILDREN"
+   ETC., ETC.
+
+   ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. CAMPBELL
+
+   NEW YORK AND BOSTON
+   H. M. CALDWELL CO.
+   PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+   COPYRIGHT, 1902
+   BY
+   JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO.
+
+
+
+
+   CONTENTS.
+
+
+   The Coming of King Arthur               9
+
+   Gareth and Lynette                     29
+
+   The Marriage of Geraint                46
+
+   Geraint's Quest of Honor               64
+
+   Merlin and Vivien                      85
+
+   Balin and Balan                        95
+
+   Lancelot and Elaine                   104
+
+   The Holy Grail                        119
+
+   Pelleas and Ettarre                   132
+
+   The Last Tournament                   142
+
+   The Passing of Arthur                 150
+
+
+
+
+To my Young Readers.
+
+
+Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and none, perhaps
+not even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly to the human heart. No
+other man's poems have caused as many readers to shed tears of sympathy
+nor have awakened higher sentiments in the human heart. The critics
+agree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his "Idylls from
+the King" are found the loftiest and proudest deeds of English history
+and even in the retelling of these in prose the high spirit that is an
+inspiration to the noblest deeds cannot fail to be preserved.
+
+                                         MOLLY K. BELLEW.
+
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR.
+
+
+Over a thousand years ago everybody was talking about the wonderful King
+Arthur and his brilliant Knights of the Round Table, who everywhere were
+pursuing bold quests, putting to rout the band of outlaws and robbers
+which in those days infested every highway and by-way of the country,
+going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and order among
+the rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the poor and the oppressed,
+and winning glorious renown for their valor and their successes.
+
+That was in England which at that time was not England as it is today,
+all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was divided into many bits of
+kingdoms each with its own king and all warring against each other.
+Arthur's kingdom was the most unpeaceful of all. This was because for
+twenty years or more, ever since the death of old King Uther, the
+country had been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a score
+of years before without leaving an heir to the throne, and all the
+nobles of the realm had immediately gone to war with one another each
+trying to get the most land and each trying to get the throne for
+himself.
+
+[Illustration: OLD MERLIN APPEARS.]
+
+Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been King Uther's
+magician, appeared one day in the royal council hall with a handsome
+young man, Arthur, and declared him to be the king of the realm. Arthur
+was crowned and for a time the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with a
+strong hand of iron, put down all the evils in his kingdom and
+everywhere gave it peace and order. People in every part of the island
+sent for him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out of
+their difficulties. But presently the nobles became troublesome again;
+they said that Arthur was not the true king, that he was not the son of
+Uther and that, therefore, he had no right to reign over them. So there
+was fighting and unrest again, and in the midst of it Leodogran, the
+king of the Land of Cameliard, asked Arthur to come with his knights and
+drive away the enemies besetting him on every side. The country of
+Cameliard had gone to waste and ruin, because of the continual warfare
+that was waged with the kings that lived in the little neighboring
+countries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen peoples who invaded
+the land. And so it happened that Cameliard was ravaged with battles,
+its strong men were cut down with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, and
+bears from the tangled weeds came rooting up the green fields and
+wallowing into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole little
+children from the villages and nursed them like their own cubs, until
+finally these children grew up into a race of wolf-men who molested the
+land worse than the wolves themselves. Then another king fought
+Leodogran, and at last the heathen hordes came swarming from over the
+seas and made all the earth red with his soldiers' blood, and they made
+the sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people.
+
+Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help until at last
+he thought of young Arthur of the Round Table who recently had been
+crowned king. So Leodogran sent for Arthur beseeching him to come and
+help him, for between the men and the beasts his country was dying.
+
+[Illustration: PRINCESS GUINEVERE.]
+
+King Arthur and his men welcomed the chance and went at once into the
+Land of Cameliard to drive away the heathen marauders. As he marched
+with his men past the castle walls, pretty Princess Guinevere stood
+outside to watch the glittering soldiers go by. Among so many richly
+dressed knights she did not particularly notice Arthur, for he wore
+nothing to show that he was king, although his kingly bearing and brave
+forehead might suggest leadership. But no royal arms were engraved upon
+his helmet or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly so
+gorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others.
+
+[Illustration: HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY.]
+
+Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur spied her
+beside the castle wall; he felt the light of her beautiful eyes
+glimmering out into his heart and setting it all aflame with a fire of
+love for her.
+
+He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched their
+tents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered away to their
+own territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts that had plundered
+the fields, cut down the forest trees so as to open out roads for the
+people of Cameliard to pass over from one part of their land to the
+other, then he traveled quietly away with his men, back to fight his own
+battles in his own country. For there was fighting everywhere in those
+days. But all the time in Arthur's heart, while he was doing those
+wonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of Leodogran,
+but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her.
+
+If only she could be his queen he thought they two together could rule
+on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and could exert a
+mighty power over all his people to make them good and wise and happy.
+Each day increased his love until he could not bear even to think for a
+moment of living without her. So from the very field of battle, while
+the swords were flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons
+and great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched three
+messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard.
+
+These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, the very
+first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. They went to Leodogran
+and said that if Arthur had been of any service to him in his recent
+troubles with the heathen and the wild beasts, he should give the
+Princess Guinevere to be Arthur's wife as a mark of his good will.
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN.]
+
+Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what to do any
+better than when the heathen and the beasts had come upon him. For while
+he thought Arthur a very bold soldier and a very fine man, and, although
+he felt very grateful indeed to him for all the great things he had
+done, still he was not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For,
+as Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the wife of
+none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not know precisely who
+this King Arthur was; but he did know that the barons of Arthur's court
+had burst out into this uproar against him because they said he was not
+their true king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before
+him. Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others
+avowed that Sir Anton was his father.
+
+As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter himself, he
+sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who always had good
+counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he asked the chamberlain whether
+he had heard anything certainly as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlain
+told him that there were just two men in all the world who knew the
+truth with respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both
+these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was Merlin the
+wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in magic, who had written
+a book of his renowned pupil's wonders, which probably related
+everything regarding the secret of Arthur's birth.
+
+"If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than you have just
+now in my present trouble," the king answered the chamberlain, "I would
+have died long ago from the wild beasts and the heathen. Send me in
+Ulfius and Brastias and Bedivere again."
+
+So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came into Leodogran
+who spoke to them this way: "I have often seen a big cuckoo chased by
+little birds and understood why such tiny birds plagued him so, but why
+are the nobles in your country rebelling against their king and saying
+that he is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves think
+he is the child of King Uther."
+
+[Illustration: SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT.]
+
+Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but Bedivere, the first
+of all Arthur's knights, became very bold when anyone slandered his
+sovereign and he replied: "_Sir King, there are all sorts of stories
+about that_; some of the nobles hate him just because he is good and
+they are wicked; they cry out that he is no man because his ways are
+gentler than their rough manners, while others again think he must be
+an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts as I know
+them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago; they both loved
+Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and had no sons, but three
+daughters, one of them the Queen of Orkney who has clung to Arthur like
+a sister. The two rivals, Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other
+and Gerlois was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsome
+Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently.
+In a few months Uther died, and on that very night of his death Arthur
+was born. And as soon as he was born they carried him out by a secret
+back gateway to Merlin the magician, to be brought up far away from the
+court so that no one would hear about him until he was grown up ready to
+sit upon Uther's, his father, throne.
+
+"For those were wild lords in those years just like these of today,
+always struggling for the rule, and they would have shattered the
+helpless little prince to pieces had they known about him. So Merlin
+took the baby and gave him over to old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's,
+and Sir Anton's wife tended Arthur with her own little ones so that
+nobody knew who he was or where he had come from. But while the prince
+was growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and barons were
+fighting all the time among themselves and nobody ruled. But during this
+present year Arthur's time for ascending the throne had come, so Merlin
+brought him from out of his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and
+cried out to all the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, your
+king!' Of course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried
+back immediately: 'Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's the son
+of Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king.'
+
+"In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he won the
+day for the people, who were clamoring for a king and were glad to see
+Arthur crowned. But after it all was over the lords banded together and
+broke out in open war against Arthur. That is the whole story of this
+war."
+
+Although pleased with Bedivere's good account of Arthur, yet when it was
+ended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was Bedivere right, he thought
+to himself, or were the barons right? As he sat pondering over
+everything in his palace, _three great visitors came to the castle_;
+these were the Queen of Orkney, the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, with
+her two sons, Gawain and Modred. Leodogran made a great feast for them
+and while entertaining them at table remembered what Bedivere had said
+about Arthur and this queen. So he turned to the queen and remarked:
+
+[Illustration: THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE.]
+
+"An insecure throne is no better than a mass of ice in a summer's sea;
+it all melts away. You are from Arthur's court; tell me, do you think
+this king with his few loyal Knights of the Round Table can triumph over
+the rebellious lords, and keep his throne?"
+
+"O King, they are few indeed," the Queen of Orkney cried, "but so bold
+and true, and all of one mind with him. I was there at the coronation
+when the savage yells of the nobles died away, and Arthur sat crowned
+upon the dais with all his knights gathered round him to do his service
+for him forever. Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of great
+authority bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that when
+they rose from their knees one after the other, some of them looked as
+pale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were flushed in their
+faces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind with their awe as if not
+fully awake. Then he spoke to them, cheering them with divine words that
+are far more than my tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke every
+face flashed, for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifix
+above, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon the
+bright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends who stood
+silently beside his throne, and who will always be ready to help him if
+he is in need.
+
+"Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred years of art
+like so many hands of vassals to wait upon the young king. Near Merlin
+stood the mystical, marvelous Lady of the Lake, who knows a deeper magic
+than Merlin's own, dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all about
+her and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom. But when the holy
+hymns were sung a voice like flowing waters sounded through the music.
+It was the voice of the Lady of the Lake who lives in the lowest waters
+of the lake where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow over
+the earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above her can walk out
+upon their crests just as our Lord did.
+
+"_It was she who gave Arthur his remarkable sword_ Excalibur, with its
+hilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen for you. That
+strange sword rose up from out the bosom of the lake, and Arthur rowed
+over in a little boat and took it. The sword is incrusted with rich
+jewels on the hilt, with a blade so bright that men are blinded by it.
+On one side the words 'Take me' are graven upon it in the oldest
+language of the world, while on the other side the words 'Cast me away'
+are carved in the tongue that you speak.
+
+[Illustration: SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD]
+
+"Arthur became very sad when he saw the second inscription, but Merlin
+advised him to take the beautiful blade and use it; he told him that now
+was the time to strike and that the time to cast away was very, very far
+off. So Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat down
+his enemies, King Leodogran."
+
+Leodogran was pleased with the queen's words, but he wished to test the
+story Bedivere had told him, so he looked into her eyes narrowly as he
+observed, with a question in his tones, "The swallow and the swift are
+very near kin, but you are still closer to this noble prince as you are
+his own dear sister."
+
+"I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne," she answered.
+
+"Yes, that is why you are Arthur's sister," the king returned still
+questioningly.
+
+"These are secret things," the Queen of Orkney replied, and she motioned
+with her hand for her two sons to leave her alone in the room with the
+king.
+
+Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying after and
+frolicked outside like a frisky pony, _but cunning Modred laid his ear
+close beside the door to listen_, so that he half heard all the strange
+story his mother told the king. This is what the queen said in the
+beginning to the king.
+
+[Illustration: CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR TO LISTEN]
+
+"What should I know about it? For my mother's hair and eyes were dark,
+and so were the eyes and hair of Gerlois, and Uther was dark too, almost
+black, but the King Arthur is fairer than anyone else in Britain.
+However, I remember how my mother used often to weep and say, 'O that
+you had some brother, pretty little one, to guard you from the rough
+ways of the world."
+
+"Yes? She said that?" Leodogran rejoined, "but when did you see Arthur
+first?"
+
+"O king, I will tell you all about it," cried the Queen of Orkney. "Once
+when I was a little bit of a girl and had been beaten for some childish
+fault that I had not committed, I ran outside and flung myself on a
+grassy bank and hated all the world and everything in it, and wished I
+were dead. But all of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don't
+know how he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him, for
+Merlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if he will, but any
+rate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting me and drying my tears.
+After that Arthur came very often without anybody knowing it and we were
+children together, and in those golden days I felt sure he would be
+king.
+
+"But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who taught the
+magician Merlin. You know they both served King Uther, and just a little
+while ago when Bleys died he sent for me. He said he had something to
+tell me that I must know before he left the world. He said that they
+two, Merlin and he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night when
+the king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir to his
+throne. After the king's death as Merlin and Bleys walked out from the
+castle walls into the dismal misty night, they saw a wonderful
+fairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon sailing the heavens, with shining
+people collected on its decks; but in the twinkling of an eye the ship
+was gone.
+
+"Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by the seashore to
+watch the billows, one after the other, as they lapped up against the
+beach. And as they looked at last a great wave gathered up one-half of
+the ocean and came full of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaring
+all the while. Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the wave
+and in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by the
+water to Merlin's very feet.
+
+"'The king!' cried Merlin. 'Here's an heir for Uther.'
+
+"Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great flaming
+breaker lashed at him as he held up the baby; it rose up round him in a
+mantle of fire so that he and the child were clothed in fire. Then
+suddenly there was a calm, the stars looked out and the sky was open.
+
+"'And this same child,' Bleys whispered to me, 'is the young king who
+reigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story had been told.'
+Then Bleys passed away into the land where nobody can question him.
+
+"So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true about the
+shining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating down from heaven
+over on the glory of the seas; but Merlin just laughed, as he always
+does, and answered me in the riddles of the old song, this way:
+
+    "'Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky!
+    A young man will be wiser by and by;
+    An old man's wit may wander ere he die.
+    Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea!
+    And truth is this to me and that to thee;
+    And truth or clothed or naked let it be.
+    Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows;
+    Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows.
+    From the great deep to the great deep he goes!'
+
+"It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but you must
+not be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere to this King
+Arthur. For great poets will sing of his brave deeds in long years after
+this; and Merlin has said, and not joking, either, that even although
+Arthur's enemies may wound him in battle he will never, never die, but
+will only pass away for a time, for a little while, and then will come
+to us again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going to
+trample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the nations and
+all the men will call him their king."
+
+It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of Orkney told
+him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay thinking over it all, still
+puzzled as to whether he should say "yes" or "no" to the ambassadors
+whom Arthur had sent. As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very,
+very drowsy and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept
+he saw a wonderful vision in a dream.
+
+There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that ascended
+higher and higher, field after field, to a very great height and at the
+top there was a lofty peak hidden in the heavy, hazy clouds; and on the
+peak a phantom king stood. One moment the king was there, and the next
+moment he was gone, while everything below him was in a frightful
+confusion, a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle
+falling back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up in
+streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king stood in the
+fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king spoke out through the
+haze, and some one here or there beneath would point upward toward him,
+but the rest all went on fighting. They cried out, "He is no king of
+ours, no son of Uther's, no king of ours." Then in a twinkling the dream
+all changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth below the
+peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful king remained,
+crowned with his diadems, standing in the heavens.
+
+Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. He called
+for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they had come into this
+presence he told them that Arthur should marry the fair Princess
+Guinevere, and he sent them galloping back to Arthur's court.
+
+That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights delivered
+King Leodogran's message. He made ready at once for his sweet queen. He
+picked out Lancelot, his favorite Knight of the Round Table, whom he
+loved better than any other man in all the world, to ride over into the
+Land of Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as
+Lancelot mounted his dancing steed and rode away _Arthur watched him
+from the palace gates_, thinking of the lovely lady who would ride by
+his side when he returned.
+
+[Illustration: LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.]
+
+Lancelot's horse trampled away among the flowers; for it was April when
+he left the court of Arthur, and just one month later he came riding
+back among the flowers of the May-time. Guinevere was with him on her
+graceful palfrey.
+
+Then Dubric, the head of the whole church in Britain, went out to meet
+her. Happy Arthur was there too. They were married in the greatest and
+noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all the
+Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white clothes, gathered
+about them. And all the knights were as delighted as they could be
+because their king was so glad. Holy Dubric spread out his hands above
+the King and the lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and
+he said:
+
+[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN.]
+
+"Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, and may your
+queen be one with you, and may all the Knights of the Order of the Round
+Table fulfill the boundless purposes of their king."
+
+There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords came thither
+from far away Rome, which once was the mistress of all the world, but
+now was slowly fading away. These Roman lords called for the tribute
+from Arthur that they had always received from Britain ever since Caesar
+with his Roman legions had conquered it long years before.
+
+But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy knights and
+said: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight for me in all my wars
+and to worship me as their king. The old order of things has passed away
+and a new order will take its place. We are fighting for our fair father
+Christ, while you have been growing so feeble and so weak and so old
+that you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman walls any
+more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be your slaves. This is to
+be our own free country which we will defend and maintain."
+
+_The great lords from Rome drew back very angrily_ and went home and
+told their king all about what Arthur had said. So Arthur had to battle
+with Rome, but he won in the end.
+
+Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they all felt like
+one great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he became mightier
+than any of the other kings in any part of Britain. And when he fought
+with them he always conquered them. In that way he drew in all the
+little kingdoms under him, so that he was the one king of the land, and
+they all fought together for him.
+
+There were twelve great battles against the heathen hordes that had
+molested them from across the terrible seas, and each of these battles
+he won. So he made one great realm and he reigned over it, the king.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK.]
+
+
+
+
+GARETH AND LYNETTE.
+
+
+Old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent had three sons. Gawain and Modred
+were Knights of the Round Table at Arthur's court, and young Gareth, who
+was his mother's pet, sighed to think he had to stay home and be cuddled
+and fondled like a baby boy instead of riding off like a venturesome
+soldier fighting gloriously for the king and winning a great name.
+
+"There!" he cried impatiently, one chilly spring day as he stood by the
+brink of a rivulet and saw a bit of a pine tree caught from the bank by
+the dashing, swollen waters of the stream and whirled madly away.
+"That's the way the king's enemies would fall before my spear, if I had
+a spear to use! That stream can do no more than I can, even although it
+is merely icy water all cold with the snows while I'm tingling with hot
+blood and have strong arms. When Gawain came home last summer and asked
+me to tilt with him and Modred was the judge, didn't I shake him so in
+his saddle that he said I had half overcome him? Humph! and mother
+thinks I'm still a child!"
+
+_Gareth went in to the queen_ and said: "Mother, if you love me listen
+to a story I will tell. Once there was an egg which a great royal eagle
+laid high above on the rocks somewhere almost out of sight and there was
+a lad which saw the splendor sparkling from it, and the lightnings
+playing around it and the little birds crying and clashing in the nest.
+The boy thought if he could only reach that egg he would be richer than
+a houseful of kings, and he was nearly driven from his sense with his
+desire for it. But whenever he reached to clamber up for it some one who
+loved him restrained him saying, 'If you love me do not climb, lest
+you break your neck.' So the boy did not climb, mother, and he did not
+break his neck, but he broke his heart pining for the glorious egg. How
+can you keep me tethered here, Mother? Let me go!"
+
+[Illustration: MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL.]
+
+"Have you no pity for me?" Queen Bellicent asked. "Stay here by your
+poor old father and me; chase the deer in our fir trees and marry some
+lovely bride I will get for you. You're my best son and so young."
+
+"Mother, a king once showed his son two brides and told him that he must
+either win the beautiful one, or, if he failed, wed the other. The
+pretty one was Fame and the other was Shame. Why should I follow the
+deer when I can follow the king? Why was I born a man if I cannot do a
+man's work?"
+
+"But some of the barons say he isn't the true king."
+
+"Hasn't he conquered the Romans and driven off the heathen and made all
+the people free? Who has a right to be king if not the man who has done
+that? He is the true king."
+
+When Bellicent found that she could not turn Gareth from his purpose,
+she said that if he was determined he must do one thing before he asked
+the king to make him a knight.
+
+"Anything," cried Gareth. "Give me a hundred proofs. Only be quick."
+
+The queen looked at him very slowly and said: "You are a prince, Gareth,
+but before you are fit to serve the king you must go into Arthur's court
+disguised and hire yourself to serve his meats and drink among the
+scullions and kitchen knaves. And you must not tell your name to anyone
+and you must serve that way for a year and a day."
+
+The queen made this condition, thinking that Gareth would be too proud
+to play the slave. But he thought a moment, then answered: "A slave may
+be free in his soul, and I can see the jousts there. You are my mother
+so I must obey you and I will be a scullion in King Arthur's kitchen and
+keep my name a secret from everyone, even the king."
+
+So Bellicent grieved and watched Gareth every moment wherever he went,
+dreading the time when he should leave. And he waited until one windy
+night when she slept, then called two servants and slipped away with
+them, all three dressed like poor peasants of the field.
+
+They walked away towards the south and as they came to the plain
+stretching to the mountain of Camelot, they saw the royal city upon its
+brow. Sometimes its spires and towers flashed in the sunlight; sometimes
+only the great gate shone out before their eyes, or again the whole fair
+town vanished away. Then the servants said:
+
+"Let us go no further, Lord. It's an enchanted city, and all a vision.
+The people say anyway, that Arthur isn't the true king, but only a
+changeling from fairyland, and that Merlin won his battles for him with
+magic."
+
+Gareth laughed and replied that he had magic enough in his blood and
+hopes to plunge old Merlin into the Arabian sea. And he pushed them on
+to the gate. There was no other gate like it under heaven. The Lady of
+the Lake stood barefooted on the keystone and held up the cornice. Drops
+of water fell from either hand and above were the three queens who were
+Arthur's friends, and on each side Arthur's wars were pictured in weird
+devices with dragons and elves so intertwined that they made men dizzy
+to look at them. The servants cried out, "Lord, the gateway is alive!"
+Then a blast of music pealed out of the city, and the three queens
+stepped aside while an old man with a long beard came out and asked:
+
+"Who are you, my sons?"
+
+"We are peasants," answered Gareth, "who have come to see the glories of
+your king, but the city looked so strange through the morning mist that
+my men are wondering whether it is not a fairy city or perhaps no city
+at all. So tell us the truth about it."
+
+"Oh, it's a fairy city," the old man answered, "and a fairy king and
+queen came out of the mountain cleft at sunrise with harps in their
+hands and built it to music, which means it never was built at all, and
+therefore built forever."
+
+"Why do you mock me so?" Gareth cried angrily.
+
+"I am not mocking you so much as you are mocking me and every one who
+looks at you, for you are not what you seem, still I know what you truly
+are."
+
+Then the old man turned away and Gareth said to his men: "Our poor
+little white lie stands like a ghost at the very beginning of our
+enterprise. Blame my mother's love for it and not her nor me."
+
+So they all laughed and came into the city of Camelot with its shadowy
+and stately palaces. Here and there a knight passed in or out, his arms
+clashing and the sound was good to Gareth's ears. Or out of a casement
+window glanced the pure eyes of lovely women. But Gareth made at once
+for the hall of the king where his heart fairly hammered into his ears
+as he wondered whether Arthur would turn him aside because of the half
+shadow of a lie he had told the old man by the gate about being a
+peasant. There were many supplicants coming before the king to tell him
+of some hurt done them by marauders or the wild beasts, and each one was
+given a knight by the king to help them.
+
+When Gareth's turn came, he rested his arms, one on each servant, and
+stepped forward saying: "A boon, Sir King! Do you see how weak I seem,
+leaning on these men? Pray let me go into your kitchen and serve there
+for a year and a day, and do not ask me my name. After that I will fight
+for you."
+
+"You are a handsome youth," said the king, "and worth something better
+from the king, but if that is what you wish, go and serve under the
+seneschal, Sir Kay, Master of the Meats and Drinks."
+
+Sir Kay thought the boy had probably run away from the farm belonging to
+some Abbey where he had not had enough to eat, and he promised that if
+Gareth would work well he would feed him until he was as plump as a
+pigeon.
+
+But Lancelot, the king's favorite, said to Kay: "You don't understand
+boys as well as dogs and cattle. Can't you see by this lad's broad fair
+forehead and fine hands that he is nobly born? Treat him well or he may
+shame you."
+
+"Fair and fine, forsooth," cried Kay. "If he had been a gentleman he
+would have asked for a horse and armor."
+
+So he hustled and harried Garreth, _set him to draw water_, _hew wood_
+and labor harder than any of the grimy and smudgy kitchen knaves. Gareth
+did all with a noble sort of ease and graced the lowliest act, and when
+the knaves all gathered together of an evening to tell stories about
+Arthur on the battlefields or of Lancelot in the tournament, Gareth
+listened delightedly or made them all, with gaping mouths, listen
+charmed, to some prodigious tale of his own about wonderful knights
+cutting their scarlet way through twenty folds of twisted dragons. When
+there was a Joust and Sir Kay let him attend it, he went half beside
+himself in an ecstasy watching the warriors clash their springing
+spears, and the sniffing chargers reel.
+
+At the end of the first month, lonely Queen Bellicent felt sorry for her
+poor, dear son, toiling and moiling among pots and pans, so she sent a
+servant to Camelot with the beaming armor of a knight and freed him from
+his vow. Gareth colored redder than any young girl and went alone in to
+the king and told him all.
+
+[Illustration: SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD.]
+
+"Make me your knight in secret," he begged Arthur, "and give me the very
+next quest from your court!"
+
+"Son," answered the king, "my knights are sworn to vows of utter
+hardihood, of utter gentleness, of utter faithfulness in love and of
+utter obedience to the king."
+
+Gareth sprang lightly from his knees: "My king, I can promise you for my
+hardihood; respecting my obedience, ask Sir Kay, and as for love I have
+not loved yet, but God willing some day I will, and faithfully."
+
+The reply so pleased the great king, he laid his hand on Gareth's arm
+and smiled and knighted him.
+
+A few days later _a noble maiden_ with a brow like a May-blossom and a
+saucy nose _passed into the king's hall with her page_ and told Arthur
+that her name was Lynette, and that her beautiful sister, the Lady
+Lyonors lived in the Castle Perilous which was beset with bandit
+knights.
+
+[Illustration: A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE.]
+
+"A river courses about the castle in three loops," said she, "each loop
+has a bridge and every bridge is guarded by a wicked outlaw warrior, Sir
+Morning-star, Sir Noon-sun and Sir Evening-star, while a fourth called
+Death, a huge man-beast of boundless savageries, is besieging my sister
+in her own castle so as to break her will and make her wed with him.
+They are four fools," cried the maiden disdainfully, "but they are
+mighty men so I have come to ask for Lancelot to ride away with me to
+help us."
+
+Gareth was up in a twinkling with kindled eyes. "A boon, Sir King, this
+quest," he cried. "I am only a knave from your kitchen, but I can
+topple over a hundred such fellows. Your promise, king."
+
+"You are rough and sudden and worthy to be a knight. Therefore go," said
+Arthur to the great amazement of the court.
+
+"Fie on you, King!" exclaimed Lynette in a fury. "I asked you for your
+best knight, Lancelot, and you give me a slave from your kitchen," and
+she scampered down the aisle, leaped to her horse and flitted out of the
+weird white gate. "A kitchen slave!" she sputtered as she flew. "Why
+didn't the king send me a knight that fights for love and glory?"
+
+Gareth in the meantime had strode to the side doorway of the royal hall
+where he saw a war-horse awaiting him, the gift of Arthur and worth half
+the price of a town. His two servants stood by with his shield and
+helmet and spear. Dropping his coarse kitchen cloak to the floor, he
+instantly harnessed himself in his armor, leaped to the back of his
+beautiful steed and flashed out of the gateway while all his kitchen
+mates threw up their caps and cried, "God bless the king and all his
+fellowship!"
+
+"Maiden, the quest is mine," he said to Lynette as he overtook her,
+"Lead and I follow."
+
+"Away with you!" she cried, nipping her slender nose. "You smell of
+kitchen grease. See there, your master is coming!"
+
+Indeed she told the truth, for Sir Kay, infuriated with Gareth's
+boldness in the king's hall was hounding after them. "Don't you know
+me?" he shouted.
+
+"Yes, too well," returned Gareth. "I know you to be the most ungentle
+knight in Arthur's court."
+
+"Have at me, then," cried Kay, whereupon Gareth pounced upon him with
+his gleaming lance and struck him instantly to the earth, then turned
+for Lynette and said again, "Lead and I follow."
+
+But Lynette had hurried her galloping palfrey away and would not stop
+the beast until his heart had nearly burst with its violent throbbing.
+Then she turned and eyed Gareth as scornfully as ever. As he pranced to
+her side she observed:
+
+"Do you suppose scullion, that I think any more of you now that by some
+good luck you have overthrown your master. You dishwasher and
+water-carrier, you smell of the kitchen quite as much as before."
+
+"Maiden," Gareth rejoined gently, "Say what you will, but whatever you
+say, I will not leave this quest until it is ended or I have died for
+it."
+
+"O, my, how the knave talks! But you'll soon meet with another knave
+whom in spite of all the kitchen concoctions ever brewed, you'll not
+dare look in the face."
+
+"I'll try him," answered Gareth with a smile that maddened Lynette. And
+away she darted again far into the strange avenues of the limitless
+woods.
+
+Gareth plunged on through the pine trees after her and a serving-man
+came breaking through the black forest crying out, "They've bound my
+master and are throwing him into the lake!"
+
+"Lead and I follow," cried Gareth to Lynette, and she led, plunging into
+the pine trees until they came upon a hollow sinking away into a lake,
+where six tall men up to their thighs in reeds and bulrushes were
+dragging a seventh man with a stone about his neck toward the water to
+drown him.
+
+Gareth sprang upon three and stilled them with his doughty blows, but
+three scurried away through the trees; then Gareth loosened the stone
+from the gentleman and set him on his feet. He proved to be a baron and
+a friend of Arthur and asked Gareth what he could do to show his
+gratitude for the saving of his life. Gareth said he would like a
+night's shelter for the lady who was with him. So they rode over toward
+the graceful manor house where the baron lived, and as they rode he said
+to Gareth.
+
+"I believe you are of the Table," meaning that Gareth was a Knight of
+the Round Table.
+
+"Yes, he is of the table after his own fashion," Lynette laughed, "for
+he serves in Arthur's kitchen." And turning toward Gareth she added, "Do
+not imagine that I admire you the more for having routed these miserable
+cowardly foresters; any thresher with his flail could have done that."
+
+And when they were seated at the baron's table, Gareth by Lynette's
+side, she cried out to their host, "It seems dreadfully rude in you,
+Lord Baron, to place this knave beside me. Listen to me: I went to King
+Arthur's court to ask for Sir Lancelot to come to help my sister, and as
+I ended my plea, up bawls this kitchen boy: 'Mine's the quest.' And
+Arthur goes mad and sends me this fellow who was made to kill pigs and
+not redress the wrongs of women."
+
+So Gareth was seated at another table and the baron came to him and
+asked him whether it might not be better for him to relinquish his
+quest, but the lad replied that the king had given it to him and he
+would carry it through. The next morning he said again to proud Lynette,
+"Lead and I follow."
+
+But the maiden responded, "We are almost at the place where one of the
+knaves is stationed. Don't you want to go home? He will slay you and
+then I'll go back to Arthur and shame him for giving me a knight from
+his kitchen cinders."
+
+"Just let me fight," cried Gareth, "and I'll have as good luck as little
+Cinderella who married the prince."
+
+So they came to the first coil of the river and on the other side saw a
+rich white pavilion with a purple dome and a slender crimson flag
+fluttering above. The lawless Sir Morning-star paced up and down
+outside.
+
+"Damsel, is this the knight you've brought me?" he shouted.
+
+"Not a knight, but a knave. The king scorned you so he sent some one
+from his kitchen."
+
+"Come Daughters of the Dawn and arm me!" cried Sir Morning-star, and
+three bare-footed, bare-headed maidens in pink and gold dresses brought
+him a blue coat of mail and a blue shield.
+
+"A kitchen knave in scorn of me!" roared the blue knight. "I won't fight
+him. Go home, knave! It isn't proper for you to be riding abroad with a
+lady."
+
+"Dog, you lie! I'm sprung from nobler lineage than you," and saying
+this, Gareth sprang fiercely at his adversary who met him in the middle
+of the bridge. The two spears were hurled so harshly that both knights
+were thrown from their horses like two stones but up they leaped
+instantly. Gareth drew forth his sword and drove his enemy back down the
+bridge and laid him at his feet.
+
+"I yield," Sir Morning-star cried, "don't kill me."
+
+"Your life is in the hands of this lady," Gareth replied. "If she asks
+me to spare you I will."
+
+"Scullion!" Lynette cried, reddening with shame. "Do you suppose I will
+ask a favor of you?"
+
+"Then he dies," and Gareth was about to slay the wounded knight when
+Lynette screamed and told him he ought not to think of killing a man of
+nobler birth than himself. So Gareth said, "Knight, your life is spared
+at this lady's command. Go to King Arthur's court and tell him that his
+kitchen knave sent you, and crave his pardon for breaking his laws."
+
+"I thought the smells of the odors of the kitchen grew fainter while you
+were fighting on the bridge," Lynette remarked to Gareth as he took his
+place behind her and told her to lead, "but now they are as strong as
+ever."
+
+So they rode on until they arrived at the second loop of the river where
+the knight of the Noonday-Sun flared with his burning shield that blazed
+so violently that Gareth saw scarlet blots before his eyes as he turned
+away from it.
+
+"Here's a kitchen knave from Arthur's hall who has overthrown your
+brother," Lynette called across the river to him.
+
+"Ugh!" returned Sir Noonday-Sun, raising his visor to reveal his round
+foolish face like a cipher, and with that he pushed his horse into the
+foaming stream.
+
+Gareth met him midway and struck him four blows of his sword. As he was
+about to deal the fifth stroke the horse of the Noonday-Sun slipped and
+the stream washed his dazzling master away. Gareth plucked him out of
+the water and sent him back to King Arthur.
+
+"Lead and I follow," he said to Lynette.
+
+"Do not fancy," she rejoined, as she guided him toward the third passing
+of the river, "that I thought you bold or brave when you overcame Sir
+Noonday-Sun; he just slipped on the river-bed. Here we are at the third
+fool in the allegory, Sir Evening-star. You see he looks naked but he is
+only wrapped in hardened skins that fit him like his own. They will turn
+the blade of your sword."
+
+"Never mind," Gareth said, "the wind may turn again and the kitchen
+odors grow faint."
+
+Then Lynette called to the Evening-star:
+
+"Both of your brothers have gone down before this youth and so will you.
+Aren't you old?"
+
+"Old with the strength of twenty boys," said Sir Evening-star.
+
+"Old in boasting," Gareth cried, "but the same strength that slew your
+brothers can slay you."
+
+Then the Evening-star blew a deadly note upon his horn and a
+storm-beaten, russet, grizzly old woman came out and armed him in a
+quantity of dingy weapons. The two knights clashed together on the
+bridge and Gareth brought the Evening-star groveling in a minute to his
+feet on his knees. But the other vaulted up again so quickly that Gareth
+panted and half despaired of winning the victory.
+
+Then Lynette cried: "Well done, knave; you are as noble as any knight.
+Now do not shame me; I said you would win. Strike! strike! and the wind
+will change again."
+
+Gareth struck harder, he hewed great pieces of armor from the old
+knight, but clashed in vain with his sword against the hard skin, until
+at last he lashed the Evening-star's sword and broke it at the hilt. "I
+have you now!" he shouted, but the cowardly knight of the Evening-star
+writhed his arms about the lad till Gareth was almost strangled. Yet
+straining himself to the uttermost he finally _tossed his foe headlong
+over the side of the bridge_ to sink or to swim as the waves allowed.
+
+"Lead and I follow," Gareth said to Lynette.
+
+"No, it is lead no longer," the maiden replied. "Ride beside me the
+knightliest of all kitchen knaves. Sir I am ashamed that I have treated
+you so. Pardon me. I do wonder who you are, you knave."
+
+"You are not to blame for anything," Gareth said, "except for your
+mistrusting of the king when he sent you some one to defend you. You
+said what you thought and I answered by my actions."
+
+At that moment he heard the hoofs of a horse clattering in the road
+behind him. "Stay!" cried a knight with a veiled shield, "I have come to
+avenge my friend, Sir Kay."
+
+Gareth turned, and in a thrice had closed in upon the stranger, but when
+he felt the touch of the stranger knight's magical spear, which was the
+wonder of the world he fell to the earth. As he felt the grass in his
+hands he burst into laughter.
+
+[Illustration: TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE.]
+
+"Why do you laugh?" asked Lynette.
+
+"Because here am I, the son of old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent,
+the victor of the three bridges, and a knight of Arthur's thrown by no
+one knows whom."
+
+"I have come to help you and not harm you," said the strange knight,
+revealing himself. It was Lancelot, whom King Arthur had sent to keep a
+guardian eye upon young Gareth in this his first quest, to prevent him
+from being killed or taken away.
+
+"And why did you refuse to come when I wanted you, and now come just in
+time to shame my poor defender just when I was beginning to feel proud
+of him?" asked Lynette.
+
+"But he isn't shamed," Lancelot answered. "What knight is not overthrown
+sometimes? By being defeated we learn to overcome, so hail Prince and
+Knight of our Round Table!" "You did well Gareth, only you and your
+horse were a little weary."
+
+[Illustration: SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER.]
+
+Lynette led them into a glen and a cave where they found pleasant drinks
+and meat, and where Gareth fell asleep.
+
+"You have good reason to feel sleepy," cried Lynette. "Sleep soundly and
+wake strong." _And she tended him as gently as a mother_, and watched
+over him carefully as he slept.
+
+When Gareth woke Lancelot gave him his own horse and shield to use in
+fighting the last awful outlaw, but as they drew near Lynette clutched
+at the shield and pleaded with him: "Give it back to Lancelot," said
+she. "O curse my tongue that was reviling you so today. He must do the
+fighting now. You have done wonders, but you cannot do miracles. You
+have thrown three men today and that is glory enough. You will get all
+maimed and mangled if you go on now when you are tired. There, I vow you
+must not try the fourth."
+
+But Gareth told her that her sharp words during the day had just spurred
+him on to do his best and he said he must not now leave his quest until
+he had finished. So Lancelot advised him how best to manage his horse
+and his lance, his sword and his shield when meeting a foe that was
+stouter than himself, winning with fineness and skill where he lacked in
+strength.
+
+But Gareth replied that he knew but one rule in fighting and that was to
+dash against his foe and overcome him.
+
+"Heaven help you," cried Lynette, and she made her palfrey halt.
+"There!" They were facing the camp of the Knight of Death.
+
+There was a huge black pavilion, a black banner and a black horn. Gareth
+blew the horn and heard hollow tramplings to and fro and muffled voices.
+Then on a night-black horse, in night-black arms rode forth the dread
+warrior. A white breast-bone showed in front. He spoke not a word which
+made him the more fearful.
+
+"Fool!" shouted Gareth sturdily. "People say that you have the strength
+of ten men; can't you trust to it without depending on these toggeries
+and tricks?"
+
+But the Knight of Death said nothing. Lady Lyonors at her castle window
+wept, and one of her maids fainted away, and Gareth felt his head
+prickling beneath his helmet and Lancelot felt his blood turning cold.
+Every one stood aghast.
+
+Then the chargers bounded forward and Gareth struck Death to the ground.
+Drawing out his sword he split apart the vast skull; one half of it fell
+to the right and one half to the left. Then he was about to strike at
+the helmet when out of it peeped the face of a blooming young boy, as
+fresh as a flower.
+
+"O Knight!" cried the laddie. "Do not kill me. My three brothers made me
+do it to make a horror all about the castle. They never dreamed that
+anyone could pass the bridges."
+
+Then Lady Lyonors with all her house had a great party of dancing and
+revelry and song and making merry because the hideous Knight of Death
+that had terrified them so was only a pretty little boy. And there was
+mirth over Gareth's victorious quest.
+
+And some people say that Gareth married Lynette, but others who tell the
+story later say he wedded with Lyonors.
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT.
+
+
+King Arthur had come to the old city of Caerleon on the River Usk to
+hold his court, and was sitting high in his royal hall when a woodman,
+all bedraggled with the mists of the forests came tripping up in haste
+before his throne.
+
+"O noble King," he cried, "today I saw a wonderful deer, a hart all
+milky white running through among the trees, and, nothing like it has
+ever been seen here before."
+
+The king, who loved the chase, was very pleased and immediately gave
+orders that the royal horns should be blown for all the court to go a
+hunting after the beautiful white deer the following morning. Queen
+Guinevere wished to go with them to watch the hounds and huntsmen and
+dancing horses in the chase. She slept late, however, the next day with
+her pleasant dreams, and Arthur with his Knights of the Round Table had
+sped gloriously away on their snorting chargers when she arose, called
+one of her maids to come with her, mounted her palfrey and forded the
+River Usk to pass over by the forest.
+
+[Illustration: A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS
+THRONE.]
+
+There they climbed up on a little knoll and stood listening for the
+hounds, but instead of the barking of the king's dogs they heard the
+sound of a horse's hoofs trampling behind them. It was Prince Geraint's
+charger as he flashed over the shallow ford of the river, then galloped
+up the banks of the knoll to her side. He carried not a single weapon
+except his golden-hilted sword and wore, not his hunting-dress, but gay
+holiday silks with a purple scarf about him swinging an apple of gold at
+either end and glancing like a dragon-fly. He bowed low to the sweet,
+stately queen.
+
+"You're late, very late, Sir Prince," said she, "later even than we."
+
+"Yes, noble queen," replied Geraint, "I'm so late that I'm not going to
+the hunt; I've come like you just to watch it."
+
+"Then stay with me," the queen said, "for here on this little knoll, if
+anywhere, you will have a good chance to see the hounds, often they dash
+by at its very feet."
+
+So Geraint stood by the queen, thinking he would catch particularly the
+baying of Cavall, Arthur's loudest dog, which would tell him that the
+hunters were coming. As they waited however, along the base of the
+knoll, came a knight, a lady and a dwarf riding slowly by on their
+horses. The knight wore his visor up showing his imperious and very
+haughty young face. The dwarf lagged behind.
+
+"That knight doesn't belong to the Round Table, does he?" asked the
+queen. "I don't know him."
+
+"No, nor I," replied Geraint.
+
+So the queen sent her maid over to the dwarf to find out the name of his
+master. But the dwarf was old and crotchety and would not tell her.
+
+"Then I'll ask your master himself," cried the maid.
+
+"No, indeed, you shall not!" cried the dwarf, "you are not fit even to
+speak of him," and as the girl turned her horse to approach the proud
+young knight, the misshapen little dwarf of a servant struck at her with
+his whip, and she came scampering back indignantly to the queen.
+
+[Illustration: HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE'S CHEEK.]
+
+"I'll learn his name for you," Geraint exclaimed, and he rode off
+sharply.
+
+But the impudent dwarf answered just as before and when Prince Geraint
+moved on toward his master he struck out his whip and cut the prince's
+cheek so that the blood streamed upon the purple scarf dyeing it red.
+Instantly Geraint reached for the hilt of his sword to strike down the
+vicious little midget but then remembering that he was a prince and
+disdaining to fight with a dwarf, he did not even say a word, but
+cantered back to Queen Guinevere's side.
+
+"Noble Queen," he cried fiercely. "I am going to avenge this insult that
+has been done you. I'll track these vermin to the earth. For even
+although I am riding unarmed just now, as we go along I will come to
+some place where I can borrow weapons or hire them. And then when I have
+my man I'll fight him, and on the third day from today I'll be back
+again unless I die in the fight. So good-bye, farewell."
+
+"Farewell, handsome prince," the queen answered. "Good fortune in your
+quest and may you live to marry your first love whoever that may be. But
+whether she will be a princess or a beggar from the hedgerows, before
+you wed with her bring her back to me and I will robe her for her
+wedding day."
+
+Prince Geraint bowed and with that he was off. One minute he thought he
+heard the noble milk-white deer brought to bay by the dogs, the next he
+thought he heard the hunter's horn far away and felt a little vexed to
+think he must be following this stupid dwarf while all the others were
+at the chase. But he had determined to avenge the queen and up and down
+the grassy glades and valleys pursued the three enemies until at last at
+sundown they emerged from the forest, climbed up on the ridge of a hill
+where they looked like shadows against the dark sky, then sank again on
+the other side.
+
+Below on the other side of the ridge ran the long street of a clamoring
+little town in a long valley, on one side a new white fortress and on
+the other, across a ravine and a bridge, a fallen old castle in decay.
+The knight, the lady and the dwarf rode on to the white fortress, then
+vanished within its walls.
+
+"There!" cried Geraint, "now I have him! I have tracked him to his hole,
+and tomorrow when I'm rested I'll fight him."
+
+Then he turned wearily down the long street of the noisy village to look
+for his night's lodging, but he found every inn and tavern crowded, and
+everywhere horses in the stables were being shod and young fellows were
+busy burnishing their master's armor.
+
+"What does all this hubbub mean?" asked Geraint of one of these youths.
+
+The lad did not stop his work one instant, but went on scouring and
+replied, "It's the sparrow-hawk."
+
+As Prince Geraint did not know what was meant by the sparrow-hawk he
+trotted a little farther along the street until he came to a quiet old
+man trudging by with a sack of corn on his back.
+
+"Why is your town so noisy and busy to-night, good old fellow?" he
+cried.
+
+"Ugh! the sparrow-hawk!" the old fellow said gruffly.
+
+So the prince rode his horse yet a little farther until he saw an
+armor-maker's shop. The armor-maker sat inside with his back turned, all
+doubled over a helmet which he was riveting together upon his knee.
+
+"Armorer," cried Geraint, "what is going on? Why is there such a din?"
+
+The man did not pause in his riveting even to turn about and face the
+stranger, but said quickly as if to finish speaking as rapidly as he
+could, "Friend, the people who are working for the sparrow-hawk have no
+time for idle questions."
+
+At this Geraint flashed up angrily.
+
+"A fig for your sparrow-hawk! I wish all the bits of birds of the air
+would peck him dead. You imagine that this little cackle in your baby
+town is all the noise and murmur of the great world. What do I care
+about it? It is nothing to me. Listen to me, now, if you are not gone
+hawk-mad like the rest, where can I get a lodging for the night, and
+more than that, where can I get some arms, arms, arms, to fight my
+enemy? Tell me."
+
+The hurrying armor-maker looked about in amazement to see this gorgeous
+cavalier in purple silks standing before his bit of a shop.
+
+"O pardon me, stranger knight," said he very politely. "We are holding a
+great tournament here tomorrow morning and there is hardly any time to
+do one-half the work that has to be finished before then. Arms, did you
+say? Indeed I cannot tell you where to get any; all that there are in
+this town are needed for to-morrow in the lists. And as for lodging, I
+don't know unless perhaps at Earl Yniol's in the old castle across the
+bridge." Then he again picked up his helmet and turned his back to the
+prince.
+
+So Geraint, still a wee mite vexed, rode over the bridge that spanned
+the ravine, to go to the ruined castle. There upon the farther side sat
+the hoary-headed Earl Yniol, dressed in some magnificent shabby old
+clothes which had been fit for a king's parties when they were new.
+
+"Where are you going, son?" he queried of Geraint, waking from his
+reveries and dreaminess.
+
+"O friend, I'm looking for some shelter for the night," Geraint replied.
+
+"Come in then," Yniol said, "and accept of my hospitality. Our house was
+rich once and now it is poor, but it always keeps its door open to the
+stranger."
+
+"Oh, anything will do for me," cried Geraint. "If only you won't serve
+me sparrow-hawks for my supper I'll eat with all the passion of a whole
+day's fast."
+
+The old earl smiled and sighed as he rejoined, "I have more serious
+reason than you to curse this sparrow-hawk. But go in and we will not
+have a word about him even jokingly unless you wish it."
+
+Whereupon Geraint passed into the desolate castle court, where the
+stones of the pavement were all broken and overgrown with wild plants,
+and the turrets and walls were shattered. As he stood awaiting the Earl
+Yniol, the voice of a young girl singing like a nightingale rang out
+from one of the open castle windows.
+
+It was the voice of Enid, Earl Yniol's daughter as she sang the song of
+Fortune and her Wheel:
+
+    "Turn, Fortune, thy wheel with smile or frown,
+    With that wild wheel we go not up or down;
+    Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great."
+
+"The song of that little bird describes the nest she lives in," cried
+Earl Yniol approaching. "Enter."
+
+Geraint alighted from his charger and stepped within the large dusky
+cobwebbed hall, where an aged lady sat, with Enid moving about her, like
+a little flower in a wilted sheath of a faded silk gown.
+
+"Enid, the good knight's horse is standing in the court," cried the
+earl. "Take him to the stall and give him some corn, then go to town and
+buy us some meat and wine."
+
+[Illustration: GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL.]
+
+Geraint wished that he might do this servant's work instead of this
+pretty young lady, but as he started to follow her the old gray earl
+stopped him.
+
+"We're old and poor," he said, "but not so poor and old as to let our
+guests wait upon themselves."
+
+So Enid fetched the wine and the meat and the cakes and the bread; and
+she served at the table while her mother, father and Geraint sat around.
+Geraint wished that he might stoop to kiss her tender little thumb as it
+held the platter when she laid it down.
+
+[Illustration: ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES.]
+
+"Fair host and Earl," he said after his refreshing supper, "who is this
+sparrow-hawk that everybody in the town is talking about? And yet I do
+not wish you to give me his name, for perhaps he is the knight I saw
+riding into the new fortress the other side of the bridge at the other
+end of the town. His name I am going to have from his own lips, for I
+am Geraint of Devon. This morning when the queen sent her maid to find
+out his name he struck at the girl with his whip, and I've sworn
+vengeance for such a great insult done our queen, and have followed him
+to his hold, and as soon as I can get arms I will fight him."
+
+"And are you the renowned Geraint?" cried Earl Yniol beaming. "Well, as
+soon as I saw you coming toward me on the bridge I knew that you were no
+ordinary man. By the state and presence of your bearing I might have
+guessed you to be one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table at Camelot.
+Pray do not suppose that I am flattering you foolishly. This dear child
+of mine has often heard me telling glorious stories of all the famous
+things you have done for the king and the people. And she has asked me
+to repeat them again and again.
+
+"Poor thing, there never has lived a woman with such miserable lovers as
+she has had. The first was Limours, who did nothing but drink and brawl,
+even when he was making love to her. And the second was the
+'sparrow-hawk,' my nephew, my curse. I will not let his name slip from
+me if I can help it. When I told him that he could not marry my daughter
+he spread a false rumour all round here among the people that his father
+had left him a great sum of money in my keeping and that I had never
+passed it over to him but had retained it for myself. He bribed all my
+servants with large promises and stirred up this whole little old town
+of mine against me, my own town. That was the night of Enid's birthday
+nearly three years ago. They sacked my house, ousted me from my earldom,
+threw us into this dilapidated, dingy old place and built up that grand
+new white fort. He would kill me if he did not despise me too much to
+do so; and sometimes I believe I despise myself for letting him have his
+way. I scarcely know whether I am very wise or very silly, very manly or
+very base to suffer it all so patiently."
+
+"Well said," cried Geraint eagerly. "But the arms, the arms, where can I
+get arms for myself? Then if the sparrow-hawk will fight tomorrow in the
+tourney I may be able to bring down his terrible pride a little."
+
+"I have arms," said Yniol, "although they are old and rusty, Prince
+Geraint, and you would be welcome to have them for the asking. But in
+this tournament of tomorrow no knight is allowed to tilt unless the lady
+he loves best come there too. The forks are fastened into the meadow
+ground and over them is placed a silver wand, above that a golden
+sparrow-hawk, the prize of beauty for the fairest woman there. And
+whoever wins in the tourney presents this to the lady-love whom he has
+brought with him. Since my nephew is a man of very large bone and is
+clever with his lance he has always won it for his lady. That is how he
+has earned his title of sparrow-hawk. But you have no lady so you will
+not be able to fight."
+
+Then Geraint leaned forward toward the earl.
+
+"With your leave, noble Earl Yniol," he replied, "I will do battle for
+your daughter. For although I have seen all the beauties of the day
+never have I come upon anything so wonderfully lovely as she. If it
+should happen that I prove victor, as true as heaven, I will make her my
+wife!"
+
+Yniol's heart danced in his bosom for joy, and he turned about for Enid,
+but she had fluttered away as soon as her name had been mentioned, so
+he tenderly grasped the hands of her mother in his own and said:
+
+"Mother, young girls are shy little things and best understood by their
+own mothers. Before you go to rest to night, find out what Enid will
+think about this."
+
+So the earl's wife passed out to speak with Enid, and Enid became so
+glad and excited that she could not sleep the entire happy night long.
+But very early the next morning, as soon as the pale sky began to redden
+with the sun she arose, then called her mother, and hand in hand,
+tripped over with her to the place of the tournament. There they awaited
+for Yniol and Geraint. Geraint came wearing the Earl's rusty, worn old
+arms, yet in spite of them looked stately and princely.
+
+Many other knights in blazing armor gathered there for the jousts, with
+many fine ladies, and by and by the whole town full of people flooded
+in, settling in a circle around the lists. Then the two forks were fixed
+into the earth, above them a wand of silver was laid, and over it the
+golden sparrow-hawk. The trumpet was blown and Yniol's nephew rose and
+spoke:
+
+"Come forward, my lady," he cried to the maiden who had come with him.
+"Fairest of the fair, take the prize of beauty which I have won for you
+during the past two years."
+
+"Stay!" Prince Geraint cried loudly. "There is a worthier beauty here."
+
+The earl's nephew looked round with surprise and disdain to see his
+uncle's family and the prince.
+
+"Do battle for it then," he shouted angrily.
+
+Geraint sprang forward and the tourney was begun. Three times the two
+warriors clashed together. _Three times they broke their spears._ Then
+both were thrown from their horses. They now drew their swords; and
+with them lashed at one another so frequently and with such dreadfully
+hard strokes that all the crowd wondered. Now and again from the distant
+walls came the sounds of applause, like the clapping of phantom hands.
+The perspiration and the blood flowed together down the strong bodies of
+the combatants. Each was as sturdy as the other.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Remember the great insult done our queen!" Earl Yniol cried at last.
+
+This so inflamed Geraint that he heaved his vast sword-blade aloft,
+cracked through his enemy's helmet, bit into the bone of his head,
+felled the haughty knight, and set his feet upon his breast.
+
+"Your name!" demanded Geraint.
+
+"Edryn, the son of Nudd," groaned the fallen warrior.
+
+"Very well, then Edryn, the son of Nudd," returned Geraint, "you must do
+these two things or else you will have to die. First, you with your lady
+and your dwarf must ride to Arthur's court at Caerleon and crave their
+pardon for the insult you did the queen yesterday morning, and you must
+bide her decree in the punishment she awards you. Secondly, you must
+give back the earldom to your uncle the Earl of Yniol. You will do these
+two things or you die."
+
+"I will do them," cried Edryn. "For never before was I ever overcome.
+But now all of my pride is broken down, for Enid has seen me fall."
+
+With that Edryn rose from the ground like a man, took his lady and the
+dwarf on their horses to Arthur's court. There receiving the sweet
+forgiveness of the queen, he became a true knight of the Round Table,
+and at the last died in battle while he fought for his king.
+
+But Geraint when the tourney was over and he had come back to the
+castle, drew Enid aside to tell her that early the next morning he would
+have to start for Caerleon and that she should be ready to ride away
+with him to be married at the court with tremendous pomp. For that would
+be three days after the King's chase, when the prince had promised Queen
+Guinevere he would be back. But of that he did not speak to Enid, who
+wondered why he was so bent on returning immediately, and why she could
+not have time at home to prepare herself some pretty robes to wear.
+
+Imagine, she thought, such a grand and frightful thing as a court, the
+queen's court, with all the graceful ladies staring at her in that faded
+old silk dress! And although she promised Geraint that she would go as
+he wished, when she woke to the dread day for making her appearance at
+court, she still yearned that he would only stay yet a little while so
+that she could sew herself some clothes, that she had the flowered silk
+which her mother had given her three years ago for her birthday and
+which Edryn's men had robbed from her when they sacked the house and
+scattered everything she ever owned to all the winds. How she wished
+that handsome Geraint had known her then, those three years ago when she
+wore so many pretty dresses and jewels!
+
+But while she lay dreamily thinking, softly in trod her mother bearing
+on her arm a gorgeous, delicate robe.
+
+"Do you recognize it, child?" she cried.
+
+It was that self-same birthday dress, three years old, but as beautiful
+as new and never worn.
+
+"Yesterday after the jousts your father went through all the town from
+house to house and ordered that all sack and plunder which the men had
+taken from us should be brought back, for he was again to be in his
+earldom. So last evening while you were talking with the prince some one
+came up from the town and placed this in my hands. I did not tell you
+about it then for I wished to keep it as a sweet surprise for you this
+morning. And it is a sweet surprise, isn't it? For although the prince
+yesterday did say that you were the fairest of the fair there is no
+handsome girl in the world but looks handsomer in new clothes than in
+old. And it would have been a shame for you to go to the court in your
+poor old faded silk which you have worn so long and so patiently. The
+great ladies there might say that Prince Geraint had plucked up some
+ragged robin from the hedges."
+
+[Illustration: BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE.]
+
+So Enid was put into the fine flowered robe.
+
+Her mother said that after she had gone to the queen's court, she, the
+poor old mother at home, who was too feeble to journey so far with her
+daughter, would think over and over again of her pretty princess at
+Camelot. And the old gray Earl Yniol went in to tell Geraint of Enid's
+fanciful apparel.
+
+But Geraint was not delighted with the magnificence.
+
+"Say to her," he answered the earl, "that by all my love for her,
+although I give her no other reason, I entreat Enid to wear that faded
+old silk dress of hers and no other."
+
+This amazing and hard message from Geraint made poor little Enid's face
+fall like a meadowful of corn blasted by a rainstorm. Still she
+willingly laid aside her gold finery for his sake, slipped into the
+faded silk, and pattered down the steps to meet Geraint. He scanned her
+so eagerly from her tip to her toe that both her rosy cheeks burned like
+flames. Then as he noted her mother's clouded face he said very kindly:
+
+"My new mother don't be very angry, or grieved with your new son because
+of what I have just asked Enid to do. I had a very good reason for it
+and I will explain it all to you. The other day when I left the queen at
+Caerleon to avenge the insult done her by Edryn, the son of Nudd, she
+made me two wishes. The one was that I should be successful with my
+quest and the other was that I should wed with my first love. Then she
+promised that whoever my bride should be she herself with her own royal
+hands would dress her for her wedding day, splendidly, like the very sun
+in the skies. So when I found this lovely Enid of yours in her shabby
+clothes I vowed that the queen's hands only should array her in handsome
+new robes that befitted her grace and beauty. But never mind, dear
+mother, some day you will come to see Enid and then she will wear the
+golden, flowered birthday dress which you gave her three years ago."
+
+Then the earl's wife smiled through her tears, wrapped Enid in a mantle,
+kissed her gentle farewells, and in a moment saw her riding far, far
+away beside Geraint.
+
+The queen Guinevere that day had three times climbed the royal tower at
+Caerleon to look far into the valley for some sign of Geraint, who had
+promised to be back that day, if he did not fall in battle, and who
+would certainly come now, since Edryn had been vanquished and had come
+to the court. At last when evening had fallen she spied the prince's
+charger pacing nobly along the road, and Enid's palfrey at his side.
+Instantly Queen Guinevere sped down from the small window in the high
+turret, tripped out to the gate to greet him and embrace the lovely Enid
+as a long-loved friend.
+
+The old City of Caerleon was gay for one whole week, over the wedding
+week of Geraint and Enid. The queen herself dressed Enid for her
+marriage like the very sunlight, Dubric, the highest saint of the
+church, married them, and they lived for nearly a year at the court with
+Arthur and sweet Guinevere.
+
+And so the insult done the queen was avenged, and her two wishes were
+fulfilled. For Geraint overcame his enemy and wedded with his
+first-love, dressed for her marriage by the queen.
+
+
+
+
+GERAINT'S QUEST OF HONOR.
+
+
+One morning Prince Geraint went into Arthur's hall and said:
+
+"O King, my princedom is in danger. It lies close to the territory which
+is infested with bandits, earls and caitiff knights, assassins and all
+sorts of outlaws. Give me your kind good leave and I will go there to
+defend my lands."
+
+The king said the prince might go, and sent fifty armed knights to
+protect him and pretty Enid as they traveled away on their horses across
+the Severn River into their own country, the Land of Devon.
+
+After Geraint had come into Devon he forgot what he had said to the king
+of ridding his princedom of outlawry, he forgot the chase where he had
+always been so clever in tracking his game, forgot the tournament where
+he had won victory after victory, forgot all his former glory and his
+name, forgot his lands and their cares, forgot everything he ever did,
+and did nothing at all but lie about at home and talk with Enid. At last
+all his people began to gossip about their fine prince who once had been
+illustrious everywhere and now had become an idle stay-at-home who spent
+his time in making love to his wife.
+
+[Illustration: ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER.]
+
+Enid heard of the tattling about Geraint from her hair-dresser, and one
+morning as he lay abed, she went over it all to herself, talking aloud.
+She wished, that he would not abandon all his knightly pursuits but
+would hunt and fight again and add to his lustre. She felt very bashful
+about mentioning the matter to him as she was very shy by nature and
+lived in a time when wives were altogether over-ruled by their husbands,
+yet to say nothing she thought would not be showing herself a true wife
+to Geraint. All this and more Enid went over to herself.
+
+The drowsy prince, half awake, just half heard her and quite
+misunderstood her meaning. When she said that in keeping quiet about the
+gossip she was not a true wife to him he supposed she meant that she no
+longer cared for him, that he was not a handsome and strong enough man
+to suit her. This grieved him deeply and made him very angry with her,
+for Geraint had really given up all the glory of the king's court just
+to be alone with Enid, although no one knew it. And the thought that now
+she looked down upon him infuriated all his heart. A word would have
+made everything right but he didn't say it.
+
+Springing up quickly from his bed he roused his squire and said, "Get
+ready our horses, my charger and the princess' palfrey. And you,"
+turning a frowning face to the princess, "put on the worst looking,
+meanest, poorest dress you have and come away with me. We are going on a
+quest of honor and then you will see what sort of soldier I am."
+
+Enid wondered why her lord was so vexed with her and replied, "If I have
+displeased you surely you will tell me why."
+
+But Geraint would not say; he could not bear to speak of it. So Enid
+hurried after her poor old faded silk gown with the summer flowers among
+its folds, which she had worn to ride from her old home to Caerleon, and
+hastily dressed.
+
+"Do not ride at my side," Geraint said as they both mounted their horses
+to start away. "Ride ahead of me, a good way ahead of me, and no matter
+what may happen, do not speak a word to me, no not a word."
+
+Enid listened, wondering what had come over her lord.
+
+"There!" he cried as they were off, "we will make our way along with our
+iron weapons, not with gold money." So saying, he loosed the great purse
+which dangled from his belt and tossed it back to his squire who stood
+on the marble threshold of the doorway where the golden coins flashed
+and clattered as they scattered every which-way over the floor. "Now
+then, Enid, to the wild woods!"
+
+At that they made for the swampy, desolated forest lands that were
+famous for their perilous paths and their bandits, Enid with a white
+face going before, Geraint coming gloomily nearly a quarter of a mile
+after.
+
+The morning was only half begun when the white princess became aware
+that behind a rock hiding in the shadow stood three tall knights on
+horseback, armed from tip to toe, bandit outlaws lying in wait to fall
+upon whoever should pass. She heard one saying to his comrades as he
+pointed toward Geraint:
+
+"Look here comes some lazy-bones who seems just about as bold as a dog
+who has had the worst of it in a fight. Come, we will kill him, and then
+we will take his horse and armor and his lady."
+
+Enid thought, "I'll go back a little way to Geraint and tell him about
+these ruffians, for even if it will madden him I should rather have him
+kill me than to have him fall into their hands."
+
+She guided her palfrey backward and bravely met the frowning face which
+greeted her, saying timidly:
+
+"My lord, there are three bandit knights behind a rock a little way
+beyond us who are boasting that they will slay you and steal your horse
+and armor and make me their captive."
+
+"Did I tell you," cried Geraint angrily, "that you should warn me of any
+danger. There was only one thing which I told you to do and that was to
+keep quiet; and this is the way you have heeded me! a pretty way! But
+win or lose, you shall see by these fellows that my vigor is not lost."
+
+Then Enid stood back as the three outlaws flashed out of their ambush
+and bore down upon the prince.
+
+Geraint aimed first for the middle one, driving his long spear into the
+bandit's breast and out on the other side. The two others in the
+meanwhile had dashed upon him with their lances, but they had broken on
+his magnificent armor like so many icicles. He now turned upon them with
+his broadsword, swinging it first to the right and then to the left,
+first stunning them with his blows, then slaying them outright. And when
+all three had fallen he dismounted, and like a hunter skinning the wild
+beasts he has shot, he stripped the three robber knights of their gay
+suits of armor, and leaving the bodies lie, bound each man's sword,
+spear and coat of arms to his horse, tied the three bridle reins of the
+three empty horses together and cried to Enid.
+
+"Drive these on before you."
+
+Enid drove them on across the wastelands, Geraint following after. As
+she passed into the first shallow shade of the forest she described
+three more horsemen partly hidden in the gloom of three sturdy
+oak-trees. All were armed and one was a veritable giant, so tall and
+bulky, towering above his companions.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE.]
+
+"See there, a prize!" bellowed the giant and set Enid's pulses in a
+quiver. "Three horses and three suits of armor, and all in charge
+of--whom? A girl! Isn't that simple? Lay on, my men!"
+
+"No," cried the second, "behind is coming a knight. A coward and a fool,
+for see how he hangs his head."
+
+The giant thundered back gaily.
+
+"Yes? Only one? Wait here and as he goes by make for him."
+
+"I will go no farther until Geraint comes," Enid said to herself
+stopping her horse. "And then I will tell him about these villains. He
+must be so weary with his other fight and they will fall upon him
+unawares. I shall have to disobey him again for his own sake. How could
+I dare to obey him and let him be harmed? I must speak; if he kills me
+for it I shall only have lost my own life to save a life that is dearer
+to me than my own."
+
+So she waited until the prince approached when she said with a timid
+firmness, "Have I your leave to speak?"
+
+"You take it without asking when you speak," he replied, and she
+continued:
+
+"There are three men lurking in the woods behind some oaks and one of
+them is larger than you, a perfect giant. He told them to attack you as
+you passed by them."
+
+"If there were a hundred men in the wood and each of them a giant and if
+they all made for me together I vow it would not anger me so as to have
+you disobey me. Stand aside while we do battle and when we are done
+stand by the victor."
+
+At this, while Enid fell back breathing short fits of prayer but not
+daring to watch, Geraint proceeded to meet his assailants. The giant was
+the first to dash out for him aiming his lance at Geraint's helmet, but
+the lance missed and went to one side. Geraint's spear had been a
+little strained with his first encounter, but it struck through the
+bulky giant's corselet and pierced his breast, then broke, one-half of
+it still fast in the flesh as the giant knight fell to the earth. The
+other two bandits now felt that their support and hero was gone, and
+when Geraint darted rapidly on them, uttering his terrible warcry as if
+there were a thousand men behind him to come to his aid, they flew into
+the woods. But they were soon overtaken and pitilessly put to death.
+Then Geraint, selecting the best lance, the brightest and strongest
+among their spears to replace the one he had broken on the giant, he
+plucked off the gaudy armor from each brigand's body, laid it on the
+backs of the three horses, tied the bridle reins together and handed
+them to Enid with the words, "Drive them on before you."
+
+So Enid now followed the wild paths of the gloomy forest with two sets
+of three horses, each horse laden with his master's jingling weapons and
+coat of mail. Geraint came after. As they passed out of the wood into
+the open sky they came to a little town with towers upon a rocky hill,
+and beneath it a wide meadowland with mowers in it, mowing the hay. Down
+a stony pathway from the town skipped a fair-haired lad carrying a
+basket of lunch for the laborers in the field.
+
+"Friend!" cried Geraint, as the lad trotted past him, for he saw that
+Enid looked very white, "let my lady have something to eat. She is so
+faint."
+
+"Willingly," the youth answered, "and you too, my lord, even although
+this feed is very coarse and only fit for the mowers."
+
+He set down his basket and Enid and Geraint alighted and put all the
+horses to graze, while they sat down on the green sward to have some
+bread and barley. Enid felt too faint at heart, thinking of the
+prince's strange conduct, to care a great deal for food, but Geraint was
+hungry enough and had all the mowers' basket emptied almost before he
+knew it.
+
+"Boy," he cried half-ashamed, "everything is gone, which is a disgrace.
+But take one of my horses and his arms by way of payment, choose the
+very best."
+
+The poor lad, who might as well have had a kingdom given him, reddened
+with his extreme surprise and delight.
+
+"My lord, you are over-paying me fifty times," he cried.
+
+"You will be all the wealthier then," returned the prince, gaily.
+
+"I'll take it as free gift, then," the lad answered. "The food is not
+worth much. While your lady is resting here I can easily go back and
+fetch more, some more for the earl's mowers. For all these mowers belong
+to our great earl, and all these fields are his, and I am his, too. I'll
+tell him what a fine man you are, and he will have you to his palace and
+serve you with costly dinners."
+
+"I wish no better fare than I have had," Geraint said, "I never ate
+better in my life than just now when I left your poor mowers dinnerless.
+And I will go into no earl's palace. If he desires to see me, let him
+come to me. Now you go hire us some pleasant room in the town, stall our
+horses and when you return with the food for these men tell us about
+it."
+
+"Yes, my kind lord," the glad youth cried, and he held his head high and
+thought he was a gorgeous knight off to the wars as he disappeared up
+the rocky path leading his handsome horse.
+
+The prince turned himself sleepily to watch the lusty mowers laboring
+under the sun as it blazed on their scythes, while Enid plucked the long
+grass by the meadows' edge to weave it round and round her wedding
+ring, until the boy returned and showed them the room he had got in the
+town.
+
+"If you wish anything, call the woman of the house," Prince Geraint said
+to Enid as the door closed behind them. "Do not speak to me."
+
+"Yes, my lord," returned Enid, still marvelling at his cold ways.
+
+Silently they sat down, she at one end, he at the other, as quiet as
+pictures. But suddenly a mass of voices sounded up the street, and heel
+after heel echoing upon the pavement. In a twinkling the door to their
+room was pushed back to the wall while a mob of boisterous young
+gentlemen tumbled in led by the Earl of Limours, the wild lord of the
+town, and Enid's old suitor whom her father had rejected long ago, a man
+as beautiful as a woman and very graceful. He seized the prince's hand
+warmly, welcomed him to the town and stealthily, out of the corner of
+his eye, caught a glimpse of unhappy Enid nestled all alone at the
+farther end of the room.
+
+The prince immediately sent for every sort of delicious things to eat
+and drink from the town, told the earl, to bid all his friends for a
+feast and soon was gaily making merry with the men, drinking, laughing,
+joking.
+
+"May I have your leave, my lord," cried Earl Limours, "to cross the room
+and speak a word with your lady who seems so lonely?"
+
+"My free leave," cried the merry Prince Geraint, who did not know the
+earl, "Get her to speak with you; she has nothing to say to me."
+
+As Limours stepped to Enid's side he lifted his eyes adoringly, bowed at
+her side and said in a whisper:
+
+"Enid, you pilot star of my life, I see that Geraint is very unkind to
+you and loves you no longer. What a laughing stock he is making of you
+with that wretched old dress you have on! But I, I love you still as
+always. Just say the word and I will have him put into the keep and you
+will come with me. I will be kind to you forever."
+
+The tears fluttered into the earl's eyes as he spoke.
+
+"Earl," replied Enid, "if you love me as you used to do in the years
+long ago, and are not joking now, come in the morning and take me by
+force from the prince. But leave me tonight. I am wearied to death."
+
+So the earl made a low bow, brandishing his plumes until they brushed
+his very insteps, while the stout prince bade him a loud good night, and
+he moved away talking to his men.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW.]
+
+But as soon as he was gone Enid began to plan how she could escape with
+Geraint before Earl Limours should come after her in the morning. She
+was too afraid of Geraint to speak with him about it, but when he had
+fallen asleep she stepped lightly about the room and gathered the pieces
+of his armor together in one place ready for an early departure on the
+morrow. Then she dropped off into slumber. But suddenly she heard a loud
+sound, the earl with his wild following blowing his trumpet to call her
+to come out, she thought. But it was only the great red cock in the
+yard below crowing at the daylight which had begun to glimmer now across
+the heap of Geraint's armor. She rose immediately in her fright to see
+that all was well, went over to examine the weapons and unwittingly let
+the casque fall jangling to the floor. This woke Geraint, who started up
+and stared at her.
+
+"My lord," began Enid, and then she told him all that Earl Limours had
+said to her and how she had put him off by telling him to come this
+morning.
+
+"Call the woman of the house and tell her to bring the charger and the
+palfrey," Geraint cried angrily. "Your sweet face makes fools of good
+fellows." Geraint loved Enid still and he was in as great perplexity as
+she, for after misunderstanding what she had said he no more knew
+whether she cared for him truly than she knew what was troubling him and
+making him act in this unaccountable manner.
+
+Enid slipped through the sleeping household like a ghost to deliver the
+prince's message to the landlord, hurried back to help Geraint with his
+armor and came down with him to spring upon her palfrey.
+
+"What do I owe you, friends?" the prince asked his host, but before the
+man could reply he added "take those five horses and their burdens of
+arms."
+
+"My lord, I have scarcely spent the price of one of them on you!" cried
+the landlord astonished.
+
+"You'll have all the more riches then," the prince laughed, then turning
+to Enid, "today I charge you more particularly than ever before that
+whatever you may see, hear, fancy or imagine, do not speak to me, but
+obey."
+
+"Yes, my lord," answered Enid, "I know your wish and should like to
+obey, but when I go riding ahead, I hear all the violent threats you do
+not hear and see the danger you cannot see, and then not to give you
+warning seems hard, almost beyond me. Yet, I wish to obey you."
+
+"Do so, then," said he. "Do not be too wise, seeing that you are
+married, not to a clown but a strong man with arms to guard his own head
+and yours, too."
+
+The broad beaten path which they now took passed through toward the
+wasted lands bordering on the castle of Earl Doorm, the Bull, as his
+people called him, because of his ferocity.
+
+It was still early morning when Enid caught the sound of quantities of
+hoofs galloping up the road. Turning round she saw cloudsful of dust and
+the points of lances sparkling in it. Then, not to disobey the prince,
+yet to give him warning, she held up her finger and pointed toward the
+dust. Geraint was pleased at her cunning, and immediately stopped his
+horse. The moment after, the Earl of Limours dashed in upon him on a
+charger as black and as stormy as a thunder-cloud.
+
+Geraint closed with the earl, bore down on him with his spear, and in a
+minute brought him stunned or dead to the ground. Then he turned to the
+next-comer after Limours, overthrew him and blindly rushed back upon all
+the men behind. But they were so startled at the flash and movement of
+the prince that they scrambled away in a panic, leaving their leader
+lying on the public highway. The horses also of the fallen warriors
+whisked off from their wounded masters and wildly flew away to mix with
+the vanishing mob.
+
+"Horse and man, all of one mind," remarked Geraint, smiling, "not a hoof
+of them left. What do you say, Enid, shall we strip the earl and pay for
+a dinner or shall we fast? Fast? Then go on and let us pray heaven to
+send us some Earl of Doorm's men so that we can earn ourselves something
+to eat."
+
+Enid sadly eyed her bridle-reins and led the way, Geraint coming after,
+scarcely knowing that he had been pricked by Limours in his side, and
+that he was bleeding secretly beneath his armor. But at last his head
+and helmet began to wag unsteadily, and at a sudden swerving of the road
+he was tossed from his horse upon a bank of grass. Enid heard the
+clashing of the fall, and too terrified to cry out, came back all pale.
+Then she dismounted, loosed the fastenings of his armor and bound up his
+wounds with her veil. Then she sat down desolately and began to cry,
+wondering what ever she should do.
+
+[Illustration: ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY.]
+
+Many men passed by but no one took any notice of her. For in that
+lawless, turbulent earldom no one minded a woman weeping for a murdered
+lover than they now mind a summer shower. One man scurrying as fast as
+ever he could travel toward the bandit earl's castle, drove the sand
+sweeping into her poor eyes, and another coming in the opposite
+direction from out the earl's castle park in seeming hot haste, turned
+all the long dusty road into a column of smoke behind him, and
+frightened her little palfrey so that it scoured off into the coppices
+and was lost. But the prince's charger stood beside them and grieved
+over the mishap like a man.
+
+At noon a huge warrior with a big face and russet beard and eyes rolling
+about in search of prey, came riding hard by with a hundred spearmen at
+his back all bound for some foray. It was the frightful Earl Doorm.
+
+"What, is he dead?" cried the earl loudly to Enid, as he spied her on
+the wayside.
+
+"No, no, not dead," she quickly answered. "Would some of your kind
+people take him up and bear him off somewhere out of this cruel sun? I
+am very sure, quite sure that he is not dead."
+
+"Well, if he isn't dead, why should you cry for him so? Dead or not
+dead, you just spoil your pretty face with idiotic tears. They will not
+help him. But since it is a pretty face, come fellows, some of you, and
+take him to our hall. If he lives he will be one of our band, and if
+not, why there is earth enough to bury him in. See that you take his
+charger, too, a noble one."
+
+And so saying, the rude earl passed on, while two brawny horsemen came
+forward growling to think they might lose their chance of booty from the
+morning's raid all for this dead man. They raised the prince upon a
+litter, laying him in the hollow of his shield, and brought him into
+the barren hall of Doorm, while Enid and the gentle charger followed
+after. They tossed him and his litter down on an oaken settle in the
+hall, and then shot away for the woods.
+
+Enid sat through long hours all alone with Geraint besides the oaken
+settle, propping his head and chafing his hands, but in the late
+afternoon she saw the huge Earl Doorm returning with his lusty spearmen
+and their plunder. Each hurled down a heap of spoils on the floor, threw
+aside his lance and doffed his helmet, while a tribe of brightly gowned
+gentle-women fluttered into the hall and began to talk with them. Earl
+Doorm struck his knife against the table and bellowed for meat, and
+wine. In a moment the place fairly steamed and smoked with whole roast
+hogs and oxen, and everybody sat down in a hodge-podge and ate like
+cattle feeding in their stalls, while Enid shrank far back startled,
+into her nook.
+
+But suddenly, when Earl Doorm had eaten all he would, and all he could
+for the moment, he revolved his eyes about the bare hall and caught a
+glimpse of the fair little lady drooping in her niche. Then he
+recollected how she had crouched weeping by the roadside for her fallen
+lord that morning. A wild pity filled his gruff heart.
+
+"Eat, eat!" he shouted. "I never before saw any thing so pale. Be
+yourself. Isn't your lord lucky, for were I dead who is there in all the
+world who would mourn for me? Sweet lady, never have I ever seen a lily
+like you. If there were a bit of color living in your cheeks there is
+not one among my gentle-women here who would be fit to wear your
+slippers for gloves. But listen to me and you will share my earldom with
+me, girl, and we will live like two birds in a nest and I will bring you
+all sorts of finery from every part of the world to make you happy."
+
+As the earl spoke his two cheeks bulged with the two tremendous morsels
+of meat which he had tucked into his mouth.
+
+Enid was more alarmed than ever.
+
+"How can I be happy over anything," replied she, "until my lord is well
+again?"
+
+The earl laughed, then plucked her up out of the corner, carried her
+over to the table, thrust a dish of food before her and held a horn of
+wine to her lips.
+
+"By all heaven," cried Enid, "I will not drink until my lord gets up and
+drinks and eats with me. And if he will not rise again I will not drink
+any wine until I die."
+
+At this the earl turned perfectly red and paced up and down the hall,
+gnawing first his upper and then his lower lip.
+
+"Girl," shouted he, "why wail over a man who shames your beauty so, by
+dressing it in that rag? Put off those beggar-woman's weeds and robe
+yourself in this which my gentle-woman has brought you."
+
+It was a gorgeous, wonderful dress, colored in the tints of a shallow
+sea with the blue playing into the green, and gemmed with precious
+stones all down the front of it as thick as dewdrops on the grass. But
+Enid was harder to move than any cold tyrant on his throne, and said:
+
+"Earl, in this poor gown my dear lord found me first and loved me while
+I was living with my father; in this poor gown I rode with him to court
+and was presented to the queen; in this poor gown he bade me ride as we
+came out on this fatal quest of honor, and in this poor gown I am going
+to stay until he gets up again, a live, strong man, and tells me to put
+it away. I have griefs enough, pray be gentle with me, let me be. O God!
+I beg of your gentleness, since he is as he is, to let me be."
+
+Then the brutal earl strode up and down the hall and cried out:
+
+"It is of no more use to be gentle with you than to be rough. So take my
+salute," and with that he slapped her lightly on her white cheek.
+
+Enid shrieked. Instantly the fallen Geraint was up on his feet with the
+sword that had laid beside him in the hollow of the shield, making a
+single bound for the earl, and with one sweep of it sheared through the
+swarthy neck. The rolling eyes turned glassy, the russet-bearded head
+tumbled over the floor like a ball, and all the bandit knights and the
+gentle-women in the hall flitted, scampering pell-mell away, yelling as
+if they had seen a ghoul. Enid and Geraint were left alone.
+
+[Illustration: THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A
+BALL.]
+
+Now Geraint had come out of his swoon before the earl had returned, and
+he had lain perfectly silent and immovable because he wished to test
+Enid and see what she would do when she thought he was sleeping or
+fainted away, or perhaps dead. So he had listened to all that had taken
+place and had heard everything that Earl Doorm had said to her and all
+that Enid had replied, so now he knew that she loved him as ever and
+that she stood steadfast by him. All his heart filled with pity and
+remorse that he had brought her away on this hard, hard quest, and had
+made her suffer so much and had been so rough and cold.
+
+"Enid," said the prince tenderly, very tenderly. "I have used you worse
+than that big dead brute of a man used you. I have done you more wrong
+than he. I misunderstood you. Now, now you are three times mine."
+
+Geraint's kindness burst upon Enid so abruptly and was so unforeseen
+that she could not speak a word only this:
+
+"Fly, Geraint, they will kill you, they will come back. Fly. Your horse
+is outside, my poor little thing is lost."
+
+"You shall ride behind me, then, Enid."
+
+So they slipped quickly outside, found the stately charger and mounted
+him, first Geraint, then Enid, climbing up the prince's feet, and
+throwing her arms about him to hold herself firm as they bounded off.
+
+But as the horse dashed outside of the earl's gateway there before them
+in the highroad stood a knight of Arthur's court holding his lance as if
+ready to spring upon Geraint.
+
+"Stranger!" shrieked Enid, thinking of the prince's wound and loss of
+blood, "do not kill a dead man!"
+
+"The voice of Enid!" cried the stranger knight.
+
+Then Enid saw that he was Edryn, the son of Nudd, and feeling the more
+terrified as she remembered the jousts, cried out:
+
+"O, cousin, this is the man who spared your life!"
+
+[Illustration: BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR'S
+COURT.]
+
+Edryn stepped forward. "My lord Geraint," he said, "I took you for some
+bandit knight of Doorm's. Do not fear, Enid, that I will attack the
+prince. I love him. When he overthrew me at the lists he threw me
+higher. For now I have been made a Knight of the Round Table and am
+altogether changed. But since I used to know Earl Doorm in the old days
+when I was lawless and half a bandit myself, I have come as the
+mouthpiece of our king to tell Doorm to disband all his men and become
+subject to Arthur, who is now on his way hither."
+
+"Doorm is now before the King of Kings," Geraint replied, "And his men
+are already scattered," and the prince pointed to groups in the
+thickets or still running off in their panic. Then back to the people
+all aghast whom they could see huddling, he related fully to Edryn how
+he had slain the huge earl in his own hall.
+
+[Illustration: TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM.]
+
+"Come with me to the king," astonished Edryn said.
+
+So they all traveled off to the royal camp where Arthur himself came out
+to greet them, lifted Enid from her saddle, kissed her and showed her a
+tent where his own physician came in to attend to Geraint's wound. When
+that was healed he rode away with them to Caerleon for a visit with
+Queen Guinevere, who dressed Enid again in magnificent clothes. Then
+fifty armed knights escorted Enid and the prince as far as the banks of
+the Severn River, where they crossed over into the land of Devon. And
+all their people welcomed them back.
+
+Geraint after that never forgot his princedom or the tournament, but was
+known through all the country round as the cleverest and bravest
+warrior, while his princess was called Enid the Good.
+
+
+
+
+MERLIN AND VIVIEN.
+
+
+Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who wanted to become a
+greater magician than even the great Merlin, who was the most famous man
+of all his times, who understood all the arts, who had built the king's
+harbors, ships and halls, who was a fine poet and who could read the
+future in the stars in the skies.
+
+He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to make people
+invisible. Whenever he worked it upon anyone that person would seem to
+be imprisoned within the four walls of a tower and could not get out.
+The person would seem dead, lost to every one, and could be seen only by
+the person who worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charm
+was, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one would
+know where he was and she could become a great enchantress in the realm,
+as she foolishly thought. And she planned very cleverly so as to find
+out the wise old man's secret.
+
+She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first she played
+about him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and he watched and
+laughed at her as if she were a playful kitten. Then as she saw that he
+half disdained her she began to put on very grave and serious fits,
+turned red and pale when he came near her, or sighed or gazed at him, so
+silently and with such sweet devotion that he half believed that she
+really loved him truly.
+
+[Illustration: HE LAUGHED AT HER.]
+
+But after a while a great melancholy fell over Merlin, he felt so
+terribly sad that he passed away out of the kings' court and went down
+to the beach. There he found a little boat and stepped into it. Vivien
+had followed him without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat and
+while he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were driven
+across the sea with a strong wind and came to the shores of Brittany.
+Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed him all the way into the wild
+woods of Broceliande. Every step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet.
+
+They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his feet as if in
+the deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was wound round her
+hair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung about her beautiful limbs.
+As she kissed his feet she cried:
+
+"Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all through the world
+and I will worship you. Tread me down and I will kiss you for it."
+
+But Merlin still said not a word.
+
+[Illustration: MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD.]
+
+"Merlin do you love me?" at last cried Vivien, with her face sadly
+appealing to him. And again, "O, Merlin, do you love me?" "Great Master,
+do you love me?" she cried for the third time.
+
+And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward him, slid
+upon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles, curved her arms about
+his neck and used one of her hands as a white comb to run through his
+long ashy beard which she drew all across her neck down to her knees.
+
+"See! I'm clothing myself with wisdom," she cried. "I'm a golden summer
+butterfly that's been caught in a great old tyrant spider's web that's
+going to eat me up in this big wild wood without a word to me."
+
+"What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of yours?" cried
+Merlin at last. "What do you want me to give you?"
+
+"What!" said Vivien, smiling saucily, "have you found your tongue at
+last? Now yesterday you didn't open your lips once except to drink. And
+then I, with my own lady hands, made a pretty cup and offered you your
+water kneeling before you and you drank it, but gave me not a word of
+thanks. And when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with your
+feet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed through you
+know that I bathed your feet before I bathed my own. But yet no thanks
+from you. And all through this wild wood, all through this morning when
+I fondled you, still not a word of thanks."
+
+Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, "Vivien, have you never
+seen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to break? Well, I've
+been seeing a wave that was ready to break on me. It seemed to me that
+some dark, tremendous wave was going to come and sweep me away from my
+hold on the world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my great
+name. That's why I came away from Arthur's court to make me forget it
+and feel better. And when I saw you coming after me it seemed to me that
+you were that wave that was going to roll all over me. But pardon me,
+now, child, your pretty ways have brightened everything again, and now
+tell me what you would like to have from me. For I owe you something
+three times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for your
+goodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of yours. So tell me
+now, what will you have?"
+
+Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered:
+
+"I've always been afraid that you were not really mine, that you didn't
+love me truly, that you didn't quite trust me, and now you yourself have
+owned it. Don't you see, dear love, how this strange mood of yours must
+make me feel it more than ever? must make me yearn still more to prove
+that you are mine, must make me wish still more to know that great charm
+of waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about, just as a
+proof that you trust me? If you told that to me I should know that you
+are mine, and I should have the great proof of your love, because I
+think that however wise you may be you do not know me yet."
+
+"I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien," said Merlin, "than when
+I told you about that charm. Why won't you ask me for another boon?"
+
+Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid that ever
+lived, burst into tears and said:
+
+"No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me, let me feel
+myself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for another boon. I
+don't suppose that you know the old rhyme, 'Trust not at all or all in
+all?'"
+
+Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said. Her voice was
+so tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so sweetly gleaming
+behind her tears.
+
+He locked her hand in his again and said, "If you should know this charm
+you might sometimes in a wild moment of anger or a mood of overstrained
+affection when you wanted me all to yourself or when you were jealous
+in a sudden fit, you might work it on me."
+
+"Good!" cried Vivien, as if she were angry, "I am not trusted. Well,
+hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and when I've found it
+beware, look out for Vivien! When you use me so it's a wonder that I can
+love you at all, and as for jealousy, it seems to me this wonderful
+charm was invented just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot of
+pretty girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world with
+it."
+
+Then the great master laughed merrily.
+
+"Long, long years ago," he said, "there lived a King in the farthest
+East of the East. A tawny pirate who had plundered twenty islands or
+more anchored his boat in the King's port, and in the boat was a woman.
+For, as he had passed one of the islands the pirates had seen two cities
+full of men in boats fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed up
+his black boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of them
+and brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She was a
+maiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light seemed to come
+from her as she walked. When the pirate came upon the shore of the
+Eastern King's island the King asked him for the woman, but he would not
+give her up. So the King imprisoned the pirate and made the woman his
+queen.
+
+"All the people adored her, the King's councilmen and all his soldiers,
+the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down before her unbidden, and
+the black slaves of the mountains rang her golden ankle bells just to
+see her smile. So little wonder that the King grew very jealous. He had
+his horns blown through all the hundred under-kingdoms which he ruled,
+telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would teach him some
+charm to work upon the queen and make her all his own. To the wizard who
+could do this he promised a league of mountain land full of golden
+mines, a province with a hundred miles of coast, a palace and a
+princess. But all the wizards who failed should be killed and their
+heads would be hung on the city gates until they mouldered away.
+
+"So there were many, many wizards all through the hundred kingdoms who
+tried to work the charm, but failed; many wizard heads bleached on the
+walls, and for weeks a troupe of carrion crows hung like a cloud above
+the towers of the city gateways. But at last the king's men found a
+little glassy headed, hairless man who lived alone in a great wilderness
+and ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always reading
+had got grated down, filed away and lean, with monstrous eyes and his
+skin clinging to his bones. But since he never tasted wine or flesh--the
+wall that separates people from spirits became crystal to him. He could
+see through it, perceive the spirits as they walked and hear them
+talking; so he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rain
+across a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and the pine woods
+roared he made everything calm again.
+
+"He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to the king's court by
+force, he didn't want to go. There he taught the king how to charm the
+queen so that no one could see her again, and she could see no one
+except the king as he passed about the palace. She lay as if quite dead
+and lost to life. But when the king offered the magician his league of
+golden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast, the palace
+and the princess, the old man turned away, went back to his wilderness
+and lived on grass and vanished away. But his book came down to me."
+
+"You have the book!" cried Vivian smiling saucily. "The charm is written
+in it. Good, take my advice and let me know the secret at once, for if
+you should hide it away like a puzzle in a chest, if you should put
+chest upon chest, and lock and padlock each chest thirty times and bury
+them all away under some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on the
+battle-field, still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, of
+picking it, of opening it and reading the charm. And _then_ if I tried
+it on you who would blame me?"
+
+"You read the book, my pretty Vivien?" cried Merlin. "Well, it's only
+twenty pages long, but such pages! Every page has a square of text that
+looks like a blot, the letters no longer than fleas' legs written in a
+language that has long gone by, and all the borders and margins
+scribbled, crossed and crammed with notes. You read that book! No one,
+not even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out the
+notes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin. Oh, it is simple
+enough. Any child might work it and then not be able to undo it. Don't
+ask me again for it, because even although you would love me too much to
+try it on me, still you might try it on some of the knights of the Round
+Table."
+
+"O, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or sung about
+in song!" cried Vivien. She clapped her hands together and wailed out a
+shriek. "I'm stabbed to the heart! I only wished that prove to you that
+were wholly mine, that you loved me and now I'm killed with a word.
+There's nothing left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave,
+and if the wolves won't tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away,
+killed with unutterable unkindness!"
+
+She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair uncoiled itself.
+Then she wept afresh.
+
+The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky.
+
+Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true.
+
+"Come out of the storm," he called over to her, "come here into the
+hollow old oak tree."
+
+Then since she didn't answer, he tried three times to calm her but quite
+in vain. At last, however, she let herself be conquered, came back to
+her old perch, and nestled there, half falling from his knees. Gentle
+Merlin saw the slow tears still standing in her eyes and threw his arms
+kindly about her. But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with her
+arms crossed upon her bosom and fled away.
+
+"No more love between us two," she cried, "for you do not trust me. Oh,
+it would have been better if I had died three times over than to have
+asked you once! Farewell, think gently of me and I will go. But before I
+leave you let me swear once more that if I've been planning against you
+in all this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the sky
+to burn me to a cinder!"
+
+Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky, and sliced
+the giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and spikes.
+
+"Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!" cried Vivien, terrified lest the heavens
+had heard her oath and were going to kill her. And she flew back to his
+arms. She called him her dear protector, her lord and liege, her seer,
+her bard, her silver star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the one
+passionate love of her life, and hugged him close.
+
+All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches snapped above
+them in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes and neck seemed to come
+and go before Merlin's eyes with the lightning. At last the storm had
+spent its passion, the woodland was all in peace again, and Merlin,
+overtalked and overworn had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD.]
+
+Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven footsteps and waving
+arms, and in the hollow of the old oak tree left him lying dead to all
+life, use and fame and name.
+
+"I have made his glory mine! O fool!" she shrieked, and she sprang down
+through the great forest, the thicket closed about her behind her and
+all the woods echoed, "Fool!"
+
+
+
+
+BALIN AND BALAN.
+
+
+King Pellam owed Arthur some tribute money so Arthur told three of his
+knights to go see about it and collect it for him.
+
+"Very well," said one of the knights, "but listen, on the way to King
+Pellam's country, near Camelot, there are two strange knights sitting
+beside a fountain. They challenge and overthrow every knight that
+passes. Shall I stop to fight them as we go by and send them back to
+you?"
+
+Arthur laughed, "No, don't stop for anything; let them wait until they
+can find some one stronger themselves."
+
+With that the three men left. But after they had gone Arthur, who loved
+a good fight himself, started away early one morning for the fountain
+side of Camelot. On its right hand he saw the knight Balin sitting under
+an alder tree, with his horse beside him, and on the left hand under a
+poplar tree with his horse at his side sat the knight Balan.
+
+"Fair sirs," cried Arthur, "why are you sitting here?"
+
+"For the sake of glory," they answered. "We're stronger than all
+Arthur's court. We've proved that because we easily overthrow every
+knight that comes by here."
+
+"Well, I'm of Arthur's court, too," replied the king, "although I've
+never done so much in jousts as in real wars. But see whether you can
+overthrow me so easily too."
+
+So the two brothers came out boldly and fought with Arthur, but he
+struck them both lightly down, then softly came away and nobody knew
+anything about it.
+
+But that evening while Balin and Balan sat very meekly by the bubbling
+water a spangled messenger came riding by and cried out to them: "Sirs,
+you are sent for by the King."
+
+So they followed the man back to the court. "Tell me your names,"
+demanded Arthur, "and why do you sit there by the fountain?"
+
+[Illustration: TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS.]
+
+"My name is Balin," answered one of the men, "and my brother's name is
+Balan. Three years ago I struck down one of your slaves whom I heard had
+spoken ill of me, and you sent me away for a three years' exile. Then I
+thought that if we would sit by the well and would overcome every knight
+who passed by you would be a more willing to take me back. But today
+some man of yours came along and conquered us both. What do you wish
+with me?"
+
+"Be wiser for falling," Arthur said. "Your chair is in the hall vacant.
+Take it again and be my knight once more."
+
+So Balin went back into the old hall of the Knights of the Round Table,
+and they all clashed their cups together drinking his welcome, and sang
+until all of Arthur's banners of war hanging overhead began to stir as
+they always did on the battlefield.
+
+Meanwhile the men who had gone to collect the taxes from King Pellam
+returned.
+
+"Sir King," they cried to Arthur, "We scarcely could see Pellam for the
+gloom in his hall. That man who used to be one of your roughest and most
+riotous enemies is now living like a monk in his castle and has all
+sorts of holy things about him, and says he has given up all matters of
+the world. He wouldn't even talk about the tribute money and told us
+that his heir Sir Garlon, attended to his business for him, so we went
+to Garlon and after a struggle we got it. Then we came away, but as we
+passed through the deep woods we found one of your knights lying dead,
+killed by a spear. After we had buried him, we talked with an old
+woodman who told us that there's a demon of the woods who had probably
+slain the knight. This demon, he said, was once a man who lived all
+alone and learned black magic. He hated people so much that when he died
+he became a fiend. The woodman showed us the cave where he has seen the
+demon go in and out and where he lives. We saw the print of a horse's
+hoof, but no more."
+
+"Foully and villainously slain!" cried Arthur thinking of his poor
+killed knight in the woods. "Who will go hunt this demon of the woods
+for me?"
+
+"I!" exclaimed Balan, ready to dart instantly away, but first he
+embraced Balin, saying, "Good brother, hear; don't let your angry
+passions conquer you, fight them away. Remember how these knights of the
+Round Table welcomed you back. Be a loving brother with them and don't
+imagine that there is hatred among them here any more than there is in
+heaven itself."
+
+When bad Balan left, Balin set himself to learn how to curb his wildness
+and become a courteous and manly knight. He always hovered about
+Lancelot, the pattern knight of all the court, to see how he did, and
+when he noticed Lancelot's sweet smiles and his little pleasant words
+that gladdened every knight or churl or child that he passed, Balin
+sighed like some lame boy who longed to scale a mountain top and could
+scarcely limp up one hundred feet from the base.
+
+"It's Lancelot's worship of the queen that helps to make him gentle,"
+said he to himself. "If I want to be gentle I must serve and worship
+lovely Queen Guinevere too. Suppose I ask the King to let me have some
+token of hers on my shield instead of these pictures of wild beasts with
+big teeth and grins. Then whenever I see it I'll forget my wild heats
+and violences."
+
+"What would you like to bear on your shield?" asked the king when Balin
+spoke to him about his wish.
+
+"The queen's own crown-royal," replied Balin.
+
+Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. "The crown is only the
+shadow of the king," she said, "and this crown is the shadow of that
+shadow. But let him have it if it will help him out of his violences."
+
+"It's no shadow to me, my queen," cried Balan, "no shadow to me, king.
+It's a light for me."
+
+So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and whenever he
+looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and patient.
+
+But one morning as he heard Lancelot and the queen talking together on
+the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere's bower, all his
+old passions seemed to come back and filled him and he darted madly away
+on his horse, not stopping until he had passed the fount where he had
+sat with his brother Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond.
+There the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a branch of a
+tree.
+
+[Illustration: BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD.]
+
+"Give me your axe, Churl," cried Balin, and with one sharp cut he struck
+it down.
+
+"Lord!" cried the woodman, "you could kill the devil of this woods if
+any one can. Just yesterday I saw a flash of him. Some people say that
+our Sir Garlon has learned black magic too and can ride armed unseen.
+Just look into the demon's cave."
+
+But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off through the glades
+with a drooping head. He did not notice that on his right a great cavern
+chasm yawned out of the darkness. Once he heard the mosses beneath him
+thud and tremble and then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and
+ran along the ground. The light of somebody's armor flashed by him and
+vanished into the woods.
+
+Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that he
+stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from his horse.
+He sprang to his feet and darted off again not knowing where he was
+going until the massy battlements of King Pellam's castle appeared.
+
+"Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield?" Pellam's men asked him
+as soon as they saw him.
+
+"The fairest and best of ladies living gave it to me," Balin replied, as
+he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the banquet hall.
+
+"Why do you wear the royal crown?" Sir Garlon asked him as they sat at
+table.
+
+"The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest, best and
+purest gave it to me to wear," said Balin.
+
+But Sir Garlon only hissed at him and made fun of what he said, and
+Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with a sacred picture to
+hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the gentle queen about whom he
+was talking soothed his temper. The next morning, however, in the court
+Sir Garlon mocked him again and Balin's face grew black with anger. He
+tore out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, "Ha! I'll
+make a ghost of you!" struck Garlon hard on the helmet.
+
+The blade flew and splintered into six parts which clinked upon the
+stones below while Garlon reeled slowly backward and fell. Balin dragged
+him by the banneret of his helmet and struck again, but in a minute
+twenty warriors with pointed lances were making for him from the castle.
+Balin dashed his fist against the foremost face then dipped through a
+low doorway out along a glimmering gallery until he saw the open portals
+of King Pellam's chapel. He slipped inside this and crept behind the
+door while the others howled past outside.
+
+Before the golden altar he noticed lying the brightest lance he had ever
+seen with its point painted red with blood. Seizing it he pushed it out
+through an open casement, leaned on it and leaped in a half-circle to
+the ground outside. Running along a path he found his horse, mounted him
+and scudded away. An arrow whizzed to his right, another to his left and
+a third over his head while he heard Pellam crying out feebly, "Catch
+him, catch him! he mustn't pollute holy things!"
+
+But Balin quickly dove beneath the tree boughs and raced through miles
+of thick groves and open meadowland until his good horse, at last
+wearied and uncertain in his footsteps, stumbled over a fallen oak and
+threw Balin headlong.
+
+As Balin rose to his feet he looked at the Queen's crown on his shield
+and then drew the shield from off his neck. "I have shamed you," he
+cried. "I won't carry you any more," and he hung it up on a branch and
+threw himself on the ground in a passionate sleep.
+
+While he slept there the beautiful wicked Vivien came riding by through
+the woodland alleys with her squire, warbling a song.
+
+"What is this?" she cried as she noticed the shield on the tree, "a
+shield with a crown upon it. And there's a horse. Where's the rider? Oh!
+there he is sleeping. Hail royal knight, I'm flying away from a bad king
+and the knight I was riding with was hurt, and my poor squire isn't of
+much use in helping me. But you, Sir Prince, will surely guide me to the
+Warrior King Arthur, the Blameless, to get me some shelter."
+
+"Oh, no, I'll never go to Arthur's court again," cried Balin. "I'm not a
+prince any more, or a knight. I have brought the Queen's crown to
+shame."
+
+Then Vivien laughed shrilly, and told Balin a wicked story about the
+Queen which she just imagined in her wicked mind. But she told it so
+cunningly and smiled so sunnily as she talked that Balin believed her
+and he flew into the more passionate rage because he thought he had been
+deceived in the Queen whom he had worshipped.
+
+He ground his teeth together, sprang up with a yell, tore the shield
+from the branch and cast it on the ground, drove his heel _into the
+royal crown_, stamped and trampled upon it until it was all spoiled,
+then hurled the shield from him out among the forest weeds and cursed
+the story, the queen and Vivien.
+
+His weird yell had thrilled through the woods where Balan was lurking
+for his foe. "There! that's the scream of the wood-devil I'm looking
+for," he thought. "He has killed some knight and trampled on his shield
+to show his loathing of our order and the queen. Devil or man,
+whichever you are, take care of your head!"
+
+[Illustration: HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN.]
+
+With that he made swiftly for his poor brother whom he did not
+recognize. Sir Balin spoke not a word but snatched the buckler from
+Vivien's squire, vaulted on his horse and in a moment had clashed with
+his brother's armor. King Pellam's holy spear reddened with blood as it
+pricked through Balan's shield to his flesh. Then Balin's horse, wearied
+to death, rolled back over his rider and crushed him inward and both men
+fell and swooned away.
+
+"The fools!" cried Vivien to her young squire. "Come, you Sir Chick,
+loosen their casques and see who they are. They must be rivals for the
+same woman to fight so hard."
+
+"They are happy," her gentle squire answered, "if they died for love.
+And Vivien, though you beat me like your dog I would die for you."
+
+"Don't die, Sir Boy," cried Vivien, "I'd rather have a live dog than a
+dead lion. Come away, I don't like to look at them," and she made her
+palfrey leap off over the fallen oak tree.
+
+Balin was the first to wake from his swoon. As soon as he saw his
+brother's face he crawled over to his side moaning. Then Balan faintly
+opened his eyes and seeing who was with him kissed Balin's forehead.
+
+"O Balin," he cried, "why didn't you carry your own shield which I knew,
+and why did you trample all over this one which bears the queen's own
+crown which I know?"
+
+So Balin slowly gasped out the whole story of his shield. Then they each
+said good-night to the other and closed their eyes, locked in each
+other's arms.
+
+
+
+
+LANCELOT AND ELAINE.
+
+
+Long before Arthur was crowned king while he was roving one night over
+the trackless realms of Lyonesse he came upon a glen with a gray boulder
+and a lake. As he rode up the highway in the misty moonshine he suddenly
+stepped upon a white skeleton of a man with a crown of diamonds upon its
+skull. The skull broke off from the body and rolled away into the lake.
+Arthur alighted, reached down and picked up the crown and set it on his
+head murmuring to himself, "_You too shall be king some day_," for the
+skeleton was the bones of a king who had fought with his brother there
+and been killed.
+
+[Illustration: YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY.]
+
+When Arthur was crowned he plucked the nine gems out of the crown he had
+found on the skeleton and showed them to his knights with the words:
+
+"These jewels belong to the whole kingdom for everybody's use and not to
+the king. Hereafter there is to be joust for one of them every year and
+in that way in nine years time we will learn who is the mightiest in the
+kingdom and we will race with each other to become skilful in the use
+of arms until at last we shall be able to drive away the heathen horde
+from the land."
+
+Eight years had now passed and there had been eight jousts. Lancelot had
+won the diamond every year and intended when he had been victorious in
+all the jousts, to give the nine gems to the queen. When the ninth year
+came Arthur proclaimed the tournament for the central and largest
+diamond to be held at Camelot, where he was holding his court. But the
+queen became ill as the time for the tour jousts drew near and he asked
+her whether she was too feeble to go to see Lancelot in the lists.
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Guinevere, "and you know it," and she looked up
+languidly to Lancelot who stood near.
+
+Lancelot thinking that she would rather have him near while she was ill
+than to receive all the diamonds of the crown, said:
+
+"Sir King, that old wound of mine is not quite healed so I can hardly
+ride in my saddle."
+
+So the king went, excused Lancelot, and rode away alone to the lists
+while Lancelot remained, but as soon as Arthur was gone the _queen told
+Lancelot that he ought by all means go too and fight_.
+
+"But how can I go now," replied Lancelot, "after what I have said to the
+king."
+
+"I will tell you what to do," said Guinevere. "Everybody says that men
+go down before your spear just because of your great name. They are
+afraid as soon as you appear and of course, they are conquered. Go in
+today entirely unknown and win for yourself, then after all is over the
+king will be pleased with you for being so clever."
+
+[Illustration: THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS
+FIGHT.]
+
+Lancelot quickly got his horse and leaving the beaten thoroughfare,
+chose a green path among the downs to take him to the lists. It was a
+new road to him however and he lost his way and did not know where to go
+until at last he came upon a faintly traced pathway that led to the
+castle of Astolat far away on a hill. He went thither, blew the horn at
+the gate where a _dumb, wrinkled old man came to let him in_. In the
+castle court he met the lord of Astolat with his two young sons, Sir
+Torre and Sir Lavaine and behind them the lily maiden Elaine, Astolat's
+daughter. They were jesting and laughing as they came.
+
+[Illustration: A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN.]
+
+"Where do you come from, my guest, and what is your name?" asked
+Astolat. "By your state and presence I would guess you to be the chief
+of Arthur's court, for I have seen him although the other knights of the
+Round Table are strangers to me."
+
+Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight replied, "I am of Arthur's court and I
+am known, and my shield which I have happened to bring with me, is known
+too. But as I am going to joust for the diamond at Camelot as a
+stranger do not ask me my name. After it is over you shall know me and
+my shield. If you have some blank shield around, or one with a strange
+device, pray lend it to me."
+
+"Here is Torre's," the Lord of Astolat replied. "He was hurt in his
+first tilt and so his shield is blank enough, God knows. You can have
+his."
+
+"Yes," added Sir Torre simply, "since I can't use it you may have it."
+
+His father laughed. "Fie, Churl, is that an answer for a noble knight?
+You must pardon him, but Lavaine, my younger boy, is so full of life he
+will ride in the lists, joust for the diamond, win and bring it in one
+hour to set upon his sister's golden hair and make her three times as
+wilful as before."
+
+"Oh, no, good father! don't shame me before this noble knight. It was
+all a joke. Elaine dreamed that some one had put the diamond into her
+hand and it was so slippery it dropped into a pool of water. Then I told
+her that if I fought and won it for her she must keep it safer than
+that. But it was all in fun. However, if you'll give me your leave, I'll
+ride to Camelot with this noble knight. I shall not win but I'll do my
+best to win."
+
+Lancelot smiled a moment. "If you'll give me the pleasure of your
+company over the downs where I lost myself I'll be glad to have you as a
+friend and guide. You shall win the diamond if you can and then give it
+to your sister if you wish."
+
+"Such diamonds are for queens and not for simple little girls," said Sir
+Torre.
+
+Elaine flushed at this and Lancelot said, "If beautiful things are for
+beautiful people this maiden may wear as fine jewels as there are in the
+world."
+
+Then the lily maid lifted her eyes and thought that Lancelot was the
+greatest man that had ever lived. She loved his bruised and bronzed face
+seamed across with an old sword-cut.
+
+They took the pet knight of Arthur's court into the rude hall of Astolat
+where they entertained him with their best meats, wines and minstrel
+melodies. They told him about the dumb old man at the gate, how ten
+years ago he had warned Astolat of the heathen fighters coming, and how
+they had all escaped to the woods and lived in a boatman's hut by the
+river while the old man had been caught and had his tongue cut off.
+
+"Those were dull days," said the Lord of Astolat, "until Arthur came and
+drove the heathen away."
+
+"O, great Lord!" cried Lavaine to Lancelot, "you fought in those
+glorious wars with Arthur. Tell us about them!"
+
+So Lancelot told him all about the fight all day long at the white mouth
+of the river Glenn, the four loud battles on the shore of Duglas where
+the glorious king wore on his cuirass an emerald carved into Our Lady's
+head. "On the mount of Badon," he said, "I saw him charge at the head of
+all of his Round Table and break the heathen hosts. Afterward he stood
+on a heap of the killed, all red, from his spurs to the plumes of his
+helmet, with their blood, and he cried to me: 'They are broken! they are
+broken!' In this heathen war the fire of God filled him, I never saw
+anyone like him, there is no greater leader."
+
+"Except yourself," thought the lily maid Elaine. All through the night
+she saw his dark, splendid face living before her eyes and early in the
+morning she arose as if to bid goodbye to Lavaine, stole step after step
+down the long tower stairs and passed out to the court where Lancelot
+was smoothing the glossy shoulders of his horse. She drew nearer and
+stood in the dewy light, studying his face as though it was a god. He
+had never dreamed she was so beautiful.
+
+[Illustration: "FAIR LORD," SAID ELAINE.]
+
+"Fair lord," said Elaine, "I don't know your name but I believe it is
+the noblest himself of them all. Will you wear a token of me at the
+tournament today?"
+
+"No, pretty lady," said he, "for I've never worn a token of any woman in
+the lists; as every one who knows me knows."
+
+"Then by wearing mine you'll be less likely to be found out this time."
+
+"That's true, my child, well, I'll wear it. Fetch it out to me. What is
+it?"
+
+"A red sleeve bordered with pearls," replied Elaine, and she went in and
+brought it out to him.
+
+Then he wound it round his helmet and said he had never before done so
+much for any girl in the world. The blood sprang to Elaine's face as he
+said that, and filled her with delight, although she grew all the paler
+as Lavaine came out and handed Sir Torre's shield to Lancelot. Lancelot
+gave his own shield to Elaine saying, "Do me this favor, child, keep my
+shield for me until I come back."
+
+"It's a favor to me," she replied smiling, "I'll be your squire."
+
+"Come, Lily Maid," cried Lavaine, "you'll be a lily maid in earnest if
+you don't get to bed and have some sleep," and he kissed her good-bye.
+
+Lancelot kissed her hand as they moved away. She watched them at the
+gateway until their sparkling arms dipped below the downs, then climbed
+up to her tower with the shield and there she studied it and mused over
+it every day.
+
+Meanwhile Lancelot and Lavaine passed far over the long downs until they
+reached an old hermit who lived in a white rock. Here they spent the
+night. The next morning as they rode away Lancelot said, "Listen to me,
+but keep what I say a secret, you're riding with Lancelot of the Lake."
+
+"The great Lancelot?" stammered Lavaine, catching his breath with
+surprise. "There is only one other great man to see, and that is
+Britain's king of kings, Arthur. And he's going to be at the tournament,
+too."
+
+As soon as they reached the lists in the meadows by Camelot, Lancelot
+pointed out the king who, as he sat in the peopled gallery was very easy
+to recognize because of his five dragons. A golden dragon clung to his
+crown, another writhed down his robe while two others in gilded carved
+wood-work formed the arms of his chair. The canopy above him blazed with
+the last big diamond.
+
+"You call me great," cried Lancelot, "I'm not great, there's the man."
+
+Lavaine gaped at Arthur as if he were something miraculous. Then the
+trumpets blew. The two sides, those who held the lists and those who
+attacked them, set their lances in rest, then struck their spurs, moved
+out suddenly and shocked in the center of the field. The ground shook
+and there was a low thunder of arms. Lancelot waited a little until he
+saw which was the weaker side, then sprang into the fight with them. In
+those days of his glory, whomever he struck he overthrew, whether they
+were kings, dukes, earls, counts or barons. But that day in the field
+some of his relatives were holding the lists who did not know him and
+who could not bear the idea that any stranger knight should out do the
+feats of their own Lancelot.
+
+"Who is this?" one of them asked, "Isn't it Lancelot?"
+
+"When has Lancelot ever worn a lady's token?" the others replied.
+
+"Who is it then?" they cried, furious to guard the name of Lancelot.
+They pricked their steeds and moving all together bore down upon him
+like a wild wave that upsets a ship. One spear lamed Lancelot's charger
+and another pierced through Lancelot's side, snapped there and stuck.
+Lavaine now did splendidly for he brought a famous old knight down by
+Lancelot's side. Lancelot in the meantime rose to his feet in all his
+agony and by a sort of miracle as it seemed to those who were on his
+side, drove all his opponents back to the barrier. Then the trumpet blew
+and proclaimed that the knight who wore the scarlet sleeve with pearls
+was victor.
+
+"Go up and get your diamond," his men said to him.
+
+"Don't give me any diamonds," said Lancelot. "My prize is death, I'll
+leave and don't follow."
+
+Then he vanished into the poplar grove where he told Lavaine to draw out
+the lance head.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll die, if I do," cried Lavaine.
+
+"I'm dying now with it," said Lancelot, so Lavaine drew it out and
+Lancelot gave a wonderful shriek and swooned away.
+
+Then the old hermit came out, carried him into the white rock and
+stanched his wound.
+
+Immediately after he had left the field the men of his side went to the
+king and said that the knight who had won the day had left without
+receiving his prize.
+
+"Such a knight as that must not go uncared for," said the king. "Gawain,
+ride out and find him and since he didn't come for his diamond we will
+send it to him. Don't leave your quest until you have him."
+
+Gawain the courteous was a good young knight but he didn't like it that
+he had to leave the banquet and the king's side to look for a stranger
+knight, so he mounted his horse rather crossly. He rode all round the
+country to every place except the right one, poplar grove, and at last
+very late reached the Castle of Astolat.
+
+"What news from Camelot?" cried Elaine as soon as she saw him, "What
+about the knight with the red sleeve?"
+
+"He won."
+
+"I knew it," she said.
+
+"But he left the jousts wounded in his side."
+
+Then Elaine almost swooned away. When the Lord of Astolat came out and
+heard about Gawain's quest, "Stay with us, noble prince," said he. "For
+the knight was here and left his shield with us, so he will certainly
+come back or send for it. Besides my son is with him."
+
+Gawain thought he would have a pleasant time with Elaine so he stayed.
+But Elaine rebelled against his pretty love-making and asked him why he
+neglected the king's quest and why he didn't ask to see the knight's
+shield.
+
+"I've lost my quest in the light of your blue eyes," said Gawain, "but
+let me see the shield. Ah! the king was right!" he cried out when Elaine
+showed it to him. "It was our Lancelot."
+
+"I was right too," Elaine said merrily, "for I dreamed that my knight
+was the greatest of them all."
+
+"And suppose that I dreamed that you love this greatest knight?"
+returned Gawain.
+
+"What do I know?" Elaine answered simply. "I don't know whether I know
+what love is, but I do know that if I do not love him there isn't
+another man whom I can love."
+
+"Yes, you love him well," said Gawain. "And I suppose you know just
+where your greatest knight is hidden, so let me leave my quest with you.
+If you love him it will be sweet to you to give him the diamond and if
+he loves you it will be sweet to him to receive it from you, while even
+if he doesn't love you, a diamond is always a diamond. Farewell a
+thousand times. If he loves you I may see you at court after while."
+
+Then Gawain lightly kissed her hand as he laid the diamond in it, and,
+wearied of his quest, leaped on his horse and carrolling a love-ballad
+airily rode away to the court where it was soon buzzed abroad that a
+maid of Astolat loved Lancelot and that Lancelot loved a maid of
+Astolat.
+
+The maid meanwhile crept up to her father one day and received his leave
+to take the diamond to Sir Lancelot. Sir Torre went with her to the
+gates of Camelot where they saw Lavaine capering about on a horse.
+
+"Lavaine!" she cried, "how is it with my lord Sir Lancelot?" and she
+told him about the diamond. Then Sir Torre went on into the city while
+Lavaine guided Elaine to the hermit's cave. As she saw her handsome
+knight on the floor, a sort of skeleton of himself, she gave a little
+tender dolorous cry.
+
+"Your prize, the diamond, sent you by the king," said she, as she put it
+into his hand and explained how she had received it from Gawain. Then he
+kissed her as a father would kiss a dear little daughter and she went
+back to the dim, rich city of Camelot for the night. But the next
+morning she was back in the cave, and day after day she came, caring for
+him more mildly, tenderly and kindly than any mother could with a child,
+until at last the old hermit said she had nursed him back to life, then
+all three rode back together one morning to Astolat where Lancelot asked
+Elaine to tell him the dearest wish of her heart so that he could grant
+it to her. Elaine turned as pale as a ghost when he first spoke but at
+last one day she told him. She said she wanted him to love her, she
+wanted to be his wife.
+
+"If I had chosen to wed," Lancelot replied, slowly, "I would have been
+married long before this. But now I shall never marry, sweet Elaine."
+
+"No, no," cried Elaine, "it won't matter if I can't be your wife, if I
+can only go with you always and go round the world with you and serve
+you."
+
+But Lancelot said that would be a poor way for him to requite the love
+and kindness her father and brothers had shown him. "Noble maid," he
+went on, "this is only the first flash of love with you. After awhile
+you will smile at yourself about it when you find a knight who is fitter
+for you to marry and not three times older than you as I am, and then I
+will give you broad lands and territories even to a half of my kingdom
+across the seas and I'll always be ready to fight for you in your
+troubles. I'll do this, dear girl, but more I cannot."
+
+"Of all this I care for nothing," Elaine said growing deathly pale and
+falling in a swoon.
+
+That evening Lancelot sent for his shield from the tower where Elaine
+sat with it, and as his horse's hoofs clattered off upon the stone of
+the highway she looked down from her tower, but he did not glance back.
+
+After that Elaine dreamed her time sadly away in the tower and only
+wished that she could die. She begged her father to send for the priest
+to confess her and asked Lavaine to write a letter for her to Lancelot.
+Then she arranged it that when she died the dumb old man at the gate was
+to take her in the barge down the river to the king's palace. Eleven
+days later this was done. Elaine was dressed like a little sleeping
+queen and floated along the stream with her letter in one hand and a
+lily in the other.
+
+That day Lancelot was with the queen and as he looked out of the
+casement upon the river he saw the barge hung with rich black samite,
+the dumb old man and the lily maid of Astolat gliding up to the palace
+door.
+
+"What is it?" cried everybody streaming round. "A pale fairy queen come
+to take Arthur to fairy land?"
+
+Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad carry her
+reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came and wondered at her
+and Lancelot came and mused over her, and the queen came and pitied her.
+But King Arthur spied a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the
+lords and ladies. It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot.
+
+[Illustration: A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND.]
+
+Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and how he had
+promised to give her his lands and riches when she should be ready to
+marry some knight of her own age. The king said that he should see that
+she was buried very grandly. So they had a procession with all the pomp
+of a queen, with gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all
+the Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then they laid
+the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her hand.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOLY GRAIL.
+
+
+One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. There was
+something about him different from all the other monks there. He was so
+polished and clever that old Ambrosious who had lived in the old
+monastery for fifty years and had never seen a bit of the world guessed
+in a minute that the new brother had come from King Arthur's court. And
+one windy April morning as Ambrosious stood under the yew tree with this
+gentle monk he asked him why he left the Knights of the Round Table.
+
+Then Sir Percival answered:
+
+"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail."
+
+[Illustration: "THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS.]
+
+"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I don't know much, but
+what is that, the phantom of a cup that comes and goes?"
+
+"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's the cup that
+our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and after he died Joseph of
+Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at Christmas time, and there it
+stayed a while and every one who looked at it or touched it was healed
+of their sicknesses. But the times grew so wicked that the cup was
+caught up into heaven where nobody could see it."
+
+"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious, "how Joseph
+built a lonely little church at Glastonbury on the marsh, but that was
+long ago. Who first saw the vision of the Holy Grail to-day?"
+
+"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a holy maid if
+ever there was one. The old man to whom she used to tell her sins (or
+what she called her sins), often spoke to her about the legend of the
+Holy Grail which had been handed down through six people, each of them a
+hundred years old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order
+of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a time this
+old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come back again. 'O Christ!'
+he used to say to my sister, 'if only it would come back and help all
+the world of its wickedness!' And then my sister asked him whether it
+might come to her by prayer and fasting.
+
+"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.'
+
+"So she prayed and fasted until the sun shone and the wind blew through
+her and one day she sent for me. Her eyes were so beautiful with the
+light of holiness that I did not know them.
+
+"'Sweet Brother,' she said, 'I have seen the Holy Grail. I heard a sound
+like a silver horn but sweeter than any music we can make, and then a
+cold silver beam of light streamed in through my cell, and down the beam
+stole the Holy Grail, rose red and throbbing as if it were alive. All
+the walls of my cell grew rosy red with quivering rosy colors. Then the
+music faded away, the Holy Grail vanished and the colors died out in
+the darkness. So now we know the Holy Thing is here again, Brother fast,
+too, and pray, and tell your brother-knights about it, then perhaps the
+vision may be seen by you all, and the whole world will be healed.'
+
+[Illustration: MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH.]
+
+"So I told all the knights and we fasted and prayed for many weeks. Then
+my sister cut off all her long streaming silken hair which used to fall
+to her feet and out of it braided a strong sword belt and with silver
+and crimson thread she wove into it a crimson grail in a silver beam.
+Then she bound it on our beautiful boy knight, Sir Galahad, and said:
+
+"'My knight of heaven, go forth, for you shall see what I have seen and
+far in the spiritual city you will be crowned king.' Then she sent the
+deathless passion of her eyes through him and he believed what she said.
+
+"Then came a year of miracles. In our great hall there stood a chair
+which Merlin had fashioned carved with strange figures like a serpent
+and in and out among the strange figures ran a scroll of strange letters
+in a language nobody knew like a serpent. Merlin called it the Seat
+Perilous, because he said if any one sat in it he would get lost. And
+Galahad said that if he got lost in it he would save himself. So one
+summer night Sir Galahad sat down in the chair and all at once there was
+a cracking of the roofs above us, and a blast and thunder, and in the
+thunder there was a cry and in the blast there was a beam of light seven
+times clearer than the daylight. Down the beam stole the Holy Grail all
+covered over with a luminous cloud. Then it passed away but every knight
+saw his brother knight's faces in a glory and we all rose and stared at
+each other until at last I found my voice and swore a vow.
+
+"I swore that because I had not seen the Holy Grail behind the cloud I
+would ride away a year and a day in quest of it until I could see it as
+my sister saw it. Galahad swore too, and good Sir Bors, and Lancelot and
+many others, knights, and Gawain louder than all the rest.
+
+"The king was not in the hall that day for he had gone out to help some
+poor maiden, but as he came back over the plains beyond Camelot he saw
+the roofs rolling in smoke and thought that his wonderfully dear,
+beautiful hall which Merlin had built for him so wonderfully was afire.
+So he rode fast and rushed into the tumult of knights and asked me what
+it all meant.
+
+"'Woe is me!' cried the king when I told him. 'Had I been here you would
+not have sworn the vows.'
+
+"'My king,' I answered boldly, had you been here you would have sworn
+the vows yourself.'
+
+"'Yes, yes,' said he, 'are you so bold when you didn't see the Grail?
+You didn't see farther than the cloud, and what can you expect to see
+now if you go out into the wilderness?'
+
+"'No, no, Lord, I didn't see the Grail, I heard the sound, I saw the
+light and since I didn't see the holy thing I swore the vow that I would
+follow it until I did see.'
+
+"'Then he asked us, knight by knight, whether we had seen it and each
+one said, 'No, no, Lord, that was why we swore our vows,' but suddenly
+Galahad called out, 'But I saw the Holy Grail, Sir Arthur, and heard the
+cry, "O Galahad, follow me."'
+
+"Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the king, 'the vision is for such as you
+and for your holy nun but not for these. Are you all Galahads or all
+Percivals? No, no, you are just men with the strength to right the
+wrongs and violences of the land. But now since one has seen, all the
+blind want to see. However, since you have made the vow, go. But oh, how
+often the distressed people of the kingdom will come into the hall for
+you to help them and all your chairs will be vacant while you are out
+chasing a fire in the quagmire! Many of you, yes, most of you will never
+come back again! But come to-morrow before you go, let us have one more
+day of field sports so that before you go I can rejoice in the unbroken
+strength of the Order I have made.'
+
+"So the next day there was the greatest tournament that Camelot had ever
+seen, and Galahad and I, with a strength which we had received from the
+vision, overthrew so many knights that all the people cheered hotly for
+Sir Galahad and Sir Percival. The next morning all the rich balconies
+along the streets of Camelot were laden with ladies and showers of
+flowers fell over us as we passed out and men and boys astride lions and
+dragons, griffins and swans at the street corners, called us all by name
+and cried, 'God Speed!' while many lords and ladies wept. Then we came
+down to the gate of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own
+way.
+
+"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought the sky
+never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my blood danced within
+me for I knew that I would see the Holy Grail. But after a while I
+thought of the dark warning of the king. I looked about and saw that I
+was quite alone in a sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of
+thirst. Then I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees
+overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and eating of the
+apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and thirsty again in
+among the sands and thorns. Next I saw a woman spinning beside a
+beautiful house. She rose to greet me and stretched out her arms to
+welcome me into her house to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell
+to dust, and the house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and
+then it fell to dust too.
+
+"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was a walled city,
+the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up to the sky, and at the
+gateway there was a crowd of people who cried out to me:
+
+"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men!"
+
+"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I passed through to
+the ruined old city and found only one person a very, very old man.
+'Where is the crowd who called out to me?' I asked him.
+
+"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who
+are you?' and then fell to dust.
+
+[Illustration: NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING.]
+
+"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I should see
+the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble into dust. From
+there I passed down into a deep valley, as low down as the city was
+high up, where I found a chapel with a hermit in a hermitage near by. I
+told him about all these phantoms.
+
+"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother of all
+virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as Galahad did.'
+
+"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in silver armor.
+He laid his lance beside the chapel door and we all went in and knelt in
+prayer. Then my thirst was quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw
+only the holy elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon
+the shrine.
+
+"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever since we
+came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at night. In its
+strength I have overcome evil customs wherever I have gone, and have
+passed through Pagan lands and clashed with Pagan hordes and broken them
+down everywhere. But the time is very near now when I shall go into the
+spiritual city far away where some one will crown me king. Come with me
+for you will see the Holy Grail in a vision when I go.'
+
+"At the close of the day I started away with him. We came to a hill
+which only a man could climb, scarred all over with a hundred frozen
+streams, and when we reached the top there was a wild storm. Galahad's
+armor flashed and darkened again every instant with quick, thick
+lightnings which struck the dead old tree trunks on every side until at
+last they blazed into a fire. At the base was a great black swamp partly
+whitened with bones of dead men. A chain of bridges lead across it to
+the great sea, and Galahad crossed them, one after the other, but each
+one burned away as soon as he had passed over so that I had to stay
+behind. When he reached the great sea the Holy Grail hung over his head
+in a brilliant cloud. Then a boat came swiftly by and when the sky
+brightened again with the lightning I could see him floating away,
+either in a boat with full sails or a winged creature which was flying,
+I couldn't tell which. Above him hung the Holy Grail rosy red without
+the cloud. I had seen the holy thing at last. When I saw Sir Galahad
+again he looked like a silver star in the sky, and beyond the star was
+the spiritual city with all her spires and gateways in a glory like one
+pearl, no larger than a pearl. From the star a rosy red sparkle from the
+Grail shot across to the city. But while I looked a flood of rain came
+down in torrents, and how I ever came away I don't know, but anyway at
+the dawn of the next day I had reached the little chapel again. There I
+got my horse from the hermit and rode back to the gates of Camelot.
+
+"Just once I met one of the other knights. That was one night when the
+full moon was rising and the pelican of Sir Bors' casque made a shadow
+on it. I spurred on my horse, hailed him and we were both very glad to
+see each other.
+
+"'Where is Sir Lancelot,' he asked. 'Have you seen him? Once he dashed
+across me very madly, maddening his horse. When I asked him why he rode
+so hotly on a holy quest he shouted, 'Don't keep me, I was a sluggard,
+and now I'm going fast for there's a lion in the way.' Then he vanished.
+When I saw how mad he was I felt very sad for I love him, and I cared no
+more whether I saw the Holy Grail, or not; but I rode on until I came to
+the loneliest parts of the country where some magicians told me I
+followed a mocking fire. This vexed me and when the people saw that I
+quarrelled with their priests they bound me and put me into a cell of
+stones. I lay there for hours until one night a miracle happened. One
+of the stones slipped away without any one touching it or any wind
+blowing. Through the gap it made I saw the seven clear stars which we
+have always called the stars of the Round Table and across the seven
+stars the sweet Grail glided past. Close after a clap of thunder pealed.
+Then a maiden came to me in secret and loosed me and let me go.'
+
+[Illustration: ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST.]
+
+"Sir Bors and I rode along together and when we reached the city our
+horses stumbled over heaps of ruined bits of houses that fell as they
+trod along the streets. At last brought us to Arthur's hall.
+
+"As we came in we saw Arthur sitting on his throne with just a tenth of
+the knights who had gone out on the quest of the Holy Grail standing
+before him, wasted and worn, also the knights who had stayed at home.
+When he saw me he rose and said he was glad to see me back, that he had
+been worrying about me because of the fierce gale that had made havoc
+through the town and shaken even the new strong hall and half wrenched
+the statue Merlin made for him.
+
+"'But the quest,' the king went on, 'have you seen the cup that Joseph
+brought long ago to Glastonbury?'
+
+"Then when I told him all that you have been hearing just now and how I
+was going to give up the tournament and tilt and pass into the quiet of
+the life of the monk, he answered not a word, but turning quickly to
+Gawain asked,
+
+"'Gawain, was this quest for you?'
+
+"'No, Lord,' replied Gawain, 'not for such as I. I talked with a saintly
+old man about that and he made me very sure that it wasn't for me. I was
+very tired of it. But I found a silk pavilion in the field with a lot of
+merry girls in it, then this gale tore it off from the tenting pin and
+blew my merry maidens all about with a great deal of discomfort. If it
+hadn't been for that storm my twelve months and a day would have passed
+very pleasantly for me.'
+
+"Then Arthur turned to Sir Bors, who had pushed across the throng at
+once to Lancelot's side, caught him by the hand and held it there half
+hidden beside him until the king spied them.
+
+"'Hail, Bors, if ever a true and loyal man could see the Grail you have
+seen it,' cried Arthur.
+
+"'Don't ask me about it,' replied Sir Bors with tears in his eyes 'I may
+not speak about it; I saw it.'
+
+"The others spoke only about the perils of their storm, and then it was
+Lancelot's turn. Perhaps Arthur kept his best for the last.
+
+"'My Lancelot,' said the king, 'our Strongest, has the quest availed for
+you?'
+
+"'Our strongest, O King!' groaned Lancelot and as he paused I thought I
+saw a dying fire of madness in his eyes. 'O King, my friend, a sin lived
+in me that was so strange that everything pure, noble and knightly in me
+twined and clung around it until the good and the poisonous in me grew
+together, and when your knights swore to make the quest I swore only in
+the hope that could I see or touch the Holy Grail they might be pulled
+apart. Then I spoke to a holy saint who said that if they could not be
+plucked apart my quest would be all in vain. So I vowed to him that I
+would do just as he told me, and while I was out trying to tear them
+away from each other my old madness came back to me and whipped me off
+into waste fields far away.
+
+"There I was beaten down by little knights whom at one time I would have
+frightened away just by the shadow of my spear. From there I rode over
+to the sea-shore where such a blast of wind began to blow that you could
+not hear the waves even although they were heaped up in mountains and
+drove the sea like a cataract, while the sand on the beach swept by like
+a river. A boat, half-swallowed by the seafoam, was moored to the shore
+by a chain. I said to myself that I would embark in the boat and lose
+myself and wash away my sin in the great sea.
+
+"For seven days I rode around over the dreary water and on the seventh
+night I felt the boat striking ground. In front of me rose the enchanted
+towers of Carbonek, a castle like a rock upon a rock, with portals open
+to the sea and steps that met the waves. A lion sat on each side of
+them. I went up the steps and drew my sword. Suddenly flaring their
+manes the lions stood up like men and gripped me on my shoulders. When I
+was about to strike them a voice said to me, 'Don't be afraid, or the
+beasts will tear you to pieces; go on.' Then my sword was dashed
+violently from my hand and fell. Up into the sounding hall I passed but
+saw not a bench, table, picture, shield or anything else except the moon
+over the sea through the oriel window, but I heard a sweet voice as
+clear as a lark singing in the topmost tower to the east. I climbed up a
+thousand steps with great pain. It seemed as though I was climbing
+forever but at last I reached a door with light shining through the
+crannies and I heard voices singing 'Glory and joy and honor to our Lord
+and the Holy Vessel, the Grail.'
+
+"'Then I madly tried the door, it gave way and through a stormy glare of
+heat that burned me and made me swoon away I thought I saw the Grail,
+all veiled with crimson samite and around it great angels, awful shapes
+and wings and eyes!'
+
+"The long hall was silent after Lancelot was done, until airy Gawain
+began with a sudden.
+
+"'O King, my liege, my good friend Percival and your holy nun have
+driven men mad. By my eyes and ears I swear I'll be deeper than a
+blue-eyed cat and three times as blind as any owl at noon-time
+hereafter to any holy virgins in their ecstasies.'
+
+"'Gawain,' replied the king, 'don't try to become blinder; you're too
+blind now to want to see. If a sign really came from heaven Bors,
+Lancelot and Percival are blessed for they have each seen according to
+their sight.'"
+
+
+
+
+PELLEAS AND ETTARRE.
+
+
+When his knights went after the Holy Grail Arthur made many new knights
+to fill the gaps made by their absence. As he sat in his hall one day at
+old Caerleon the high doors were softly parted and through these in came
+a youth, and with him the outer sunshine and the sweet scent of meadows.
+
+"Make me your knight, Sir King!" he cried, "because I know all about
+everything that belongs to a knight and because I love a maiden."
+
+This youth was Sir Pelleas-of-the-Isles who had heard that the king had
+proclaimed a great tournament at Caerleon with a sword for the victor
+and a golden crown for the victor's sweetheart as the prize. He longed
+to win them, the circlet for his lady love, the sword for himself.
+
+Just a few days before, while riding across the Forest of Dean to find
+the king's palace hall at Caerleon, Pelleas had felt the sun beating on
+his helmet so sharply that he reeled and almost fell from his horse.
+Then, seeing a hillock near-by overgrown with stately beech trees and
+flowers here and there beneath, he tied his horse to a tree, threw
+himself down and was very soon lost in sweet dreams about a maiden, not
+any particular maiden for he had no sweetheart at that time.
+
+But suddenly he was wakened with a sound of chatter and laughing at the
+outskirts of the grove, and glancing through fern he saw a party of
+young girls in many colors like the clouds at sunset, all of them riding
+on richly dressed horses. They were all talking together in a
+hodgepodge, some pointing this way, some that, for they had lost their
+way.
+
+[Illustration: WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN.]
+
+Pelleas sprang up, loosed his horse and led him into the light.
+
+"Just in time!" cried the lady who seemed to be the leader of the party.
+"See, our pilot-star! Youth, we are wandering damsels riding armed, as
+you see, ready to tilt against the knights at Caerleon, but we've lost
+our way. To the right? to the left? straight on? forward? backward?
+which is it? tell us quickly."
+
+Pelleas gazed at her and wondered to himself whether the famous Queen
+Guinevere herself was as beautiful as this maiden. For her violet eyes,
+scornful eyes, were large and the bloom on her cheeks was like the rosy
+dawn. Her beauty made Pelleas timid and when she spoke to him he could
+not answer but only stammered, for he had come from far away waste
+islands where besides his sisters, he had scarcely known any women but
+the tough wives of the islands who made fish nets.
+
+With a slow smile the lady turned round to her companions the smile
+spreading to them all. For she was Ettarre, a very great lady in her
+land.
+
+"O, wild man of the woods," she cried, "don't you understand our
+language, or has heaven given you a beautiful face and no tongue?"
+
+"Lady," he answered, "I just woke from my dreams, and coming out of the
+gloomy woods I was dazzled by the sudden light, and beg your pardon. But
+are you going to Caerleon? I'm going too. Shall I lead you to the king?"
+
+"Lead," said she.
+
+So through the woods they went together but his tender manner, his awe
+of her and his bashfulness bothered her. "I've lighted on a fool," she
+muttered to herself, "so raw and yet so stale!"
+
+But since she wished to be crowned the Queen of Beauty in the king's
+tournament, and since Pelleas looked strong she thought perhaps he would
+fight for her, so she flattered him and was very pleasant and kind. Her
+three knights and maidens were kind to him too, for she was a very
+great lady and they had to do as she did. When they reached Caerleon
+before she passed on to her lodgings she took Pelleas by the hand and
+said:
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND.]
+
+"O, how strong your hand is! See; look at my poor little weak one! Will
+you fight for me and win me the crown, Pelleas, so that I may love you?"
+
+Pelleas' heart danced. "Yes! Yes!" he cried, "and will you love me if I
+win?"
+
+"Yes, that I will," answered Ettarre laughing and flinging away his hand
+as she peeped round to her knights and ladies until they all laughed
+with her.
+
+"O what a happy world!" thought glad Pelleas, "everybody seems happy and
+I am the happiest of all."
+
+He couldn't sleep that night for joy and on the next day when he was
+knighted he swore to love one maiden only. As he came away from the
+king's hall the men who met him all turned around to look at his face,
+for it flamed with happiness, and at the great banquets which Arthur
+gave to knights from all parts of the country Pelleas looked the noblest
+of the noble. For he dreamed that his lady loved him and he knew that he
+was loved by the king.
+
+On the morning when the jousts began the first that was called was the
+tournament of youth. Arthur wanted to keep the older, stronger men out
+of it so that young Pelleas might win his lady's love as she had
+promised, and be lord of the tourney. Down by the field along the river
+Usk where it was held the gilded parapets were crowned with faces and
+the great tower filled with eyes up to its top. Then the trumpets blew
+for the tournament to begin.
+
+All day long Sir Pelleas held the field. At the close a shout rang round
+the galleries as Ettarre caught the gold crown from his lance and
+crowned herself before all the people. Her eyes sparkled as she looked
+at him, but that was the last time she was kind to her knight.
+
+She lingered a few days at Caerleon, sunny to all the other people but
+always frowning at him.
+
+Still when she left for home with her knights and maidens Sir Pelleas
+followed.
+
+"Damsels," cried she as she saw him coming, "I ought to be ashamed to
+say it and yet I can't bear that Sir Baby. Keep him back with
+yourselves. I'd rather have some rough old knight who knows the ways of
+the world to chatter and joke with; so don't let him come near me.
+Tell him all sorts of baby fables that good mothers tell their little
+boys, and if he runs off for us--it doesn't matter."
+
+[Illustration: ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE.]
+
+So the young women didn't let him go near Ettarre but made him stay with
+them, and as soon as they had all passed into Ettarre's castle gate up
+sprang the drawbridge, down rang the iron grating, and Sir Pelleas was
+left outside all alone.
+
+"These are only the ways of ladies with their lovers when the ladies
+want to find out whether the lovers are true or not. Well, she can try
+me with anything, I'll be true through all."
+
+So he stayed there until dark, then went to a priory not far off and the
+next morning came back. Every day he did the same whether it rained or
+shone, armed on his charger, and stayed all the day beneath the walls,
+although nobody opened the gate for him.
+
+This made Ettarre's scorn turn to anger. She told her three knights to
+go out and drive him away. But when they came out Pelleas overthrew them
+all as they dashed upon him one after the other. So they went back
+inside and he kept his watch as before. This turned Ettarre's anger into
+hate. As she walked on top of the walls with her three knights about a
+week later she pointed down to Pelleas and said:
+
+"He haunts me, look, he besieges me! I can't breathe. Strike him down,
+put my hate into your blows and drive him away from my walls."
+
+So down they went but Pelleas overthrew them all again so Ettarre called
+down from the tower above, "Bind him and bring him in."
+
+Pelleas heard her say this so he did not resist, but let the men bind
+him and take him into his lady love. "See me, Lady," he said cheerily,
+"your prisoner, and if you keep me in your dungeon here I'll be quite
+content if you'll just let me see your face every day. For I've sworn my
+vows and you've given me your promise and I know that when you've done
+proving me you will give me your love and have me for your knight."
+
+But she made fun of his vows and told her knights to put him outside
+again and "if he isn't a fool to the middle of his bones," said she,
+"he'll never come back." Then the three knights laughed and thrust him
+out of the gates.
+
+But a week later Ettarre called them again, "He's watching there yet. He
+comes just like a dog that's been kicked out of his master's door. Don't
+you hate him? Go after him, all of you at once, and if you don't kill
+him bind him as you did before and bring him in."
+
+So the three knights couched their spears all together, three against
+one, ready to dash upon Pelleas, low down beneath the shadow of the
+towers.
+
+Gawain passing by on a lonely adventure saw them.
+
+"The villains!" he shouted to Pelleas, "I'll strike for you!"
+
+"No," cried Pelleas, "when one's doing a lady's will one doesn't need
+any help."
+
+Gawain stood by quivering to fight while the three knights sprang down
+upon Pelleas, but Pelleas all alone beat the three of them together.
+Then they rose to their feet, and he stood still while they bound him
+and took him into their lady.
+
+"You're scarcely fit to touch your victor, you dogs!" she cried to her
+men, "far less bind him; but take him out as he is and let whoever wants
+to untie him. Then if he comes again--"
+
+She paused just a minute and Pelleas broke in at once with, "Lady, I
+loved you and thought you very beautiful, but if you don't love me
+don't trouble yourself about it; you won't see me again."
+
+As soon as Pelleas was put outside the gate Gawain sprang forward,
+loosed his bonds, flung them over the walls and cried out:
+
+"My faith, and why did you let those wretches tie you up so when you
+were victor of all the jousts?"
+
+"O," said Pelleas, "they were just obeying the wishes of my lady, and
+her wishes are mine."
+
+Gawain laughed. "Lend me your horse and armor," he said, "and I'll tell
+her I've killed you. Then she'll let me in just to hear all about it and
+when I've made her listen I'll tell her all about you, what a great and
+good fellow you are. Give me three days to melt her and on the third
+evening I'll bring you golden news."
+
+"Don't betray me," cried Pelleas, as he handed over his horse and all
+his weapons except his sword. "Aren't you the knight they call
+'Light-of-love?'"
+
+"That is just because women are so light," Gawain rejoined, laughing.
+
+Then he rode up to the castle gate, and blew the bugle so musically that
+all the hidden echoes in the walls rang out.
+
+"Away with you!" cried Ettarre's maidens, running up to the tower
+window. "Our lady doesn't love you."
+
+"I'm Gawain from Arthur's court," cried Gawain, lifting his vizor so
+that they could see his face. "I've killed Pelleas whom you hate so.
+Open the gates and I'll make you merry with my story."
+
+The ladies ran down crying out to Ettarre, "Pelleas is dead! Sir Gawain
+of Arthur's court has killed him and is blowing the bugle to come in to
+tell us."
+
+"Let him in," said Ettarre.
+
+Then they opened the gates and Gawain rode inside.
+
+For three days Pelleas wandered all about, doing nothing but thinking of
+Gawain and Ettarre, and on the third night, when Gawain did not come, he
+wondered why Gawain lingered with his golden news. At last he rode up to
+Ettarre's castle, tied his horse outside and walked in through the wide
+open gates. The court he found all dark and empty, not a light
+glimmering from anywhere, so he passed out by the back gate, into the
+large gardens beyond of red and white roses, where he saw three
+pavilions. In one he found the three knights with their squires, all red
+with revelling, and all asleep, in the second he saw the girls with
+their scornful smiles frozen stiff in slumber, and in the third lay
+Gawain with Ettarre, the golden crown he had won for her at the joust on
+her forehead, both sleeping.
+
+Pelleas drew back as if he had touched a snake.
+
+"I'll kill them just as they lie," he cried in a passion. "O! to think
+that any knight could be so false!"
+
+But he was too manly to kill anyone in sleep, so he just laid his sword
+across their throats and passed out to his horse, crushed his saddle
+with his thighs, clenched his hands together and groaned.
+
+"I loathe her now just as much as I loved her!" he cried, and dashing
+his spurs into his horse he bounded out into the darkness and never came
+back.
+
+Meanwhile Ettarre, feeling the cold sword on her neck, awoke.
+
+"Liar!" she cried to Gawain, as she saw that it was the sword of
+Pelleas, "you haven't killed Pelleas, for he's been here and could have
+killed us both just now."
+
+And ever after that, as those who tell the story say, the proud and
+scornful Ettarre sighed for Pelleas, the one true knight in the world,
+her only faithful lover, and at last pined away because he never came
+back.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST TOURNAMENT.
+
+
+One day while King Arthur and Sir Lancelot were riding far, far beneath
+a winding wall of rock they heard the wail of a child.
+
+A half-dead oak tree climbed up the sides of the rock and up in mid-air
+it held an eagle's nest. Through its branches rushed a rainy wind and
+through the wind came the voice of a little child. Lancelot sprang up
+the crag and from the nest at the tree-top he brought down a baby girl.
+Round her neck was twined a necklace of rubies, wound round and round
+three times.
+
+Arthur took the baby and gave it to Queen Guinevere, who soon loved it
+very tenderly and named her "Nestling." But Nestling had caught a
+terrible cold in her strange little home in the wild eagle's nest and
+died. And after that whenever the Queen looked at the ruby necklace it
+made her very sad so she gave it to Arthur and said:
+
+"Take these jewels of our Dead Innocence and make them a prize at a
+tournament."
+
+"Just as you wish," cried the King, "but why don't you wear the diamonds
+that I found for you in the tarn, which Lancelot won for you at the
+jousts?"
+
+"Don't you know that they slipped out of my hands the very day that he
+gave them to me, while I was leaning out of the window to see Elaine in
+the barge on the river? But these rubies will bring better luck than
+that to the lady who gets them, for they didn't come from a dead king's
+skeleton, but from the body of a sweet baby girl. Perhaps, who knows,
+the purest of your knights will win them at the jousts for the purest of
+my ladies."
+
+So the great jousts were proclaimed with trumpets that blew all along
+the streets of Camelot and out across the faded fields to the farthest
+towers, and everywhere the knights armed themselves for a day of glory
+before the king.
+
+But just the day before they were to be held, as King Arthur sat in his
+great hall, a churl staggered in through the door; his face was all
+striped with the lashes of a dog whip, his nose was broken, one eye was
+out, a hand was off and the other hand dangled at his side with
+shattered fingers.
+
+"My poor Churl," cried the king, full of indignant pity, "what beast or
+fiend has been after you? Or was it a man who hurt you so?"
+
+"He took them all away," sputtered the churl, "a hundred good ones. It
+was the Red Knight. He--Lord, I was tending sheep, my pigs, a hundred
+good ones, and he drove them all off to his tower. And when I said that
+you were always kind to poor churls like me as well as gentle lords and
+ladies, he made for me and would have killed me outright if he didn't
+want me to bring you message and made me swear that I would tell you.
+
+"He said, 'Tell the king that I have made a Round Table of my own in the
+North, and that whatever his knights swear not to do mine swear that
+they will do; and tell him his hour has come, and that the heathen are
+after him, and that his long lance is broken, and that his sword
+Excalibur is a straw.'"
+
+Then Arthur turned to Sir Kay the Seneschal and said: "Take this churl
+of mine and tend him very carefully as if he were the son of a king
+until all his hurts are healed," and as Sir Kay left the hall with the
+churl the king went on to Lancelot: "The heathen have been quiet for a
+long, long time, but now they are rising again in the North, and I will
+go with my younger knights to put them down, so as to make the whole
+island safe from one shore to the other. And while I go away, you, Sir
+Lancelot, will sit in my chair to-morrow at the tournament and be the
+judge there of the field. For why should you anyway care to go in again
+yourself, when you've already won the nine diamonds for the queen?"
+
+"Very well," replied Lancelot, "if you wish, although it would be better
+if you would let me go off with the younger knights and you stay here
+with the others and watch the tournament. But, if not, all is well?"
+
+"Is all really well?" cried the king, "or have I just dreamed that our
+knights are not quite so true and manly as they used to be and that my
+noble realm which has been built up by noble deeds and noble vows is
+going to fall back into beastly roughness and violence again?"
+
+He gathered all the younger Knights of the Round Table together and
+started away with them down the hilly streets of Camelot, and at the
+gateway turned sharply North.
+
+The next morning, the day of the Tournament, the Tournament of the Dead
+Innocence they called it, a wet wind blew. But the streets were hung
+with white samite, the fountains were filled with wine, and round each
+fountain twelve little girls, all dressed in purest white sat with the
+cups of gold and gave drinks to all that passed. The stately galleries
+were filled with white-robed ladies. Lancelot mounted the steps to the
+king's dragon-carved chair, the trumpets blew and the jousts began.
+
+[Illustration: TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED.]
+
+But Lancelot did not think of the sport before him, he was dreaming over
+and over again the words of the king about the kingdom, and many rules
+of the tournament were broken, and he didn't say a word. Once one of the
+knights, who was overthrown cursed the little baby girl, the dead
+innocence, and the king, and once one of the knight's helmets became
+unlaced and the wicked face of Modred peeped through like a vermin, but
+Lancelot didn't see.
+
+After a while a roar of welcome shouted all round the galleries and
+lists as a new knight came in dressed from his head to his feet in green
+armor all trimmed with tiny silver deer, with holly berries on his
+helmet crest. It was Sir Tristram of the Woods who had just crossed over
+the seas from Brittany. Lancelot had fought with him long ago and
+conquered him, and now he saw him and longed to fight him again. As
+many, many knights of the Round Table fell down before the new knight
+Lancelot gripped the golden dragons on each side of his throne to keep
+himself in his seat, and groaned with passion. "Craven crests! oh,
+shame!" he muttered, "the glory of the Round Table is gone."
+
+So Tristram won the jousts and Sir Lancelot gave him the jewels.
+
+"The hands with which you take these rubies are red," he said as he put
+the necklace in Tristram's hands.
+
+Then the thick rain began to fall, the plumes on the helmets of the
+knights drooped and the dresses of the ladies were mussed. When they
+went inside to feast the ladies took off their pure white gowns and
+robed themselves in all the colors of the rainbow and field flowers,
+like poppies, blue-bells, kingcups, and one said she was glad the time
+to wear the pure innocent simple white was over. They grew so loud in
+their frolics that at last the queen, who was angry that Sir Tristram
+had won the prize and angry with the lawless youths, broke up the
+banquet.
+
+The next morning as Sir Tristram stood before the hall little Dagonet,
+the fool, came dancing along and Sir Tristram threw his rubies round
+the little fool's neck as he skipped about like a withered leaf, asking
+him why he danced.
+
+"It's stupid to dance without music," Tristram said, and picked up his
+harp and began to twangle a tune on it; but as soon as Sir Tristram
+began to play Dagonet stopped his dance. "And why don't you go on
+skipping, Sir Fool?" asked Tristram.
+
+"Because I'd rather skip twenty years to the music of my little brain
+than skip a minute to the broken music you make."
+
+"And what music have I broken?" cried Sir Tristram. "Arthur the King's
+music," cried little Dagonet, skipping again and again as Sir Tristram
+ceased. Then down the city he danced all the way, while Sir Tristram
+passed out into the lonely avenues of the forests. He rode on toward
+Lyonesse and the West, thinking of Isolt, the White, whom he loved, and
+how he would put the rubies round her neck.
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN.]
+
+Arthur, meanwhile, with his hundred spearmen had gone far, far away,
+until at last over the countless reeds of marshes and islands he saw a
+huge tower glaring in the wide-winged sunset of the West. As he drew
+near he saw that the tower doors stood open and heard roars of rioting
+and wicked songs of ruffian men and women.
+
+"Look," cried one of his knights, for there high on a grim dead tree
+before the tower, a brother of the Round Table was swinging by his neck,
+his shield flowing with a shower of blood on a branch near by.
+
+All the knights wanted to dash forward and blow the great horn that hung
+beside the gate, but Arthur waved them back and went himself. He blew so
+hard that the horn roared until all the grasses of the marshes flared
+up, and out of the castle gate sallied a knight dressed from tip to toe
+in blood-red arms, the Red Knight.
+
+"Aren't you the king?" he bellowed, "the king that keeps us all with
+such strict vows that we can't have any pleasures, a milky-hearted king?
+Look to your life now!"
+
+Arthur scorned to speak to so vile a man or to fight him with his sword.
+He simply let the drunkard, stretching out from his horse to strike,
+fall head-heavy, over from the castle causeway to the swamp below.
+
+Then all the Round Table Knights roared and shouted, leaped down on the
+fallen man, trampled out his face in the mire, sank his head so that it
+could not be seen, and, still shouting, sprang through the open doors
+among the people within. They hurled their swords right and left on men
+and women, hurled over the tables and the wines and slew and slew until
+all the rafters rang with yells and all the pavements streamed with
+blood. Then they set the tower all afire and half the night through it
+flushed the long low meadows and marshlands and lazily plunging sea with
+its flames. That was how Arthur made the ways of the island safe from
+one shore to the other.
+
+Sir Tristram, not many nights after, reached Tintagil, where Isolt, the
+White, lived in a crown of towers, where she now sat with the low
+sea-sunset glorying her hair and glossy throat, thinking of him and of
+Mark, her Cornish lord.
+
+When Tristram's footsteps came grinding up the tower steps she flushed,
+started out to meet him and threw her white arms about him.
+
+"Not Mark, not Mark!" she cried. "At first your footsteps fluttered me,
+for Mark steals into his own castle like a cat."
+
+"No, it's I," said Sir Tristram, "and don't think about your Mark any
+more, for he isn't yours any longer."
+
+"But listen," she cried, "to-day he went away for a three days' hunt, he
+said, and that means that he may be back in an hour for that's his way.
+My God, my hate for him is as strong as my love for you. Let me tell you
+how I sat here one evening thinking of you, one black midsummer night,
+all alone, dreaming of you, and sometimes speaking your name aloud, when
+suddenly there Mark stood behind me, for that's his way to steal behind
+one in the dark.
+
+"'Tristram has married her!' he hissed out and then this tower shook
+with such a roar that I swooned away."
+
+"Come," cried Sir Tristram, laughing, "never mind, I'm hungry, give me
+some meat and wine."
+
+So they ate and drank, talked and laughed about Mark with his long
+crane-like legs, and Sir Tristram took a harp and sang a song. Then
+while the last light of the day glimmered away he swung the ruby
+necklace before Isolt.
+
+"It's the fruit of a magical oak-tree that grew mid air," he cried, "and
+was won by Sir Tristram as a tourney prize to bring to you."
+
+Flinging the rubies round her neck he had just touched her jeweled
+throat with his lips when behind him rose a shadow and a shriek.
+
+"Mark's way!" cried Mark, the Cornish king, and he clove Tristram
+through the brain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That very night Arthur came back from the North, and as he climbed up
+the tower steps to go to the queen, in the dark of the tower something
+pulled at him. It was little Dagonet.
+
+"Who are you?" said the king.
+
+"I'm little Dagonet, your fool," sobbed the little jester, "and I cry
+because I can never make you laugh again."
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.
+
+
+One night King Arthur saw Sir Gawain in a dream, and Gawain, who had
+been killed, shrilly called out to him through the wind:
+
+"Hail King! to-morrow you are going to pass away, and there's a land of
+rest for you. Farewell!"
+
+But when Arthur told his dream to Sir Bedivere, good old Sir Bedivere
+replied, "Don't mind what dreams tell you, but get your knights together
+and go out to the West to meet Sir Modred, who has stirred up against
+you so many of the knights you love. They all know in their hearts that
+you are king. Go and conquer them as of old."
+
+So the king took his army by night and pushed upon Modred league after
+league, until they reached the Western part of Lyonesse where the long
+mountains ended in the moaning sea. There Modred's men could flee no
+farther, so on the waste lands by the barren sea they began that last
+dim weird battle of the West.
+
+A white chill mist slept over all the land and water so that even Arthur
+became confused since he could not see which were his friends and which
+were his foes. Friends killed friends, some saw the faces of old ghosts
+looking in upon the battle. Spears were splintered, shields were broken,
+swords clashed, helmets were shattered, men shrieked and looked up to
+heaven for help but saw only the white, white mists. There were cries
+for light and moans.
+
+At last toward the close of the day a hush fell over the whole shore; a
+bitter wind from the North blew the mist aside and the pale king looked
+across the battlefield. But no one was there only the waves breaking in
+among the dead faces.
+
+But bold Bedivere said: "My King! the man who hates you stands there,
+Modred, the traitor of your house!"
+
+"Don't call this traitor a person of my house," the king replied. "The
+men of my house are not those who have lived under one roof with me, but
+those who always call me their king."
+
+With that, Arthur dashed after Modred. Modred struck at the king's
+helmet, which had grown thin with all his heathen wars. Arthur with his
+sword Excalibur struck Modred dead, then fell down himself almost killed
+with the wound through his helmet.
+
+Sir Bedivere lifted him up and carried him to a chapel near by.
+
+"Take my sword, Excalibur," said the King, "and fling it out into the
+middle of the sea, watch what happens to it and then come back at once
+and tell me."
+
+"It doesn't seem right to leave you all alone here," said Sir Bedivere,
+"when you are wounded and ill, but since you wish me to go, I will, and
+will do all that you have told me."
+
+He slipped away by zigzag paths, points and jutting rock to the shining
+level of the sea. There he drew out the sword Excalibur. The winter moon
+sparkled against its hilt and made it twinkle with its diamond sparks,
+with myriads of topaz lights and fine jewelry work. Bedivere gazed so
+long at it that both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, and he wondered
+whether he ought to throw away so beautiful a thing. At last he decided
+to hide it away among the water-flags that grew along shore.
+
+"Did you do as I said?" asked the king, when he saw him. "What did you
+see?"
+
+"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds," said Sir Bedivere, "and the
+wild water lapping on the rock."
+
+"You are not giving me a true answer," said the king, faint and pale.
+"It's shameful for men to lie. Quickly go again and as you are true and
+dear, do just as I bade you. Watch and bring me word."
+
+Then Sir Bedivere went the second time and paced up and down beside the
+pebbly water, counting the dewey pebbles, but when he saw the wonderful
+sword he clapped his hands together and cried:
+
+"If I threw that sword away, a precious thing will be lost forever. The
+King is ill; he does not know what he is doing. His great sword ought to
+be kept, then in long years hereafter people will look at it at the
+tournament and they will say: 'This was the great Arthur's sword
+Excalibur which was made by the lonely lady of the Lake, working in the
+deep sea for nine years.'"
+
+So the second time he hid Excalibur and strode very slowly back to the
+king.
+
+"What did you see or what did you hear?" asked Arthur breathing very
+heavily.
+
+"I heard the water lapping on the rock and the long ripples washing in
+the reeds."
+
+"Unkind! miserable! untrue! unknightly!" cried Arthur, filled with
+anger. "I see what you are, for you are the only one left me of all the
+knights, yet you would betray me for my sword, either to sell it or like
+a girl, because you love its beauty. Go out now the third time and if
+you do not throw out my sword Excalibur I'll get up and kill you with my
+hands."
+
+At this Sir Bedivere sprang up like a flash and ran down leaping lightly
+over the ridges, plunged into the beds of bulrushes, clutched the sword,
+wheeled it round strongly and threw it as far as he could.
+
+Excalibur made lightning in the moonlight as it flashed round and round
+and whirled in an arch, shooting far out to the water. But before it
+quite dipped into the sea an arm robed in white samite, mystic and
+wonderful, rose out of the waves, caught it by the hilt, brandished it
+three times and drew it under.
+
+"Now I can see by your eyes that you have done it!" cried the King.
+"Speak out; what have you seen or heard?"
+
+"Sir King," cried Sir Bedivere, "I closed my eyes when I picked it up so
+that I would not be turned from my purpose of throwing it into the
+water, for I could live three lives, Sir King, and I wouldn't again see
+such a wonderful thing as your sword. Sir, I threw it out with both
+hands, wheeling it round and when I looked an arm robed in white samite
+reached up out of the water and caught it by the hilt, brandished it
+three times and drew it under."
+
+"Carry me to the shore," said the king.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE.]
+
+So Bedivere lifted him up and walked as swiftly as he could from the
+ridge, heavily, heavily down to the beach. As they reached the shore
+they saw a black barge beside the water filled with stately people all
+dressed in black. Among the people were three queens wearing crowns of
+gold.
+
+"Put me into the barge," cried Arthur.
+
+So they came to the barge and the three queens held out their hands and
+took the king.
+
+The tallest and fairest of them held his head upon her lap loosed his
+shattered helmet and chafed his hands, and moaned tenderly over him.
+
+"Ah, my lord Arthur," cried Sir Bedivere, "where shall I go now? For
+the old times are past now and the whole Round Table is broken."
+
+"Go and pray," cried the king. "Farewell, for I am going a very long way
+to the lovely Island-valley of Avilion where it will never hail nor rain
+nor snow, and where the loud winds never blow. It lies in deep meadows,
+beautiful with lawns and fruit trees and flowery glens."
+
+Then the barge set sail and oar, and moved away from the shore.
+
+"The king is gone!" groaned Bedivere.
+
+He walked away from the shore and climbed up to the highest peaks and
+ridges about him and looked far, far away. And from far away out beyond
+the world he thought he heard sounds from a beautiful city as if every
+one in it all together were welcoming a great King who had just come
+back from his wars.
+
+END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+There are inconsistencies with italicising text that refers to
+illustrations. I have left these as in the original text.
+
+   Corrections made include the following:
+   p34. ecstacy => ecstasy
+   p37. meaintime => meantime
+   p52. magnificientn => magnificent
+   p66. Springly => Springing
+   p75. Geriant => Geraint
+   p90. jealously => jealousy
+   p100. though => through
+   p101. passed => past
+   p101. musn't => mustn't
+   p106. heathern => heathen
+   p106. Gunievere => Guinevere
+   p117. to => that
+   p146. Mordred => Modred
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TENNYSON ***
+
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