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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:04:07 -0700 |
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diff --git a/35598-h/35598-h.htm b/35598-h/35598-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f88bb49 --- /dev/null +++ b/35598-h/35598-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5422 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tales From Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +td.rn {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + +.tranotes {border: solid 1px #8b4513; + font-size: smaller; + width: 65%; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + padding-left: 1em; + padding-right: 1em; + background: #fbf5e6; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.ibbox { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + border: solid 1px; + width:90%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<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> </p> +<div class="ibbox"><h1>TALES FROM<br /> +TENNYSON</h1></div> + +<p> </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> </p> + +<div class="ibbox"><p class="center">NEW YORK AND BOSTON<br /> +H. M. CALDWELL CO.<br /> +PUBLISHERS +</p> +</div> +<p> </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'S CHEEK." title="HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE'S CHEEK." /> +<span class="caption">HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE'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—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'S COURT." +title="BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR'S COURT." /> +<span class="caption">BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR'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—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=""FAIR LORD," SAID ELAINE. +" title=""FAIR LORD," SAID ELAINE. +" /> +<span class="caption">"FAIR LORD," 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=""THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS." title=""THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS." /> +<span class="caption">"THE HOLY GRAIL," 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—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—"</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—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. 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