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diff --git a/35598.txt b/35598.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce81271 --- /dev/null +++ b/35598.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4417 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. Bellew + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tales from Tennyson + +Author: Molly K. Bellew + +Illustrator: H. S. Campbell + +Release Date: March 18, 2011 [EBook #35598] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TENNYSON *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander, Peter Vickers, Juliet Sutherland +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS] + + TALES FROM TENNYSON + + BY + MOLLY K. BELLEW + + EDITOR OF + "TALES FROM LONGFELLOW" + "DICKENS' CHRISTMAS STORIES FOR CHILDREN" + ETC., ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. CAMPBELL + + NEW YORK AND BOSTON + H. M. CALDWELL CO. + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1902 + BY + JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + The Coming of King Arthur 9 + + Gareth and Lynette 29 + + The Marriage of Geraint 46 + + Geraint's Quest of Honor 64 + + Merlin and Vivien 85 + + Balin and Balan 95 + + Lancelot and Elaine 104 + + The Holy Grail 119 + + Pelleas and Ettarre 132 + + The Last Tournament 142 + + The Passing of Arthur 150 + + + + +To my Young Readers. + + +Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and none, perhaps +not even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly to the human heart. No +other man's poems have caused as many readers to shed tears of sympathy +nor have awakened higher sentiments in the human heart. The critics +agree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his "Idylls from +the King" are found the loftiest and proudest deeds of English history +and even in the retelling of these in prose the high spirit that is an +inspiration to the noblest deeds cannot fail to be preserved. + + MOLLY K. BELLEW. + + + + +THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR. + + +Over a thousand years ago everybody was talking about the wonderful King +Arthur and his brilliant Knights of the Round Table, who everywhere were +pursuing bold quests, putting to rout the band of outlaws and robbers +which in those days infested every highway and by-way of the country, +going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and order among +the rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the poor and the oppressed, +and winning glorious renown for their valor and their successes. + +That was in England which at that time was not England as it is today, +all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was divided into many bits of +kingdoms each with its own king and all warring against each other. +Arthur's kingdom was the most unpeaceful of all. This was because for +twenty years or more, ever since the death of old King Uther, the +country had been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a score +of years before without leaving an heir to the throne, and all the +nobles of the realm had immediately gone to war with one another each +trying to get the most land and each trying to get the throne for +himself. + +[Illustration: OLD MERLIN APPEARS.] + +Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been King Uther's +magician, appeared one day in the royal council hall with a handsome +young man, Arthur, and declared him to be the king of the realm. Arthur +was crowned and for a time the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with a +strong hand of iron, put down all the evils in his kingdom and +everywhere gave it peace and order. People in every part of the island +sent for him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out of +their difficulties. But presently the nobles became troublesome again; +they said that Arthur was not the true king, that he was not the son of +Uther and that, therefore, he had no right to reign over them. So there +was fighting and unrest again, and in the midst of it Leodogran, the +king of the Land of Cameliard, asked Arthur to come with his knights and +drive away the enemies besetting him on every side. The country of +Cameliard had gone to waste and ruin, because of the continual warfare +that was waged with the kings that lived in the little neighboring +countries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen peoples who invaded +the land. And so it happened that Cameliard was ravaged with battles, +its strong men were cut down with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, and +bears from the tangled weeds came rooting up the green fields and +wallowing into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole little +children from the villages and nursed them like their own cubs, until +finally these children grew up into a race of wolf-men who molested the +land worse than the wolves themselves. Then another king fought +Leodogran, and at last the heathen hordes came swarming from over the +seas and made all the earth red with his soldiers' blood, and they made +the sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people. + +Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help until at last +he thought of young Arthur of the Round Table who recently had been +crowned king. So Leodogran sent for Arthur beseeching him to come and +help him, for between the men and the beasts his country was dying. + +[Illustration: PRINCESS GUINEVERE.] + +King Arthur and his men welcomed the chance and went at once into the +Land of Cameliard to drive away the heathen marauders. As he marched +with his men past the castle walls, pretty Princess Guinevere stood +outside to watch the glittering soldiers go by. Among so many richly +dressed knights she did not particularly notice Arthur, for he wore +nothing to show that he was king, although his kingly bearing and brave +forehead might suggest leadership. But no royal arms were engraved upon +his helmet or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly so +gorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others. + +[Illustration: HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY.] + +Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur spied her +beside the castle wall; he felt the light of her beautiful eyes +glimmering out into his heart and setting it all aflame with a fire of +love for her. + +He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched their +tents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered away to their +own territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts that had plundered +the fields, cut down the forest trees so as to open out roads for the +people of Cameliard to pass over from one part of their land to the +other, then he traveled quietly away with his men, back to fight his own +battles in his own country. For there was fighting everywhere in those +days. But all the time in Arthur's heart, while he was doing those +wonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of Leodogran, +but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her. + +If only she could be his queen he thought they two together could rule +on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and could exert a +mighty power over all his people to make them good and wise and happy. +Each day increased his love until he could not bear even to think for a +moment of living without her. So from the very field of battle, while +the swords were flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons +and great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched three +messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard. + +These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, the very +first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. They went to Leodogran +and said that if Arthur had been of any service to him in his recent +troubles with the heathen and the wild beasts, he should give the +Princess Guinevere to be Arthur's wife as a mark of his good will. + +[Illustration: ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN.] + +Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what to do any +better than when the heathen and the beasts had come upon him. For while +he thought Arthur a very bold soldier and a very fine man, and, although +he felt very grateful indeed to him for all the great things he had +done, still he was not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For, +as Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the wife of +none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not know precisely who +this King Arthur was; but he did know that the barons of Arthur's court +had burst out into this uproar against him because they said he was not +their true king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before +him. Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others +avowed that Sir Anton was his father. + +As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter himself, he +sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who always had good +counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he asked the chamberlain whether +he had heard anything certainly as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlain +told him that there were just two men in all the world who knew the +truth with respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both +these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was Merlin the +wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in magic, who had written +a book of his renowned pupil's wonders, which probably related +everything regarding the secret of Arthur's birth. + +"If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than you have just +now in my present trouble," the king answered the chamberlain, "I would +have died long ago from the wild beasts and the heathen. Send me in +Ulfius and Brastias and Bedivere again." + +So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came into Leodogran +who spoke to them this way: "I have often seen a big cuckoo chased by +little birds and understood why such tiny birds plagued him so, but why +are the nobles in your country rebelling against their king and saying +that he is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves think +he is the child of King Uther." + +[Illustration: SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT.] + +Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but Bedivere, the first +of all Arthur's knights, became very bold when anyone slandered his +sovereign and he replied: "_Sir King, there are all sorts of stories +about that_; some of the nobles hate him just because he is good and +they are wicked; they cry out that he is no man because his ways are +gentler than their rough manners, while others again think he must be +an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts as I know +them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago; they both loved +Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and had no sons, but three +daughters, one of them the Queen of Orkney who has clung to Arthur like +a sister. The two rivals, Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other +and Gerlois was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsome +Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently. +In a few months Uther died, and on that very night of his death Arthur +was born. And as soon as he was born they carried him out by a secret +back gateway to Merlin the magician, to be brought up far away from the +court so that no one would hear about him until he was grown up ready to +sit upon Uther's, his father, throne. + +"For those were wild lords in those years just like these of today, +always struggling for the rule, and they would have shattered the +helpless little prince to pieces had they known about him. So Merlin +took the baby and gave him over to old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's, +and Sir Anton's wife tended Arthur with her own little ones so that +nobody knew who he was or where he had come from. But while the prince +was growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and barons were +fighting all the time among themselves and nobody ruled. But during this +present year Arthur's time for ascending the throne had come, so Merlin +brought him from out of his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and +cried out to all the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, your +king!' Of course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried +back immediately: 'Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's the son +of Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king.' + +"In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he won the +day for the people, who were clamoring for a king and were glad to see +Arthur crowned. But after it all was over the lords banded together and +broke out in open war against Arthur. That is the whole story of this +war." + +Although pleased with Bedivere's good account of Arthur, yet when it was +ended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was Bedivere right, he thought +to himself, or were the barons right? As he sat pondering over +everything in his palace, _three great visitors came to the castle_; +these were the Queen of Orkney, the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, with +her two sons, Gawain and Modred. Leodogran made a great feast for them +and while entertaining them at table remembered what Bedivere had said +about Arthur and this queen. So he turned to the queen and remarked: + +[Illustration: THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE.] + +"An insecure throne is no better than a mass of ice in a summer's sea; +it all melts away. You are from Arthur's court; tell me, do you think +this king with his few loyal Knights of the Round Table can triumph over +the rebellious lords, and keep his throne?" + +"O King, they are few indeed," the Queen of Orkney cried, "but so bold +and true, and all of one mind with him. I was there at the coronation +when the savage yells of the nobles died away, and Arthur sat crowned +upon the dais with all his knights gathered round him to do his service +for him forever. Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of great +authority bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that when +they rose from their knees one after the other, some of them looked as +pale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were flushed in their +faces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind with their awe as if not +fully awake. Then he spoke to them, cheering them with divine words that +are far more than my tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke every +face flashed, for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifix +above, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon the +bright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends who stood +silently beside his throne, and who will always be ready to help him if +he is in need. + +"Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred years of art +like so many hands of vassals to wait upon the young king. Near Merlin +stood the mystical, marvelous Lady of the Lake, who knows a deeper magic +than Merlin's own, dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all about +her and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom. But when the holy +hymns were sung a voice like flowing waters sounded through the music. +It was the voice of the Lady of the Lake who lives in the lowest waters +of the lake where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow over +the earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above her can walk out +upon their crests just as our Lord did. + +"_It was she who gave Arthur his remarkable sword_ Excalibur, with its +hilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen for you. That +strange sword rose up from out the bosom of the lake, and Arthur rowed +over in a little boat and took it. The sword is incrusted with rich +jewels on the hilt, with a blade so bright that men are blinded by it. +On one side the words 'Take me' are graven upon it in the oldest +language of the world, while on the other side the words 'Cast me away' +are carved in the tongue that you speak. + +[Illustration: SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD] + +"Arthur became very sad when he saw the second inscription, but Merlin +advised him to take the beautiful blade and use it; he told him that now +was the time to strike and that the time to cast away was very, very far +off. So Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat down +his enemies, King Leodogran." + +Leodogran was pleased with the queen's words, but he wished to test the +story Bedivere had told him, so he looked into her eyes narrowly as he +observed, with a question in his tones, "The swallow and the swift are +very near kin, but you are still closer to this noble prince as you are +his own dear sister." + +"I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne," she answered. + +"Yes, that is why you are Arthur's sister," the king returned still +questioningly. + +"These are secret things," the Queen of Orkney replied, and she motioned +with her hand for her two sons to leave her alone in the room with the +king. + +Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying after and +frolicked outside like a frisky pony, _but cunning Modred laid his ear +close beside the door to listen_, so that he half heard all the strange +story his mother told the king. This is what the queen said in the +beginning to the king. + +[Illustration: CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR TO LISTEN] + +"What should I know about it? For my mother's hair and eyes were dark, +and so were the eyes and hair of Gerlois, and Uther was dark too, almost +black, but the King Arthur is fairer than anyone else in Britain. +However, I remember how my mother used often to weep and say, 'O that +you had some brother, pretty little one, to guard you from the rough +ways of the world." + +"Yes? She said that?" Leodogran rejoined, "but when did you see Arthur +first?" + +"O king, I will tell you all about it," cried the Queen of Orkney. "Once +when I was a little bit of a girl and had been beaten for some childish +fault that I had not committed, I ran outside and flung myself on a +grassy bank and hated all the world and everything in it, and wished I +were dead. But all of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don't +know how he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him, for +Merlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if he will, but any +rate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting me and drying my tears. +After that Arthur came very often without anybody knowing it and we were +children together, and in those golden days I felt sure he would be +king. + +"But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who taught the +magician Merlin. You know they both served King Uther, and just a little +while ago when Bleys died he sent for me. He said he had something to +tell me that I must know before he left the world. He said that they +two, Merlin and he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night when +the king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir to his +throne. After the king's death as Merlin and Bleys walked out from the +castle walls into the dismal misty night, they saw a wonderful +fairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon sailing the heavens, with shining +people collected on its decks; but in the twinkling of an eye the ship +was gone. + +"Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by the seashore to +watch the billows, one after the other, as they lapped up against the +beach. And as they looked at last a great wave gathered up one-half of +the ocean and came full of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaring +all the while. Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the wave +and in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by the +water to Merlin's very feet. + +"'The king!' cried Merlin. 'Here's an heir for Uther.' + +"Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great flaming +breaker lashed at him as he held up the baby; it rose up round him in a +mantle of fire so that he and the child were clothed in fire. Then +suddenly there was a calm, the stars looked out and the sky was open. + +"'And this same child,' Bleys whispered to me, 'is the young king who +reigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story had been told.' +Then Bleys passed away into the land where nobody can question him. + +"So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true about the +shining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating down from heaven +over on the glory of the seas; but Merlin just laughed, as he always +does, and answered me in the riddles of the old song, this way: + + "'Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky! + A young man will be wiser by and by; + An old man's wit may wander ere he die. + Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea! + And truth is this to me and that to thee; + And truth or clothed or naked let it be. + Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows; + Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows. + From the great deep to the great deep he goes!' + +"It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but you must +not be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere to this King +Arthur. For great poets will sing of his brave deeds in long years after +this; and Merlin has said, and not joking, either, that even although +Arthur's enemies may wound him in battle he will never, never die, but +will only pass away for a time, for a little while, and then will come +to us again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going to +trample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the nations and +all the men will call him their king." + +It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of Orkney told +him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay thinking over it all, still +puzzled as to whether he should say "yes" or "no" to the ambassadors +whom Arthur had sent. As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very, +very drowsy and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept +he saw a wonderful vision in a dream. + +There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that ascended +higher and higher, field after field, to a very great height and at the +top there was a lofty peak hidden in the heavy, hazy clouds; and on the +peak a phantom king stood. One moment the king was there, and the next +moment he was gone, while everything below him was in a frightful +confusion, a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle +falling back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up in +streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king stood in the +fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king spoke out through the +haze, and some one here or there beneath would point upward toward him, +but the rest all went on fighting. They cried out, "He is no king of +ours, no son of Uther's, no king of ours." Then in a twinkling the dream +all changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth below the +peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful king remained, +crowned with his diadems, standing in the heavens. + +Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. He called +for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they had come into this +presence he told them that Arthur should marry the fair Princess +Guinevere, and he sent them galloping back to Arthur's court. + +That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights delivered +King Leodogran's message. He made ready at once for his sweet queen. He +picked out Lancelot, his favorite Knight of the Round Table, whom he +loved better than any other man in all the world, to ride over into the +Land of Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as +Lancelot mounted his dancing steed and rode away _Arthur watched him +from the palace gates_, thinking of the lovely lady who would ride by +his side when he returned. + +[Illustration: LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.] + +Lancelot's horse trampled away among the flowers; for it was April when +he left the court of Arthur, and just one month later he came riding +back among the flowers of the May-time. Guinevere was with him on her +graceful palfrey. + +Then Dubric, the head of the whole church in Britain, went out to meet +her. Happy Arthur was there too. They were married in the greatest and +noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all the +Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white clothes, gathered +about them. And all the knights were as delighted as they could be +because their king was so glad. Holy Dubric spread out his hands above +the King and the lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and +he said: + +[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN.] + +"Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, and may your +queen be one with you, and may all the Knights of the Order of the Round +Table fulfill the boundless purposes of their king." + +There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords came thither +from far away Rome, which once was the mistress of all the world, but +now was slowly fading away. These Roman lords called for the tribute +from Arthur that they had always received from Britain ever since Caesar +with his Roman legions had conquered it long years before. + +But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy knights and +said: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight for me in all my wars +and to worship me as their king. The old order of things has passed away +and a new order will take its place. We are fighting for our fair father +Christ, while you have been growing so feeble and so weak and so old +that you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman walls any +more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be your slaves. This is to +be our own free country which we will defend and maintain." + +_The great lords from Rome drew back very angrily_ and went home and +told their king all about what Arthur had said. So Arthur had to battle +with Rome, but he won in the end. + +Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they all felt like +one great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he became mightier +than any of the other kings in any part of Britain. And when he fought +with them he always conquered them. In that way he drew in all the +little kingdoms under him, so that he was the one king of the land, and +they all fought together for him. + +There were twelve great battles against the heathen hordes that had +molested them from across the terrible seas, and each of these battles +he won. So he made one great realm and he reigned over it, the king. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK.] + + + + +GARETH AND LYNETTE. + + +Old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent had three sons. Gawain and Modred +were Knights of the Round Table at Arthur's court, and young Gareth, who +was his mother's pet, sighed to think he had to stay home and be cuddled +and fondled like a baby boy instead of riding off like a venturesome +soldier fighting gloriously for the king and winning a great name. + +"There!" he cried impatiently, one chilly spring day as he stood by the +brink of a rivulet and saw a bit of a pine tree caught from the bank by +the dashing, swollen waters of the stream and whirled madly away. +"That's the way the king's enemies would fall before my spear, if I had +a spear to use! That stream can do no more than I can, even although it +is merely icy water all cold with the snows while I'm tingling with hot +blood and have strong arms. When Gawain came home last summer and asked +me to tilt with him and Modred was the judge, didn't I shake him so in +his saddle that he said I had half overcome him? Humph! and mother +thinks I'm still a child!" + +_Gareth went in to the queen_ and said: "Mother, if you love me listen +to a story I will tell. Once there was an egg which a great royal eagle +laid high above on the rocks somewhere almost out of sight and there was +a lad which saw the splendor sparkling from it, and the lightnings +playing around it and the little birds crying and clashing in the nest. +The boy thought if he could only reach that egg he would be richer than +a houseful of kings, and he was nearly driven from his sense with his +desire for it. But whenever he reached to clamber up for it some one who +loved him restrained him saying, 'If you love me do not climb, lest +you break your neck.' So the boy did not climb, mother, and he did not +break his neck, but he broke his heart pining for the glorious egg. How +can you keep me tethered here, Mother? Let me go!" + +[Illustration: MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL.] + +"Have you no pity for me?" Queen Bellicent asked. "Stay here by your +poor old father and me; chase the deer in our fir trees and marry some +lovely bride I will get for you. You're my best son and so young." + +"Mother, a king once showed his son two brides and told him that he must +either win the beautiful one, or, if he failed, wed the other. The +pretty one was Fame and the other was Shame. Why should I follow the +deer when I can follow the king? Why was I born a man if I cannot do a +man's work?" + +"But some of the barons say he isn't the true king." + +"Hasn't he conquered the Romans and driven off the heathen and made all +the people free? Who has a right to be king if not the man who has done +that? He is the true king." + +When Bellicent found that she could not turn Gareth from his purpose, +she said that if he was determined he must do one thing before he asked +the king to make him a knight. + +"Anything," cried Gareth. "Give me a hundred proofs. Only be quick." + +The queen looked at him very slowly and said: "You are a prince, Gareth, +but before you are fit to serve the king you must go into Arthur's court +disguised and hire yourself to serve his meats and drink among the +scullions and kitchen knaves. And you must not tell your name to anyone +and you must serve that way for a year and a day." + +The queen made this condition, thinking that Gareth would be too proud +to play the slave. But he thought a moment, then answered: "A slave may +be free in his soul, and I can see the jousts there. You are my mother +so I must obey you and I will be a scullion in King Arthur's kitchen and +keep my name a secret from everyone, even the king." + +So Bellicent grieved and watched Gareth every moment wherever he went, +dreading the time when he should leave. And he waited until one windy +night when she slept, then called two servants and slipped away with +them, all three dressed like poor peasants of the field. + +They walked away towards the south and as they came to the plain +stretching to the mountain of Camelot, they saw the royal city upon its +brow. Sometimes its spires and towers flashed in the sunlight; sometimes +only the great gate shone out before their eyes, or again the whole fair +town vanished away. Then the servants said: + +"Let us go no further, Lord. It's an enchanted city, and all a vision. +The people say anyway, that Arthur isn't the true king, but only a +changeling from fairyland, and that Merlin won his battles for him with +magic." + +Gareth laughed and replied that he had magic enough in his blood and +hopes to plunge old Merlin into the Arabian sea. And he pushed them on +to the gate. There was no other gate like it under heaven. The Lady of +the Lake stood barefooted on the keystone and held up the cornice. Drops +of water fell from either hand and above were the three queens who were +Arthur's friends, and on each side Arthur's wars were pictured in weird +devices with dragons and elves so intertwined that they made men dizzy +to look at them. The servants cried out, "Lord, the gateway is alive!" +Then a blast of music pealed out of the city, and the three queens +stepped aside while an old man with a long beard came out and asked: + +"Who are you, my sons?" + +"We are peasants," answered Gareth, "who have come to see the glories of +your king, but the city looked so strange through the morning mist that +my men are wondering whether it is not a fairy city or perhaps no city +at all. So tell us the truth about it." + +"Oh, it's a fairy city," the old man answered, "and a fairy king and +queen came out of the mountain cleft at sunrise with harps in their +hands and built it to music, which means it never was built at all, and +therefore built forever." + +"Why do you mock me so?" Gareth cried angrily. + +"I am not mocking you so much as you are mocking me and every one who +looks at you, for you are not what you seem, still I know what you truly +are." + +Then the old man turned away and Gareth said to his men: "Our poor +little white lie stands like a ghost at the very beginning of our +enterprise. Blame my mother's love for it and not her nor me." + +So they all laughed and came into the city of Camelot with its shadowy +and stately palaces. Here and there a knight passed in or out, his arms +clashing and the sound was good to Gareth's ears. Or out of a casement +window glanced the pure eyes of lovely women. But Gareth made at once +for the hall of the king where his heart fairly hammered into his ears +as he wondered whether Arthur would turn him aside because of the half +shadow of a lie he had told the old man by the gate about being a +peasant. There were many supplicants coming before the king to tell him +of some hurt done them by marauders or the wild beasts, and each one was +given a knight by the king to help them. + +When Gareth's turn came, he rested his arms, one on each servant, and +stepped forward saying: "A boon, Sir King! Do you see how weak I seem, +leaning on these men? Pray let me go into your kitchen and serve there +for a year and a day, and do not ask me my name. After that I will fight +for you." + +"You are a handsome youth," said the king, "and worth something better +from the king, but if that is what you wish, go and serve under the +seneschal, Sir Kay, Master of the Meats and Drinks." + +Sir Kay thought the boy had probably run away from the farm belonging to +some Abbey where he had not had enough to eat, and he promised that if +Gareth would work well he would feed him until he was as plump as a +pigeon. + +But Lancelot, the king's favorite, said to Kay: "You don't understand +boys as well as dogs and cattle. Can't you see by this lad's broad fair +forehead and fine hands that he is nobly born? Treat him well or he may +shame you." + +"Fair and fine, forsooth," cried Kay. "If he had been a gentleman he +would have asked for a horse and armor." + +So he hustled and harried Garreth, _set him to draw water_, _hew wood_ +and labor harder than any of the grimy and smudgy kitchen knaves. Gareth +did all with a noble sort of ease and graced the lowliest act, and when +the knaves all gathered together of an evening to tell stories about +Arthur on the battlefields or of Lancelot in the tournament, Gareth +listened delightedly or made them all, with gaping mouths, listen +charmed, to some prodigious tale of his own about wonderful knights +cutting their scarlet way through twenty folds of twisted dragons. When +there was a Joust and Sir Kay let him attend it, he went half beside +himself in an ecstasy watching the warriors clash their springing +spears, and the sniffing chargers reel. + +At the end of the first month, lonely Queen Bellicent felt sorry for her +poor, dear son, toiling and moiling among pots and pans, so she sent a +servant to Camelot with the beaming armor of a knight and freed him from +his vow. Gareth colored redder than any young girl and went alone in to +the king and told him all. + +[Illustration: SET HIM TO DRAW WATER, HEW WOOD.] + +"Make me your knight in secret," he begged Arthur, "and give me the very +next quest from your court!" + +"Son," answered the king, "my knights are sworn to vows of utter +hardihood, of utter gentleness, of utter faithfulness in love and of +utter obedience to the king." + +Gareth sprang lightly from his knees: "My king, I can promise you for my +hardihood; respecting my obedience, ask Sir Kay, and as for love I have +not loved yet, but God willing some day I will, and faithfully." + +The reply so pleased the great king, he laid his hand on Gareth's arm +and smiled and knighted him. + +A few days later _a noble maiden_ with a brow like a May-blossom and a +saucy nose _passed into the king's hall with her page_ and told Arthur +that her name was Lynette, and that her beautiful sister, the Lady +Lyonors lived in the Castle Perilous which was beset with bandit +knights. + +[Illustration: A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE.] + +"A river courses about the castle in three loops," said she, "each loop +has a bridge and every bridge is guarded by a wicked outlaw warrior, Sir +Morning-star, Sir Noon-sun and Sir Evening-star, while a fourth called +Death, a huge man-beast of boundless savageries, is besieging my sister +in her own castle so as to break her will and make her wed with him. +They are four fools," cried the maiden disdainfully, "but they are +mighty men so I have come to ask for Lancelot to ride away with me to +help us." + +Gareth was up in a twinkling with kindled eyes. "A boon, Sir King, this +quest," he cried. "I am only a knave from your kitchen, but I can +topple over a hundred such fellows. Your promise, king." + +"You are rough and sudden and worthy to be a knight. Therefore go," said +Arthur to the great amazement of the court. + +"Fie on you, King!" exclaimed Lynette in a fury. "I asked you for your +best knight, Lancelot, and you give me a slave from your kitchen," and +she scampered down the aisle, leaped to her horse and flitted out of the +weird white gate. "A kitchen slave!" she sputtered as she flew. "Why +didn't the king send me a knight that fights for love and glory?" + +Gareth in the meantime had strode to the side doorway of the royal hall +where he saw a war-horse awaiting him, the gift of Arthur and worth half +the price of a town. His two servants stood by with his shield and +helmet and spear. Dropping his coarse kitchen cloak to the floor, he +instantly harnessed himself in his armor, leaped to the back of his +beautiful steed and flashed out of the gateway while all his kitchen +mates threw up their caps and cried, "God bless the king and all his +fellowship!" + +"Maiden, the quest is mine," he said to Lynette as he overtook her, +"Lead and I follow." + +"Away with you!" she cried, nipping her slender nose. "You smell of +kitchen grease. See there, your master is coming!" + +Indeed she told the truth, for Sir Kay, infuriated with Gareth's +boldness in the king's hall was hounding after them. "Don't you know +me?" he shouted. + +"Yes, too well," returned Gareth. "I know you to be the most ungentle +knight in Arthur's court." + +"Have at me, then," cried Kay, whereupon Gareth pounced upon him with +his gleaming lance and struck him instantly to the earth, then turned +for Lynette and said again, "Lead and I follow." + +But Lynette had hurried her galloping palfrey away and would not stop +the beast until his heart had nearly burst with its violent throbbing. +Then she turned and eyed Gareth as scornfully as ever. As he pranced to +her side she observed: + +"Do you suppose scullion, that I think any more of you now that by some +good luck you have overthrown your master. You dishwasher and +water-carrier, you smell of the kitchen quite as much as before." + +"Maiden," Gareth rejoined gently, "Say what you will, but whatever you +say, I will not leave this quest until it is ended or I have died for +it." + +"O, my, how the knave talks! But you'll soon meet with another knave +whom in spite of all the kitchen concoctions ever brewed, you'll not +dare look in the face." + +"I'll try him," answered Gareth with a smile that maddened Lynette. And +away she darted again far into the strange avenues of the limitless +woods. + +Gareth plunged on through the pine trees after her and a serving-man +came breaking through the black forest crying out, "They've bound my +master and are throwing him into the lake!" + +"Lead and I follow," cried Gareth to Lynette, and she led, plunging into +the pine trees until they came upon a hollow sinking away into a lake, +where six tall men up to their thighs in reeds and bulrushes were +dragging a seventh man with a stone about his neck toward the water to +drown him. + +Gareth sprang upon three and stilled them with his doughty blows, but +three scurried away through the trees; then Gareth loosened the stone +from the gentleman and set him on his feet. He proved to be a baron and +a friend of Arthur and asked Gareth what he could do to show his +gratitude for the saving of his life. Gareth said he would like a +night's shelter for the lady who was with him. So they rode over toward +the graceful manor house where the baron lived, and as they rode he said +to Gareth. + +"I believe you are of the Table," meaning that Gareth was a Knight of +the Round Table. + +"Yes, he is of the table after his own fashion," Lynette laughed, "for +he serves in Arthur's kitchen." And turning toward Gareth she added, "Do +not imagine that I admire you the more for having routed these miserable +cowardly foresters; any thresher with his flail could have done that." + +And when they were seated at the baron's table, Gareth by Lynette's +side, she cried out to their host, "It seems dreadfully rude in you, +Lord Baron, to place this knave beside me. Listen to me: I went to King +Arthur's court to ask for Sir Lancelot to come to help my sister, and as +I ended my plea, up bawls this kitchen boy: 'Mine's the quest.' And +Arthur goes mad and sends me this fellow who was made to kill pigs and +not redress the wrongs of women." + +So Gareth was seated at another table and the baron came to him and +asked him whether it might not be better for him to relinquish his +quest, but the lad replied that the king had given it to him and he +would carry it through. The next morning he said again to proud Lynette, +"Lead and I follow." + +But the maiden responded, "We are almost at the place where one of the +knaves is stationed. Don't you want to go home? He will slay you and +then I'll go back to Arthur and shame him for giving me a knight from +his kitchen cinders." + +"Just let me fight," cried Gareth, "and I'll have as good luck as little +Cinderella who married the prince." + +So they came to the first coil of the river and on the other side saw a +rich white pavilion with a purple dome and a slender crimson flag +fluttering above. The lawless Sir Morning-star paced up and down +outside. + +"Damsel, is this the knight you've brought me?" he shouted. + +"Not a knight, but a knave. The king scorned you so he sent some one +from his kitchen." + +"Come Daughters of the Dawn and arm me!" cried Sir Morning-star, and +three bare-footed, bare-headed maidens in pink and gold dresses brought +him a blue coat of mail and a blue shield. + +"A kitchen knave in scorn of me!" roared the blue knight. "I won't fight +him. Go home, knave! It isn't proper for you to be riding abroad with a +lady." + +"Dog, you lie! I'm sprung from nobler lineage than you," and saying +this, Gareth sprang fiercely at his adversary who met him in the middle +of the bridge. The two spears were hurled so harshly that both knights +were thrown from their horses like two stones but up they leaped +instantly. Gareth drew forth his sword and drove his enemy back down the +bridge and laid him at his feet. + +"I yield," Sir Morning-star cried, "don't kill me." + +"Your life is in the hands of this lady," Gareth replied. "If she asks +me to spare you I will." + +"Scullion!" Lynette cried, reddening with shame. "Do you suppose I will +ask a favor of you?" + +"Then he dies," and Gareth was about to slay the wounded knight when +Lynette screamed and told him he ought not to think of killing a man of +nobler birth than himself. So Gareth said, "Knight, your life is spared +at this lady's command. Go to King Arthur's court and tell him that his +kitchen knave sent you, and crave his pardon for breaking his laws." + +"I thought the smells of the odors of the kitchen grew fainter while you +were fighting on the bridge," Lynette remarked to Gareth as he took his +place behind her and told her to lead, "but now they are as strong as +ever." + +So they rode on until they arrived at the second loop of the river where +the knight of the Noonday-Sun flared with his burning shield that blazed +so violently that Gareth saw scarlet blots before his eyes as he turned +away from it. + +"Here's a kitchen knave from Arthur's hall who has overthrown your +brother," Lynette called across the river to him. + +"Ugh!" returned Sir Noonday-Sun, raising his visor to reveal his round +foolish face like a cipher, and with that he pushed his horse into the +foaming stream. + +Gareth met him midway and struck him four blows of his sword. As he was +about to deal the fifth stroke the horse of the Noonday-Sun slipped and +the stream washed his dazzling master away. Gareth plucked him out of +the water and sent him back to King Arthur. + +"Lead and I follow," he said to Lynette. + +"Do not fancy," she rejoined, as she guided him toward the third passing +of the river, "that I thought you bold or brave when you overcame Sir +Noonday-Sun; he just slipped on the river-bed. Here we are at the third +fool in the allegory, Sir Evening-star. You see he looks naked but he is +only wrapped in hardened skins that fit him like his own. They will turn +the blade of your sword." + +"Never mind," Gareth said, "the wind may turn again and the kitchen +odors grow faint." + +Then Lynette called to the Evening-star: + +"Both of your brothers have gone down before this youth and so will you. +Aren't you old?" + +"Old with the strength of twenty boys," said Sir Evening-star. + +"Old in boasting," Gareth cried, "but the same strength that slew your +brothers can slay you." + +Then the Evening-star blew a deadly note upon his horn and a +storm-beaten, russet, grizzly old woman came out and armed him in a +quantity of dingy weapons. The two knights clashed together on the +bridge and Gareth brought the Evening-star groveling in a minute to his +feet on his knees. But the other vaulted up again so quickly that Gareth +panted and half despaired of winning the victory. + +Then Lynette cried: "Well done, knave; you are as noble as any knight. +Now do not shame me; I said you would win. Strike! strike! and the wind +will change again." + +Gareth struck harder, he hewed great pieces of armor from the old +knight, but clashed in vain with his sword against the hard skin, until +at last he lashed the Evening-star's sword and broke it at the hilt. "I +have you now!" he shouted, but the cowardly knight of the Evening-star +writhed his arms about the lad till Gareth was almost strangled. Yet +straining himself to the uttermost he finally _tossed his foe headlong +over the side of the bridge_ to sink or to swim as the waves allowed. + +"Lead and I follow," Gareth said to Lynette. + +"No, it is lead no longer," the maiden replied. "Ride beside me the +knightliest of all kitchen knaves. Sir I am ashamed that I have treated +you so. Pardon me. I do wonder who you are, you knave." + +"You are not to blame for anything," Gareth said, "except for your +mistrusting of the king when he sent you some one to defend you. You +said what you thought and I answered by my actions." + +At that moment he heard the hoofs of a horse clattering in the road +behind him. "Stay!" cried a knight with a veiled shield, "I have come to +avenge my friend, Sir Kay." + +Gareth turned, and in a thrice had closed in upon the stranger, but when +he felt the touch of the stranger knight's magical spear, which was the +wonder of the world he fell to the earth. As he felt the grass in his +hands he burst into laughter. + +[Illustration: TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE.] + +"Why do you laugh?" asked Lynette. + +"Because here am I, the son of old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent, +the victor of the three bridges, and a knight of Arthur's thrown by no +one knows whom." + +"I have come to help you and not harm you," said the strange knight, +revealing himself. It was Lancelot, whom King Arthur had sent to keep a +guardian eye upon young Gareth in this his first quest, to prevent him +from being killed or taken away. + +"And why did you refuse to come when I wanted you, and now come just in +time to shame my poor defender just when I was beginning to feel proud +of him?" asked Lynette. + +"But he isn't shamed," Lancelot answered. "What knight is not overthrown +sometimes? By being defeated we learn to overcome, so hail Prince and +Knight of our Round Table!" "You did well Gareth, only you and your +horse were a little weary." + +[Illustration: SHE TENDED HIM AS GENTLY AS A MOTHER.] + +Lynette led them into a glen and a cave where they found pleasant drinks +and meat, and where Gareth fell asleep. + +"You have good reason to feel sleepy," cried Lynette. "Sleep soundly and +wake strong." _And she tended him as gently as a mother_, and watched +over him carefully as he slept. + +When Gareth woke Lancelot gave him his own horse and shield to use in +fighting the last awful outlaw, but as they drew near Lynette clutched +at the shield and pleaded with him: "Give it back to Lancelot," said +she. "O curse my tongue that was reviling you so today. He must do the +fighting now. You have done wonders, but you cannot do miracles. You +have thrown three men today and that is glory enough. You will get all +maimed and mangled if you go on now when you are tired. There, I vow you +must not try the fourth." + +But Gareth told her that her sharp words during the day had just spurred +him on to do his best and he said he must not now leave his quest until +he had finished. So Lancelot advised him how best to manage his horse +and his lance, his sword and his shield when meeting a foe that was +stouter than himself, winning with fineness and skill where he lacked in +strength. + +But Gareth replied that he knew but one rule in fighting and that was to +dash against his foe and overcome him. + +"Heaven help you," cried Lynette, and she made her palfrey halt. +"There!" They were facing the camp of the Knight of Death. + +There was a huge black pavilion, a black banner and a black horn. Gareth +blew the horn and heard hollow tramplings to and fro and muffled voices. +Then on a night-black horse, in night-black arms rode forth the dread +warrior. A white breast-bone showed in front. He spoke not a word which +made him the more fearful. + +"Fool!" shouted Gareth sturdily. "People say that you have the strength +of ten men; can't you trust to it without depending on these toggeries +and tricks?" + +But the Knight of Death said nothing. Lady Lyonors at her castle window +wept, and one of her maids fainted away, and Gareth felt his head +prickling beneath his helmet and Lancelot felt his blood turning cold. +Every one stood aghast. + +Then the chargers bounded forward and Gareth struck Death to the ground. +Drawing out his sword he split apart the vast skull; one half of it fell +to the right and one half to the left. Then he was about to strike at +the helmet when out of it peeped the face of a blooming young boy, as +fresh as a flower. + +"O Knight!" cried the laddie. "Do not kill me. My three brothers made me +do it to make a horror all about the castle. They never dreamed that +anyone could pass the bridges." + +Then Lady Lyonors with all her house had a great party of dancing and +revelry and song and making merry because the hideous Knight of Death +that had terrified them so was only a pretty little boy. And there was +mirth over Gareth's victorious quest. + +And some people say that Gareth married Lynette, but others who tell the +story later say he wedded with Lyonors. + + + + +THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT. + + +King Arthur had come to the old city of Caerleon on the River Usk to +hold his court, and was sitting high in his royal hall when a woodman, +all bedraggled with the mists of the forests came tripping up in haste +before his throne. + +"O noble King," he cried, "today I saw a wonderful deer, a hart all +milky white running through among the trees, and, nothing like it has +ever been seen here before." + +The king, who loved the chase, was very pleased and immediately gave +orders that the royal horns should be blown for all the court to go a +hunting after the beautiful white deer the following morning. Queen +Guinevere wished to go with them to watch the hounds and huntsmen and +dancing horses in the chase. She slept late, however, the next day with +her pleasant dreams, and Arthur with his Knights of the Round Table had +sped gloriously away on their snorting chargers when she arose, called +one of her maids to come with her, mounted her palfrey and forded the +River Usk to pass over by the forest. + +[Illustration: A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE HIS +THRONE.] + +There they climbed up on a little knoll and stood listening for the +hounds, but instead of the barking of the king's dogs they heard the +sound of a horse's hoofs trampling behind them. It was Prince Geraint's +charger as he flashed over the shallow ford of the river, then galloped +up the banks of the knoll to her side. He carried not a single weapon +except his golden-hilted sword and wore, not his hunting-dress, but gay +holiday silks with a purple scarf about him swinging an apple of gold at +either end and glancing like a dragon-fly. He bowed low to the sweet, +stately queen. + +"You're late, very late, Sir Prince," said she, "later even than we." + +"Yes, noble queen," replied Geraint, "I'm so late that I'm not going to +the hunt; I've come like you just to watch it." + +"Then stay with me," the queen said, "for here on this little knoll, if +anywhere, you will have a good chance to see the hounds, often they dash +by at its very feet." + +So Geraint stood by the queen, thinking he would catch particularly the +baying of Cavall, Arthur's loudest dog, which would tell him that the +hunters were coming. As they waited however, along the base of the +knoll, came a knight, a lady and a dwarf riding slowly by on their +horses. The knight wore his visor up showing his imperious and very +haughty young face. The dwarf lagged behind. + +"That knight doesn't belong to the Round Table, does he?" asked the +queen. "I don't know him." + +"No, nor I," replied Geraint. + +So the queen sent her maid over to the dwarf to find out the name of his +master. But the dwarf was old and crotchety and would not tell her. + +"Then I'll ask your master himself," cried the maid. + +"No, indeed, you shall not!" cried the dwarf, "you are not fit even to +speak of him," and as the girl turned her horse to approach the proud +young knight, the misshapen little dwarf of a servant struck at her with +his whip, and she came scampering back indignantly to the queen. + +[Illustration: HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE'S CHEEK.] + +"I'll learn his name for you," Geraint exclaimed, and he rode off +sharply. + +But the impudent dwarf answered just as before and when Prince Geraint +moved on toward his master he struck out his whip and cut the prince's +cheek so that the blood streamed upon the purple scarf dyeing it red. +Instantly Geraint reached for the hilt of his sword to strike down the +vicious little midget but then remembering that he was a prince and +disdaining to fight with a dwarf, he did not even say a word, but +cantered back to Queen Guinevere's side. + +"Noble Queen," he cried fiercely. "I am going to avenge this insult that +has been done you. I'll track these vermin to the earth. For even +although I am riding unarmed just now, as we go along I will come to +some place where I can borrow weapons or hire them. And then when I have +my man I'll fight him, and on the third day from today I'll be back +again unless I die in the fight. So good-bye, farewell." + +"Farewell, handsome prince," the queen answered. "Good fortune in your +quest and may you live to marry your first love whoever that may be. But +whether she will be a princess or a beggar from the hedgerows, before +you wed with her bring her back to me and I will robe her for her +wedding day." + +Prince Geraint bowed and with that he was off. One minute he thought he +heard the noble milk-white deer brought to bay by the dogs, the next he +thought he heard the hunter's horn far away and felt a little vexed to +think he must be following this stupid dwarf while all the others were +at the chase. But he had determined to avenge the queen and up and down +the grassy glades and valleys pursued the three enemies until at last at +sundown they emerged from the forest, climbed up on the ridge of a hill +where they looked like shadows against the dark sky, then sank again on +the other side. + +Below on the other side of the ridge ran the long street of a clamoring +little town in a long valley, on one side a new white fortress and on +the other, across a ravine and a bridge, a fallen old castle in decay. +The knight, the lady and the dwarf rode on to the white fortress, then +vanished within its walls. + +"There!" cried Geraint, "now I have him! I have tracked him to his hole, +and tomorrow when I'm rested I'll fight him." + +Then he turned wearily down the long street of the noisy village to look +for his night's lodging, but he found every inn and tavern crowded, and +everywhere horses in the stables were being shod and young fellows were +busy burnishing their master's armor. + +"What does all this hubbub mean?" asked Geraint of one of these youths. + +The lad did not stop his work one instant, but went on scouring and +replied, "It's the sparrow-hawk." + +As Prince Geraint did not know what was meant by the sparrow-hawk he +trotted a little farther along the street until he came to a quiet old +man trudging by with a sack of corn on his back. + +"Why is your town so noisy and busy to-night, good old fellow?" he +cried. + +"Ugh! the sparrow-hawk!" the old fellow said gruffly. + +So the prince rode his horse yet a little farther until he saw an +armor-maker's shop. The armor-maker sat inside with his back turned, all +doubled over a helmet which he was riveting together upon his knee. + +"Armorer," cried Geraint, "what is going on? Why is there such a din?" + +The man did not pause in his riveting even to turn about and face the +stranger, but said quickly as if to finish speaking as rapidly as he +could, "Friend, the people who are working for the sparrow-hawk have no +time for idle questions." + +At this Geraint flashed up angrily. + +"A fig for your sparrow-hawk! I wish all the bits of birds of the air +would peck him dead. You imagine that this little cackle in your baby +town is all the noise and murmur of the great world. What do I care +about it? It is nothing to me. Listen to me, now, if you are not gone +hawk-mad like the rest, where can I get a lodging for the night, and +more than that, where can I get some arms, arms, arms, to fight my +enemy? Tell me." + +The hurrying armor-maker looked about in amazement to see this gorgeous +cavalier in purple silks standing before his bit of a shop. + +"O pardon me, stranger knight," said he very politely. "We are holding a +great tournament here tomorrow morning and there is hardly any time to +do one-half the work that has to be finished before then. Arms, did you +say? Indeed I cannot tell you where to get any; all that there are in +this town are needed for to-morrow in the lists. And as for lodging, I +don't know unless perhaps at Earl Yniol's in the old castle across the +bridge." Then he again picked up his helmet and turned his back to the +prince. + +So Geraint, still a wee mite vexed, rode over the bridge that spanned +the ravine, to go to the ruined castle. There upon the farther side sat +the hoary-headed Earl Yniol, dressed in some magnificent shabby old +clothes which had been fit for a king's parties when they were new. + +"Where are you going, son?" he queried of Geraint, waking from his +reveries and dreaminess. + +"O friend, I'm looking for some shelter for the night," Geraint replied. + +"Come in then," Yniol said, "and accept of my hospitality. Our house was +rich once and now it is poor, but it always keeps its door open to the +stranger." + +"Oh, anything will do for me," cried Geraint. "If only you won't serve +me sparrow-hawks for my supper I'll eat with all the passion of a whole +day's fast." + +The old earl smiled and sighed as he rejoined, "I have more serious +reason than you to curse this sparrow-hawk. But go in and we will not +have a word about him even jokingly unless you wish it." + +Whereupon Geraint passed into the desolate castle court, where the +stones of the pavement were all broken and overgrown with wild plants, +and the turrets and walls were shattered. As he stood awaiting the Earl +Yniol, the voice of a young girl singing like a nightingale rang out +from one of the open castle windows. + +It was the voice of Enid, Earl Yniol's daughter as she sang the song of +Fortune and her Wheel: + + "Turn, Fortune, thy wheel with smile or frown, + With that wild wheel we go not up or down; + Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great." + +"The song of that little bird describes the nest she lives in," cried +Earl Yniol approaching. "Enter." + +Geraint alighted from his charger and stepped within the large dusky +cobwebbed hall, where an aged lady sat, with Enid moving about her, like +a little flower in a wilted sheath of a faded silk gown. + +"Enid, the good knight's horse is standing in the court," cried the +earl. "Take him to the stall and give him some corn, then go to town and +buy us some meat and wine." + +[Illustration: GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY COBWEBBED HALL.] + +Geraint wished that he might do this servant's work instead of this +pretty young lady, but as he started to follow her the old gray earl +stopped him. + +"We're old and poor," he said, "but not so poor and old as to let our +guests wait upon themselves." + +So Enid fetched the wine and the meat and the cakes and the bread; and +she served at the table while her mother, father and Geraint sat around. +Geraint wished that he might stoop to kiss her tender little thumb as it +held the platter when she laid it down. + +[Illustration: ENID FETCHED THE WINE AND THE MEAT AND THE CAKES.] + +"Fair host and Earl," he said after his refreshing supper, "who is this +sparrow-hawk that everybody in the town is talking about? And yet I do +not wish you to give me his name, for perhaps he is the knight I saw +riding into the new fortress the other side of the bridge at the other +end of the town. His name I am going to have from his own lips, for I +am Geraint of Devon. This morning when the queen sent her maid to find +out his name he struck at the girl with his whip, and I've sworn +vengeance for such a great insult done our queen, and have followed him +to his hold, and as soon as I can get arms I will fight him." + +"And are you the renowned Geraint?" cried Earl Yniol beaming. "Well, as +soon as I saw you coming toward me on the bridge I knew that you were no +ordinary man. By the state and presence of your bearing I might have +guessed you to be one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table at Camelot. +Pray do not suppose that I am flattering you foolishly. This dear child +of mine has often heard me telling glorious stories of all the famous +things you have done for the king and the people. And she has asked me +to repeat them again and again. + +"Poor thing, there never has lived a woman with such miserable lovers as +she has had. The first was Limours, who did nothing but drink and brawl, +even when he was making love to her. And the second was the +'sparrow-hawk,' my nephew, my curse. I will not let his name slip from +me if I can help it. When I told him that he could not marry my daughter +he spread a false rumour all round here among the people that his father +had left him a great sum of money in my keeping and that I had never +passed it over to him but had retained it for myself. He bribed all my +servants with large promises and stirred up this whole little old town +of mine against me, my own town. That was the night of Enid's birthday +nearly three years ago. They sacked my house, ousted me from my earldom, +threw us into this dilapidated, dingy old place and built up that grand +new white fort. He would kill me if he did not despise me too much to +do so; and sometimes I believe I despise myself for letting him have his +way. I scarcely know whether I am very wise or very silly, very manly or +very base to suffer it all so patiently." + +"Well said," cried Geraint eagerly. "But the arms, the arms, where can I +get arms for myself? Then if the sparrow-hawk will fight tomorrow in the +tourney I may be able to bring down his terrible pride a little." + +"I have arms," said Yniol, "although they are old and rusty, Prince +Geraint, and you would be welcome to have them for the asking. But in +this tournament of tomorrow no knight is allowed to tilt unless the lady +he loves best come there too. The forks are fastened into the meadow +ground and over them is placed a silver wand, above that a golden +sparrow-hawk, the prize of beauty for the fairest woman there. And +whoever wins in the tourney presents this to the lady-love whom he has +brought with him. Since my nephew is a man of very large bone and is +clever with his lance he has always won it for his lady. That is how he +has earned his title of sparrow-hawk. But you have no lady so you will +not be able to fight." + +Then Geraint leaned forward toward the earl. + +"With your leave, noble Earl Yniol," he replied, "I will do battle for +your daughter. For although I have seen all the beauties of the day +never have I come upon anything so wonderfully lovely as she. If it +should happen that I prove victor, as true as heaven, I will make her my +wife!" + +Yniol's heart danced in his bosom for joy, and he turned about for Enid, +but she had fluttered away as soon as her name had been mentioned, so +he tenderly grasped the hands of her mother in his own and said: + +"Mother, young girls are shy little things and best understood by their +own mothers. Before you go to rest to night, find out what Enid will +think about this." + +So the earl's wife passed out to speak with Enid, and Enid became so +glad and excited that she could not sleep the entire happy night long. +But very early the next morning, as soon as the pale sky began to redden +with the sun she arose, then called her mother, and hand in hand, +tripped over with her to the place of the tournament. There they awaited +for Yniol and Geraint. Geraint came wearing the Earl's rusty, worn old +arms, yet in spite of them looked stately and princely. + +Many other knights in blazing armor gathered there for the jousts, with +many fine ladies, and by and by the whole town full of people flooded +in, settling in a circle around the lists. Then the two forks were fixed +into the earth, above them a wand of silver was laid, and over it the +golden sparrow-hawk. The trumpet was blown and Yniol's nephew rose and +spoke: + +"Come forward, my lady," he cried to the maiden who had come with him. +"Fairest of the fair, take the prize of beauty which I have won for you +during the past two years." + +"Stay!" Prince Geraint cried loudly. "There is a worthier beauty here." + +The earl's nephew looked round with surprise and disdain to see his +uncle's family and the prince. + +"Do battle for it then," he shouted angrily. + +Geraint sprang forward and the tourney was begun. Three times the two +warriors clashed together. _Three times they broke their spears._ Then +both were thrown from their horses. They now drew their swords; and +with them lashed at one another so frequently and with such dreadfully +hard strokes that all the crowd wondered. Now and again from the distant +walls came the sounds of applause, like the clapping of phantom hands. +The perspiration and the blood flowed together down the strong bodies of +the combatants. Each was as sturdy as the other. + +[Illustration] + +"Remember the great insult done our queen!" Earl Yniol cried at last. + +This so inflamed Geraint that he heaved his vast sword-blade aloft, +cracked through his enemy's helmet, bit into the bone of his head, +felled the haughty knight, and set his feet upon his breast. + +"Your name!" demanded Geraint. + +"Edryn, the son of Nudd," groaned the fallen warrior. + +"Very well, then Edryn, the son of Nudd," returned Geraint, "you must do +these two things or else you will have to die. First, you with your lady +and your dwarf must ride to Arthur's court at Caerleon and crave their +pardon for the insult you did the queen yesterday morning, and you must +bide her decree in the punishment she awards you. Secondly, you must +give back the earldom to your uncle the Earl of Yniol. You will do these +two things or you die." + +"I will do them," cried Edryn. "For never before was I ever overcome. +But now all of my pride is broken down, for Enid has seen me fall." + +With that Edryn rose from the ground like a man, took his lady and the +dwarf on their horses to Arthur's court. There receiving the sweet +forgiveness of the queen, he became a true knight of the Round Table, +and at the last died in battle while he fought for his king. + +But Geraint when the tourney was over and he had come back to the +castle, drew Enid aside to tell her that early the next morning he would +have to start for Caerleon and that she should be ready to ride away +with him to be married at the court with tremendous pomp. For that would +be three days after the King's chase, when the prince had promised Queen +Guinevere he would be back. But of that he did not speak to Enid, who +wondered why he was so bent on returning immediately, and why she could +not have time at home to prepare herself some pretty robes to wear. + +Imagine, she thought, such a grand and frightful thing as a court, the +queen's court, with all the graceful ladies staring at her in that faded +old silk dress! And although she promised Geraint that she would go as +he wished, when she woke to the dread day for making her appearance at +court, she still yearned that he would only stay yet a little while so +that she could sew herself some clothes, that she had the flowered silk +which her mother had given her three years ago for her birthday and +which Edryn's men had robbed from her when they sacked the house and +scattered everything she ever owned to all the winds. How she wished +that handsome Geraint had known her then, those three years ago when she +wore so many pretty dresses and jewels! + +But while she lay dreamily thinking, softly in trod her mother bearing +on her arm a gorgeous, delicate robe. + +"Do you recognize it, child?" she cried. + +It was that self-same birthday dress, three years old, but as beautiful +as new and never worn. + +"Yesterday after the jousts your father went through all the town from +house to house and ordered that all sack and plunder which the men had +taken from us should be brought back, for he was again to be in his +earldom. So last evening while you were talking with the prince some one +came up from the town and placed this in my hands. I did not tell you +about it then for I wished to keep it as a sweet surprise for you this +morning. And it is a sweet surprise, isn't it? For although the prince +yesterday did say that you were the fairest of the fair there is no +handsome girl in the world but looks handsomer in new clothes than in +old. And it would have been a shame for you to go to the court in your +poor old faded silk which you have worn so long and so patiently. The +great ladies there might say that Prince Geraint had plucked up some +ragged robin from the hedges." + +[Illustration: BEARING A GORGEOUS ROBE.] + +So Enid was put into the fine flowered robe. + +Her mother said that after she had gone to the queen's court, she, the +poor old mother at home, who was too feeble to journey so far with her +daughter, would think over and over again of her pretty princess at +Camelot. And the old gray Earl Yniol went in to tell Geraint of Enid's +fanciful apparel. + +But Geraint was not delighted with the magnificence. + +"Say to her," he answered the earl, "that by all my love for her, +although I give her no other reason, I entreat Enid to wear that faded +old silk dress of hers and no other." + +This amazing and hard message from Geraint made poor little Enid's face +fall like a meadowful of corn blasted by a rainstorm. Still she +willingly laid aside her gold finery for his sake, slipped into the +faded silk, and pattered down the steps to meet Geraint. He scanned her +so eagerly from her tip to her toe that both her rosy cheeks burned like +flames. Then as he noted her mother's clouded face he said very kindly: + +"My new mother don't be very angry, or grieved with your new son because +of what I have just asked Enid to do. I had a very good reason for it +and I will explain it all to you. The other day when I left the queen at +Caerleon to avenge the insult done her by Edryn, the son of Nudd, she +made me two wishes. The one was that I should be successful with my +quest and the other was that I should wed with my first love. Then she +promised that whoever my bride should be she herself with her own royal +hands would dress her for her wedding day, splendidly, like the very sun +in the skies. So when I found this lovely Enid of yours in her shabby +clothes I vowed that the queen's hands only should array her in handsome +new robes that befitted her grace and beauty. But never mind, dear +mother, some day you will come to see Enid and then she will wear the +golden, flowered birthday dress which you gave her three years ago." + +Then the earl's wife smiled through her tears, wrapped Enid in a mantle, +kissed her gentle farewells, and in a moment saw her riding far, far +away beside Geraint. + +The queen Guinevere that day had three times climbed the royal tower at +Caerleon to look far into the valley for some sign of Geraint, who had +promised to be back that day, if he did not fall in battle, and who +would certainly come now, since Edryn had been vanquished and had come +to the court. At last when evening had fallen she spied the prince's +charger pacing nobly along the road, and Enid's palfrey at his side. +Instantly Queen Guinevere sped down from the small window in the high +turret, tripped out to the gate to greet him and embrace the lovely Enid +as a long-loved friend. + +The old City of Caerleon was gay for one whole week, over the wedding +week of Geraint and Enid. The queen herself dressed Enid for her +marriage like the very sunlight, Dubric, the highest saint of the +church, married them, and they lived for nearly a year at the court with +Arthur and sweet Guinevere. + +And so the insult done the queen was avenged, and her two wishes were +fulfilled. For Geraint overcame his enemy and wedded with his +first-love, dressed for her marriage by the queen. + + + + +GERAINT'S QUEST OF HONOR. + + +One morning Prince Geraint went into Arthur's hall and said: + +"O King, my princedom is in danger. It lies close to the territory which +is infested with bandits, earls and caitiff knights, assassins and all +sorts of outlaws. Give me your kind good leave and I will go there to +defend my lands." + +The king said the prince might go, and sent fifty armed knights to +protect him and pretty Enid as they traveled away on their horses across +the Severn River into their own country, the Land of Devon. + +After Geraint had come into Devon he forgot what he had said to the king +of ridding his princedom of outlawry, he forgot the chase where he had +always been so clever in tracking his game, forgot the tournament where +he had won victory after victory, forgot all his former glory and his +name, forgot his lands and their cares, forgot everything he ever did, +and did nothing at all but lie about at home and talk with Enid. At last +all his people began to gossip about their fine prince who once had been +illustrious everywhere and now had become an idle stay-at-home who spent +his time in making love to his wife. + +[Illustration: ENID HEARD OF GERAINT FROM HER HAIR-DRESSER.] + +Enid heard of the tattling about Geraint from her hair-dresser, and one +morning as he lay abed, she went over it all to herself, talking aloud. +She wished, that he would not abandon all his knightly pursuits but +would hunt and fight again and add to his lustre. She felt very bashful +about mentioning the matter to him as she was very shy by nature and +lived in a time when wives were altogether over-ruled by their husbands, +yet to say nothing she thought would not be showing herself a true wife +to Geraint. All this and more Enid went over to herself. + +The drowsy prince, half awake, just half heard her and quite +misunderstood her meaning. When she said that in keeping quiet about the +gossip she was not a true wife to him he supposed she meant that she no +longer cared for him, that he was not a handsome and strong enough man +to suit her. This grieved him deeply and made him very angry with her, +for Geraint had really given up all the glory of the king's court just +to be alone with Enid, although no one knew it. And the thought that now +she looked down upon him infuriated all his heart. A word would have +made everything right but he didn't say it. + +Springing up quickly from his bed he roused his squire and said, "Get +ready our horses, my charger and the princess' palfrey. And you," +turning a frowning face to the princess, "put on the worst looking, +meanest, poorest dress you have and come away with me. We are going on a +quest of honor and then you will see what sort of soldier I am." + +Enid wondered why her lord was so vexed with her and replied, "If I have +displeased you surely you will tell me why." + +But Geraint would not say; he could not bear to speak of it. So Enid +hurried after her poor old faded silk gown with the summer flowers among +its folds, which she had worn to ride from her old home to Caerleon, and +hastily dressed. + +"Do not ride at my side," Geraint said as they both mounted their horses +to start away. "Ride ahead of me, a good way ahead of me, and no matter +what may happen, do not speak a word to me, no not a word." + +Enid listened, wondering what had come over her lord. + +"There!" he cried as they were off, "we will make our way along with our +iron weapons, not with gold money." So saying, he loosed the great purse +which dangled from his belt and tossed it back to his squire who stood +on the marble threshold of the doorway where the golden coins flashed +and clattered as they scattered every which-way over the floor. "Now +then, Enid, to the wild woods!" + +At that they made for the swampy, desolated forest lands that were +famous for their perilous paths and their bandits, Enid with a white +face going before, Geraint coming gloomily nearly a quarter of a mile +after. + +The morning was only half begun when the white princess became aware +that behind a rock hiding in the shadow stood three tall knights on +horseback, armed from tip to toe, bandit outlaws lying in wait to fall +upon whoever should pass. She heard one saying to his comrades as he +pointed toward Geraint: + +"Look here comes some lazy-bones who seems just about as bold as a dog +who has had the worst of it in a fight. Come, we will kill him, and then +we will take his horse and armor and his lady." + +Enid thought, "I'll go back a little way to Geraint and tell him about +these ruffians, for even if it will madden him I should rather have him +kill me than to have him fall into their hands." + +She guided her palfrey backward and bravely met the frowning face which +greeted her, saying timidly: + +"My lord, there are three bandit knights behind a rock a little way +beyond us who are boasting that they will slay you and steal your horse +and armor and make me their captive." + +"Did I tell you," cried Geraint angrily, "that you should warn me of any +danger. There was only one thing which I told you to do and that was to +keep quiet; and this is the way you have heeded me! a pretty way! But +win or lose, you shall see by these fellows that my vigor is not lost." + +Then Enid stood back as the three outlaws flashed out of their ambush +and bore down upon the prince. + +Geraint aimed first for the middle one, driving his long spear into the +bandit's breast and out on the other side. The two others in the +meanwhile had dashed upon him with their lances, but they had broken on +his magnificent armor like so many icicles. He now turned upon them with +his broadsword, swinging it first to the right and then to the left, +first stunning them with his blows, then slaying them outright. And when +all three had fallen he dismounted, and like a hunter skinning the wild +beasts he has shot, he stripped the three robber knights of their gay +suits of armor, and leaving the bodies lie, bound each man's sword, +spear and coat of arms to his horse, tied the three bridle reins of the +three empty horses together and cried to Enid. + +"Drive these on before you." + +Enid drove them on across the wastelands, Geraint following after. As +she passed into the first shallow shade of the forest she described +three more horsemen partly hidden in the gloom of three sturdy +oak-trees. All were armed and one was a veritable giant, so tall and +bulky, towering above his companions. + +[Illustration: THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE.] + +"See there, a prize!" bellowed the giant and set Enid's pulses in a +quiver. "Three horses and three suits of armor, and all in charge +of--whom? A girl! Isn't that simple? Lay on, my men!" + +"No," cried the second, "behind is coming a knight. A coward and a fool, +for see how he hangs his head." + +The giant thundered back gaily. + +"Yes? Only one? Wait here and as he goes by make for him." + +"I will go no farther until Geraint comes," Enid said to herself +stopping her horse. "And then I will tell him about these villains. He +must be so weary with his other fight and they will fall upon him +unawares. I shall have to disobey him again for his own sake. How could +I dare to obey him and let him be harmed? I must speak; if he kills me +for it I shall only have lost my own life to save a life that is dearer +to me than my own." + +So she waited until the prince approached when she said with a timid +firmness, "Have I your leave to speak?" + +"You take it without asking when you speak," he replied, and she +continued: + +"There are three men lurking in the woods behind some oaks and one of +them is larger than you, a perfect giant. He told them to attack you as +you passed by them." + +"If there were a hundred men in the wood and each of them a giant and if +they all made for me together I vow it would not anger me so as to have +you disobey me. Stand aside while we do battle and when we are done +stand by the victor." + +At this, while Enid fell back breathing short fits of prayer but not +daring to watch, Geraint proceeded to meet his assailants. The giant was +the first to dash out for him aiming his lance at Geraint's helmet, but +the lance missed and went to one side. Geraint's spear had been a +little strained with his first encounter, but it struck through the +bulky giant's corselet and pierced his breast, then broke, one-half of +it still fast in the flesh as the giant knight fell to the earth. The +other two bandits now felt that their support and hero was gone, and +when Geraint darted rapidly on them, uttering his terrible warcry as if +there were a thousand men behind him to come to his aid, they flew into +the woods. But they were soon overtaken and pitilessly put to death. +Then Geraint, selecting the best lance, the brightest and strongest +among their spears to replace the one he had broken on the giant, he +plucked off the gaudy armor from each brigand's body, laid it on the +backs of the three horses, tied the bridle reins together and handed +them to Enid with the words, "Drive them on before you." + +So Enid now followed the wild paths of the gloomy forest with two sets +of three horses, each horse laden with his master's jingling weapons and +coat of mail. Geraint came after. As they passed out of the wood into +the open sky they came to a little town with towers upon a rocky hill, +and beneath it a wide meadowland with mowers in it, mowing the hay. Down +a stony pathway from the town skipped a fair-haired lad carrying a +basket of lunch for the laborers in the field. + +"Friend!" cried Geraint, as the lad trotted past him, for he saw that +Enid looked very white, "let my lady have something to eat. She is so +faint." + +"Willingly," the youth answered, "and you too, my lord, even although +this feed is very coarse and only fit for the mowers." + +He set down his basket and Enid and Geraint alighted and put all the +horses to graze, while they sat down on the green sward to have some +bread and barley. Enid felt too faint at heart, thinking of the +prince's strange conduct, to care a great deal for food, but Geraint was +hungry enough and had all the mowers' basket emptied almost before he +knew it. + +"Boy," he cried half-ashamed, "everything is gone, which is a disgrace. +But take one of my horses and his arms by way of payment, choose the +very best." + +The poor lad, who might as well have had a kingdom given him, reddened +with his extreme surprise and delight. + +"My lord, you are over-paying me fifty times," he cried. + +"You will be all the wealthier then," returned the prince, gaily. + +"I'll take it as free gift, then," the lad answered. "The food is not +worth much. While your lady is resting here I can easily go back and +fetch more, some more for the earl's mowers. For all these mowers belong +to our great earl, and all these fields are his, and I am his, too. I'll +tell him what a fine man you are, and he will have you to his palace and +serve you with costly dinners." + +"I wish no better fare than I have had," Geraint said, "I never ate +better in my life than just now when I left your poor mowers dinnerless. +And I will go into no earl's palace. If he desires to see me, let him +come to me. Now you go hire us some pleasant room in the town, stall our +horses and when you return with the food for these men tell us about +it." + +"Yes, my kind lord," the glad youth cried, and he held his head high and +thought he was a gorgeous knight off to the wars as he disappeared up +the rocky path leading his handsome horse. + +The prince turned himself sleepily to watch the lusty mowers laboring +under the sun as it blazed on their scythes, while Enid plucked the long +grass by the meadows' edge to weave it round and round her wedding +ring, until the boy returned and showed them the room he had got in the +town. + +"If you wish anything, call the woman of the house," Prince Geraint said +to Enid as the door closed behind them. "Do not speak to me." + +"Yes, my lord," returned Enid, still marvelling at his cold ways. + +Silently they sat down, she at one end, he at the other, as quiet as +pictures. But suddenly a mass of voices sounded up the street, and heel +after heel echoing upon the pavement. In a twinkling the door to their +room was pushed back to the wall while a mob of boisterous young +gentlemen tumbled in led by the Earl of Limours, the wild lord of the +town, and Enid's old suitor whom her father had rejected long ago, a man +as beautiful as a woman and very graceful. He seized the prince's hand +warmly, welcomed him to the town and stealthily, out of the corner of +his eye, caught a glimpse of unhappy Enid nestled all alone at the +farther end of the room. + +The prince immediately sent for every sort of delicious things to eat +and drink from the town, told the earl, to bid all his friends for a +feast and soon was gaily making merry with the men, drinking, laughing, +joking. + +"May I have your leave, my lord," cried Earl Limours, "to cross the room +and speak a word with your lady who seems so lonely?" + +"My free leave," cried the merry Prince Geraint, who did not know the +earl, "Get her to speak with you; she has nothing to say to me." + +As Limours stepped to Enid's side he lifted his eyes adoringly, bowed at +her side and said in a whisper: + +"Enid, you pilot star of my life, I see that Geraint is very unkind to +you and loves you no longer. What a laughing stock he is making of you +with that wretched old dress you have on! But I, I love you still as +always. Just say the word and I will have him put into the keep and you +will come with me. I will be kind to you forever." + +The tears fluttered into the earl's eyes as he spoke. + +"Earl," replied Enid, "if you love me as you used to do in the years +long ago, and are not joking now, come in the morning and take me by +force from the prince. But leave me tonight. I am wearied to death." + +So the earl made a low bow, brandishing his plumes until they brushed +his very insteps, while the stout prince bade him a loud good night, and +he moved away talking to his men. + +[Illustration: THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW.] + +But as soon as he was gone Enid began to plan how she could escape with +Geraint before Earl Limours should come after her in the morning. She +was too afraid of Geraint to speak with him about it, but when he had +fallen asleep she stepped lightly about the room and gathered the pieces +of his armor together in one place ready for an early departure on the +morrow. Then she dropped off into slumber. But suddenly she heard a loud +sound, the earl with his wild following blowing his trumpet to call her +to come out, she thought. But it was only the great red cock in the +yard below crowing at the daylight which had begun to glimmer now across +the heap of Geraint's armor. She rose immediately in her fright to see +that all was well, went over to examine the weapons and unwittingly let +the casque fall jangling to the floor. This woke Geraint, who started up +and stared at her. + +"My lord," began Enid, and then she told him all that Earl Limours had +said to her and how she had put him off by telling him to come this +morning. + +"Call the woman of the house and tell her to bring the charger and the +palfrey," Geraint cried angrily. "Your sweet face makes fools of good +fellows." Geraint loved Enid still and he was in as great perplexity as +she, for after misunderstanding what she had said he no more knew +whether she cared for him truly than she knew what was troubling him and +making him act in this unaccountable manner. + +Enid slipped through the sleeping household like a ghost to deliver the +prince's message to the landlord, hurried back to help Geraint with his +armor and came down with him to spring upon her palfrey. + +"What do I owe you, friends?" the prince asked his host, but before the +man could reply he added "take those five horses and their burdens of +arms." + +"My lord, I have scarcely spent the price of one of them on you!" cried +the landlord astonished. + +"You'll have all the more riches then," the prince laughed, then turning +to Enid, "today I charge you more particularly than ever before that +whatever you may see, hear, fancy or imagine, do not speak to me, but +obey." + +"Yes, my lord," answered Enid, "I know your wish and should like to +obey, but when I go riding ahead, I hear all the violent threats you do +not hear and see the danger you cannot see, and then not to give you +warning seems hard, almost beyond me. Yet, I wish to obey you." + +"Do so, then," said he. "Do not be too wise, seeing that you are +married, not to a clown but a strong man with arms to guard his own head +and yours, too." + +The broad beaten path which they now took passed through toward the +wasted lands bordering on the castle of Earl Doorm, the Bull, as his +people called him, because of his ferocity. + +It was still early morning when Enid caught the sound of quantities of +hoofs galloping up the road. Turning round she saw cloudsful of dust and +the points of lances sparkling in it. Then, not to disobey the prince, +yet to give him warning, she held up her finger and pointed toward the +dust. Geraint was pleased at her cunning, and immediately stopped his +horse. The moment after, the Earl of Limours dashed in upon him on a +charger as black and as stormy as a thunder-cloud. + +Geraint closed with the earl, bore down on him with his spear, and in a +minute brought him stunned or dead to the ground. Then he turned to the +next-comer after Limours, overthrew him and blindly rushed back upon all +the men behind. But they were so startled at the flash and movement of +the prince that they scrambled away in a panic, leaving their leader +lying on the public highway. The horses also of the fallen warriors +whisked off from their wounded masters and wildly flew away to mix with +the vanishing mob. + +"Horse and man, all of one mind," remarked Geraint, smiling, "not a hoof +of them left. What do you say, Enid, shall we strip the earl and pay for +a dinner or shall we fast? Fast? Then go on and let us pray heaven to +send us some Earl of Doorm's men so that we can earn ourselves something +to eat." + +Enid sadly eyed her bridle-reins and led the way, Geraint coming after, +scarcely knowing that he had been pricked by Limours in his side, and +that he was bleeding secretly beneath his armor. But at last his head +and helmet began to wag unsteadily, and at a sudden swerving of the road +he was tossed from his horse upon a bank of grass. Enid heard the +clashing of the fall, and too terrified to cry out, came back all pale. +Then she dismounted, loosed the fastenings of his armor and bound up his +wounds with her veil. Then she sat down desolately and began to cry, +wondering what ever she should do. + +[Illustration: ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY.] + +Many men passed by but no one took any notice of her. For in that +lawless, turbulent earldom no one minded a woman weeping for a murdered +lover than they now mind a summer shower. One man scurrying as fast as +ever he could travel toward the bandit earl's castle, drove the sand +sweeping into her poor eyes, and another coming in the opposite +direction from out the earl's castle park in seeming hot haste, turned +all the long dusty road into a column of smoke behind him, and +frightened her little palfrey so that it scoured off into the coppices +and was lost. But the prince's charger stood beside them and grieved +over the mishap like a man. + +At noon a huge warrior with a big face and russet beard and eyes rolling +about in search of prey, came riding hard by with a hundred spearmen at +his back all bound for some foray. It was the frightful Earl Doorm. + +"What, is he dead?" cried the earl loudly to Enid, as he spied her on +the wayside. + +"No, no, not dead," she quickly answered. "Would some of your kind +people take him up and bear him off somewhere out of this cruel sun? I +am very sure, quite sure that he is not dead." + +"Well, if he isn't dead, why should you cry for him so? Dead or not +dead, you just spoil your pretty face with idiotic tears. They will not +help him. But since it is a pretty face, come fellows, some of you, and +take him to our hall. If he lives he will be one of our band, and if +not, why there is earth enough to bury him in. See that you take his +charger, too, a noble one." + +And so saying, the rude earl passed on, while two brawny horsemen came +forward growling to think they might lose their chance of booty from the +morning's raid all for this dead man. They raised the prince upon a +litter, laying him in the hollow of his shield, and brought him into +the barren hall of Doorm, while Enid and the gentle charger followed +after. They tossed him and his litter down on an oaken settle in the +hall, and then shot away for the woods. + +Enid sat through long hours all alone with Geraint besides the oaken +settle, propping his head and chafing his hands, but in the late +afternoon she saw the huge Earl Doorm returning with his lusty spearmen +and their plunder. Each hurled down a heap of spoils on the floor, threw +aside his lance and doffed his helmet, while a tribe of brightly gowned +gentle-women fluttered into the hall and began to talk with them. Earl +Doorm struck his knife against the table and bellowed for meat, and +wine. In a moment the place fairly steamed and smoked with whole roast +hogs and oxen, and everybody sat down in a hodge-podge and ate like +cattle feeding in their stalls, while Enid shrank far back startled, +into her nook. + +But suddenly, when Earl Doorm had eaten all he would, and all he could +for the moment, he revolved his eyes about the bare hall and caught a +glimpse of the fair little lady drooping in her niche. Then he +recollected how she had crouched weeping by the roadside for her fallen +lord that morning. A wild pity filled his gruff heart. + +"Eat, eat!" he shouted. "I never before saw any thing so pale. Be +yourself. Isn't your lord lucky, for were I dead who is there in all the +world who would mourn for me? Sweet lady, never have I ever seen a lily +like you. If there were a bit of color living in your cheeks there is +not one among my gentle-women here who would be fit to wear your +slippers for gloves. But listen to me and you will share my earldom with +me, girl, and we will live like two birds in a nest and I will bring you +all sorts of finery from every part of the world to make you happy." + +As the earl spoke his two cheeks bulged with the two tremendous morsels +of meat which he had tucked into his mouth. + +Enid was more alarmed than ever. + +"How can I be happy over anything," replied she, "until my lord is well +again?" + +The earl laughed, then plucked her up out of the corner, carried her +over to the table, thrust a dish of food before her and held a horn of +wine to her lips. + +"By all heaven," cried Enid, "I will not drink until my lord gets up and +drinks and eats with me. And if he will not rise again I will not drink +any wine until I die." + +At this the earl turned perfectly red and paced up and down the hall, +gnawing first his upper and then his lower lip. + +"Girl," shouted he, "why wail over a man who shames your beauty so, by +dressing it in that rag? Put off those beggar-woman's weeds and robe +yourself in this which my gentle-woman has brought you." + +It was a gorgeous, wonderful dress, colored in the tints of a shallow +sea with the blue playing into the green, and gemmed with precious +stones all down the front of it as thick as dewdrops on the grass. But +Enid was harder to move than any cold tyrant on his throne, and said: + +"Earl, in this poor gown my dear lord found me first and loved me while +I was living with my father; in this poor gown I rode with him to court +and was presented to the queen; in this poor gown he bade me ride as we +came out on this fatal quest of honor, and in this poor gown I am going +to stay until he gets up again, a live, strong man, and tells me to put +it away. I have griefs enough, pray be gentle with me, let me be. O God! +I beg of your gentleness, since he is as he is, to let me be." + +Then the brutal earl strode up and down the hall and cried out: + +"It is of no more use to be gentle with you than to be rough. So take my +salute," and with that he slapped her lightly on her white cheek. + +Enid shrieked. Instantly the fallen Geraint was up on his feet with the +sword that had laid beside him in the hollow of the shield, making a +single bound for the earl, and with one sweep of it sheared through the +swarthy neck. The rolling eyes turned glassy, the russet-bearded head +tumbled over the floor like a ball, and all the bandit knights and the +gentle-women in the hall flitted, scampering pell-mell away, yelling as +if they had seen a ghoul. Enid and Geraint were left alone. + +[Illustration: THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR LIKE A +BALL.] + +Now Geraint had come out of his swoon before the earl had returned, and +he had lain perfectly silent and immovable because he wished to test +Enid and see what she would do when she thought he was sleeping or +fainted away, or perhaps dead. So he had listened to all that had taken +place and had heard everything that Earl Doorm had said to her and all +that Enid had replied, so now he knew that she loved him as ever and +that she stood steadfast by him. All his heart filled with pity and +remorse that he had brought her away on this hard, hard quest, and had +made her suffer so much and had been so rough and cold. + +"Enid," said the prince tenderly, very tenderly. "I have used you worse +than that big dead brute of a man used you. I have done you more wrong +than he. I misunderstood you. Now, now you are three times mine." + +Geraint's kindness burst upon Enid so abruptly and was so unforeseen +that she could not speak a word only this: + +"Fly, Geraint, they will kill you, they will come back. Fly. Your horse +is outside, my poor little thing is lost." + +"You shall ride behind me, then, Enid." + +So they slipped quickly outside, found the stately charger and mounted +him, first Geraint, then Enid, climbing up the prince's feet, and +throwing her arms about him to hold herself firm as they bounded off. + +But as the horse dashed outside of the earl's gateway there before them +in the highroad stood a knight of Arthur's court holding his lance as if +ready to spring upon Geraint. + +"Stranger!" shrieked Enid, thinking of the prince's wound and loss of +blood, "do not kill a dead man!" + +"The voice of Enid!" cried the stranger knight. + +Then Enid saw that he was Edryn, the son of Nudd, and feeling the more +terrified as she remembered the jousts, cried out: + +"O, cousin, this is the man who spared your life!" + +[Illustration: BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A KNIGHT OF ARTHUR'S +COURT.] + +Edryn stepped forward. "My lord Geraint," he said, "I took you for some +bandit knight of Doorm's. Do not fear, Enid, that I will attack the +prince. I love him. When he overthrew me at the lists he threw me +higher. For now I have been made a Knight of the Round Table and am +altogether changed. But since I used to know Earl Doorm in the old days +when I was lawless and half a bandit myself, I have come as the +mouthpiece of our king to tell Doorm to disband all his men and become +subject to Arthur, who is now on his way hither." + +"Doorm is now before the King of Kings," Geraint replied, "And his men +are already scattered," and the prince pointed to groups in the +thickets or still running off in their panic. Then back to the people +all aghast whom they could see huddling, he related fully to Edryn how +he had slain the huge earl in his own hall. + +[Illustration: TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT TO GREET THEM.] + +"Come with me to the king," astonished Edryn said. + +So they all traveled off to the royal camp where Arthur himself came out +to greet them, lifted Enid from her saddle, kissed her and showed her a +tent where his own physician came in to attend to Geraint's wound. When +that was healed he rode away with them to Caerleon for a visit with +Queen Guinevere, who dressed Enid again in magnificent clothes. Then +fifty armed knights escorted Enid and the prince as far as the banks of +the Severn River, where they crossed over into the land of Devon. And +all their people welcomed them back. + +Geraint after that never forgot his princedom or the tournament, but was +known through all the country round as the cleverest and bravest +warrior, while his princess was called Enid the Good. + + + + +MERLIN AND VIVIEN. + + +Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who wanted to become a +greater magician than even the great Merlin, who was the most famous man +of all his times, who understood all the arts, who had built the king's +harbors, ships and halls, who was a fine poet and who could read the +future in the stars in the skies. + +He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to make people +invisible. Whenever he worked it upon anyone that person would seem to +be imprisoned within the four walls of a tower and could not get out. +The person would seem dead, lost to every one, and could be seen only by +the person who worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charm +was, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one would +know where he was and she could become a great enchantress in the realm, +as she foolishly thought. And she planned very cleverly so as to find +out the wise old man's secret. + +She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first she played +about him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and he watched and +laughed at her as if she were a playful kitten. Then as she saw that he +half disdained her she began to put on very grave and serious fits, +turned red and pale when he came near her, or sighed or gazed at him, so +silently and with such sweet devotion that he half believed that she +really loved him truly. + +[Illustration: HE LAUGHED AT HER.] + +But after a while a great melancholy fell over Merlin, he felt so +terribly sad that he passed away out of the kings' court and went down +to the beach. There he found a little boat and stepped into it. Vivien +had followed him without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat and +while he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were driven +across the sea with a strong wind and came to the shores of Brittany. +Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed him all the way into the wild +woods of Broceliande. Every step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet. + +They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his feet as if in +the deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was wound round her +hair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung about her beautiful limbs. +As she kissed his feet she cried: + +"Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all through the world +and I will worship you. Tread me down and I will kiss you for it." + +But Merlin still said not a word. + +[Illustration: MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD.] + +"Merlin do you love me?" at last cried Vivien, with her face sadly +appealing to him. And again, "O, Merlin, do you love me?" "Great Master, +do you love me?" she cried for the third time. + +And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward him, slid +upon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles, curved her arms about +his neck and used one of her hands as a white comb to run through his +long ashy beard which she drew all across her neck down to her knees. + +"See! I'm clothing myself with wisdom," she cried. "I'm a golden summer +butterfly that's been caught in a great old tyrant spider's web that's +going to eat me up in this big wild wood without a word to me." + +"What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of yours?" cried +Merlin at last. "What do you want me to give you?" + +"What!" said Vivien, smiling saucily, "have you found your tongue at +last? Now yesterday you didn't open your lips once except to drink. And +then I, with my own lady hands, made a pretty cup and offered you your +water kneeling before you and you drank it, but gave me not a word of +thanks. And when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with your +feet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed through you +know that I bathed your feet before I bathed my own. But yet no thanks +from you. And all through this wild wood, all through this morning when +I fondled you, still not a word of thanks." + +Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, "Vivien, have you never +seen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to break? Well, I've +been seeing a wave that was ready to break on me. It seemed to me that +some dark, tremendous wave was going to come and sweep me away from my +hold on the world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my great +name. That's why I came away from Arthur's court to make me forget it +and feel better. And when I saw you coming after me it seemed to me that +you were that wave that was going to roll all over me. But pardon me, +now, child, your pretty ways have brightened everything again, and now +tell me what you would like to have from me. For I owe you something +three times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for your +goodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of yours. So tell me +now, what will you have?" + +Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered: + +"I've always been afraid that you were not really mine, that you didn't +love me truly, that you didn't quite trust me, and now you yourself have +owned it. Don't you see, dear love, how this strange mood of yours must +make me feel it more than ever? must make me yearn still more to prove +that you are mine, must make me wish still more to know that great charm +of waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about, just as a +proof that you trust me? If you told that to me I should know that you +are mine, and I should have the great proof of your love, because I +think that however wise you may be you do not know me yet." + +"I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien," said Merlin, "than when +I told you about that charm. Why won't you ask me for another boon?" + +Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid that ever +lived, burst into tears and said: + +"No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me, let me feel +myself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for another boon. I +don't suppose that you know the old rhyme, 'Trust not at all or all in +all?'" + +Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said. Her voice was +so tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so sweetly gleaming +behind her tears. + +He locked her hand in his again and said, "If you should know this charm +you might sometimes in a wild moment of anger or a mood of overstrained +affection when you wanted me all to yourself or when you were jealous +in a sudden fit, you might work it on me." + +"Good!" cried Vivien, as if she were angry, "I am not trusted. Well, +hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and when I've found it +beware, look out for Vivien! When you use me so it's a wonder that I can +love you at all, and as for jealousy, it seems to me this wonderful +charm was invented just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot of +pretty girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world with +it." + +Then the great master laughed merrily. + +"Long, long years ago," he said, "there lived a King in the farthest +East of the East. A tawny pirate who had plundered twenty islands or +more anchored his boat in the King's port, and in the boat was a woman. +For, as he had passed one of the islands the pirates had seen two cities +full of men in boats fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed up +his black boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of them +and brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She was a +maiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light seemed to come +from her as she walked. When the pirate came upon the shore of the +Eastern King's island the King asked him for the woman, but he would not +give her up. So the King imprisoned the pirate and made the woman his +queen. + +"All the people adored her, the King's councilmen and all his soldiers, +the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down before her unbidden, and +the black slaves of the mountains rang her golden ankle bells just to +see her smile. So little wonder that the King grew very jealous. He had +his horns blown through all the hundred under-kingdoms which he ruled, +telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would teach him some +charm to work upon the queen and make her all his own. To the wizard who +could do this he promised a league of mountain land full of golden +mines, a province with a hundred miles of coast, a palace and a +princess. But all the wizards who failed should be killed and their +heads would be hung on the city gates until they mouldered away. + +"So there were many, many wizards all through the hundred kingdoms who +tried to work the charm, but failed; many wizard heads bleached on the +walls, and for weeks a troupe of carrion crows hung like a cloud above +the towers of the city gateways. But at last the king's men found a +little glassy headed, hairless man who lived alone in a great wilderness +and ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always reading +had got grated down, filed away and lean, with monstrous eyes and his +skin clinging to his bones. But since he never tasted wine or flesh--the +wall that separates people from spirits became crystal to him. He could +see through it, perceive the spirits as they walked and hear them +talking; so he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rain +across a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and the pine woods +roared he made everything calm again. + +"He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to the king's court by +force, he didn't want to go. There he taught the king how to charm the +queen so that no one could see her again, and she could see no one +except the king as he passed about the palace. She lay as if quite dead +and lost to life. But when the king offered the magician his league of +golden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast, the palace +and the princess, the old man turned away, went back to his wilderness +and lived on grass and vanished away. But his book came down to me." + +"You have the book!" cried Vivian smiling saucily. "The charm is written +in it. Good, take my advice and let me know the secret at once, for if +you should hide it away like a puzzle in a chest, if you should put +chest upon chest, and lock and padlock each chest thirty times and bury +them all away under some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on the +battle-field, still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, of +picking it, of opening it and reading the charm. And _then_ if I tried +it on you who would blame me?" + +"You read the book, my pretty Vivien?" cried Merlin. "Well, it's only +twenty pages long, but such pages! Every page has a square of text that +looks like a blot, the letters no longer than fleas' legs written in a +language that has long gone by, and all the borders and margins +scribbled, crossed and crammed with notes. You read that book! No one, +not even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out the +notes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin. Oh, it is simple +enough. Any child might work it and then not be able to undo it. Don't +ask me again for it, because even although you would love me too much to +try it on me, still you might try it on some of the knights of the Round +Table." + +"O, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or sung about +in song!" cried Vivien. She clapped her hands together and wailed out a +shriek. "I'm stabbed to the heart! I only wished that prove to you that +were wholly mine, that you loved me and now I'm killed with a word. +There's nothing left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave, +and if the wolves won't tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away, +killed with unutterable unkindness!" + +She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair uncoiled itself. +Then she wept afresh. + +The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky. + +Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true. + +"Come out of the storm," he called over to her, "come here into the +hollow old oak tree." + +Then since she didn't answer, he tried three times to calm her but quite +in vain. At last, however, she let herself be conquered, came back to +her old perch, and nestled there, half falling from his knees. Gentle +Merlin saw the slow tears still standing in her eyes and threw his arms +kindly about her. But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with her +arms crossed upon her bosom and fled away. + +"No more love between us two," she cried, "for you do not trust me. Oh, +it would have been better if I had died three times over than to have +asked you once! Farewell, think gently of me and I will go. But before I +leave you let me swear once more that if I've been planning against you +in all this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the sky +to burn me to a cinder!" + +Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky, and sliced +the giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and spikes. + +"Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!" cried Vivien, terrified lest the heavens +had heard her oath and were going to kill her. And she flew back to his +arms. She called him her dear protector, her lord and liege, her seer, +her bard, her silver star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the one +passionate love of her life, and hugged him close. + +All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches snapped above +them in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes and neck seemed to come +and go before Merlin's eyes with the lightning. At last the storm had +spent its passion, the woodland was all in peace again, and Merlin, +overtalked and overworn had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep. + +[Illustration: IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD.] + +Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven footsteps and waving +arms, and in the hollow of the old oak tree left him lying dead to all +life, use and fame and name. + +"I have made his glory mine! O fool!" she shrieked, and she sprang down +through the great forest, the thicket closed about her behind her and +all the woods echoed, "Fool!" + + + + +BALIN AND BALAN. + + +King Pellam owed Arthur some tribute money so Arthur told three of his +knights to go see about it and collect it for him. + +"Very well," said one of the knights, "but listen, on the way to King +Pellam's country, near Camelot, there are two strange knights sitting +beside a fountain. They challenge and overthrow every knight that +passes. Shall I stop to fight them as we go by and send them back to +you?" + +Arthur laughed, "No, don't stop for anything; let them wait until they +can find some one stronger themselves." + +With that the three men left. But after they had gone Arthur, who loved +a good fight himself, started away early one morning for the fountain +side of Camelot. On its right hand he saw the knight Balin sitting under +an alder tree, with his horse beside him, and on the left hand under a +poplar tree with his horse at his side sat the knight Balan. + +"Fair sirs," cried Arthur, "why are you sitting here?" + +"For the sake of glory," they answered. "We're stronger than all +Arthur's court. We've proved that because we easily overthrow every +knight that comes by here." + +"Well, I'm of Arthur's court, too," replied the king, "although I've +never done so much in jousts as in real wars. But see whether you can +overthrow me so easily too." + +So the two brothers came out boldly and fought with Arthur, but he +struck them both lightly down, then softly came away and nobody knew +anything about it. + +But that evening while Balin and Balan sat very meekly by the bubbling +water a spangled messenger came riding by and cried out to them: "Sirs, +you are sent for by the King." + +So they followed the man back to the court. "Tell me your names," +demanded Arthur, "and why do you sit there by the fountain?" + +[Illustration: TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS.] + +"My name is Balin," answered one of the men, "and my brother's name is +Balan. Three years ago I struck down one of your slaves whom I heard had +spoken ill of me, and you sent me away for a three years' exile. Then I +thought that if we would sit by the well and would overcome every knight +who passed by you would be a more willing to take me back. But today +some man of yours came along and conquered us both. What do you wish +with me?" + +"Be wiser for falling," Arthur said. "Your chair is in the hall vacant. +Take it again and be my knight once more." + +So Balin went back into the old hall of the Knights of the Round Table, +and they all clashed their cups together drinking his welcome, and sang +until all of Arthur's banners of war hanging overhead began to stir as +they always did on the battlefield. + +Meanwhile the men who had gone to collect the taxes from King Pellam +returned. + +"Sir King," they cried to Arthur, "We scarcely could see Pellam for the +gloom in his hall. That man who used to be one of your roughest and most +riotous enemies is now living like a monk in his castle and has all +sorts of holy things about him, and says he has given up all matters of +the world. He wouldn't even talk about the tribute money and told us +that his heir Sir Garlon, attended to his business for him, so we went +to Garlon and after a struggle we got it. Then we came away, but as we +passed through the deep woods we found one of your knights lying dead, +killed by a spear. After we had buried him, we talked with an old +woodman who told us that there's a demon of the woods who had probably +slain the knight. This demon, he said, was once a man who lived all +alone and learned black magic. He hated people so much that when he died +he became a fiend. The woodman showed us the cave where he has seen the +demon go in and out and where he lives. We saw the print of a horse's +hoof, but no more." + +"Foully and villainously slain!" cried Arthur thinking of his poor +killed knight in the woods. "Who will go hunt this demon of the woods +for me?" + +"I!" exclaimed Balan, ready to dart instantly away, but first he +embraced Balin, saying, "Good brother, hear; don't let your angry +passions conquer you, fight them away. Remember how these knights of the +Round Table welcomed you back. Be a loving brother with them and don't +imagine that there is hatred among them here any more than there is in +heaven itself." + +When bad Balan left, Balin set himself to learn how to curb his wildness +and become a courteous and manly knight. He always hovered about +Lancelot, the pattern knight of all the court, to see how he did, and +when he noticed Lancelot's sweet smiles and his little pleasant words +that gladdened every knight or churl or child that he passed, Balin +sighed like some lame boy who longed to scale a mountain top and could +scarcely limp up one hundred feet from the base. + +"It's Lancelot's worship of the queen that helps to make him gentle," +said he to himself. "If I want to be gentle I must serve and worship +lovely Queen Guinevere too. Suppose I ask the King to let me have some +token of hers on my shield instead of these pictures of wild beasts with +big teeth and grins. Then whenever I see it I'll forget my wild heats +and violences." + +"What would you like to bear on your shield?" asked the king when Balin +spoke to him about his wish. + +"The queen's own crown-royal," replied Balin. + +Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. "The crown is only the +shadow of the king," she said, "and this crown is the shadow of that +shadow. But let him have it if it will help him out of his violences." + +"It's no shadow to me, my queen," cried Balan, "no shadow to me, king. +It's a light for me." + +So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and whenever he +looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and patient. + +But one morning as he heard Lancelot and the queen talking together on +the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere's bower, all his +old passions seemed to come back and filled him and he darted madly away +on his horse, not stopping until he had passed the fount where he had +sat with his brother Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond. +There the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a branch of a +tree. + +[Illustration: BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD.] + +"Give me your axe, Churl," cried Balin, and with one sharp cut he struck +it down. + +"Lord!" cried the woodman, "you could kill the devil of this woods if +any one can. Just yesterday I saw a flash of him. Some people say that +our Sir Garlon has learned black magic too and can ride armed unseen. +Just look into the demon's cave." + +But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off through the glades +with a drooping head. He did not notice that on his right a great cavern +chasm yawned out of the darkness. Once he heard the mosses beneath him +thud and tremble and then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and +ran along the ground. The light of somebody's armor flashed by him and +vanished into the woods. + +Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that he +stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from his horse. +He sprang to his feet and darted off again not knowing where he was +going until the massy battlements of King Pellam's castle appeared. + +"Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield?" Pellam's men asked him +as soon as they saw him. + +"The fairest and best of ladies living gave it to me," Balin replied, as +he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the banquet hall. + +"Why do you wear the royal crown?" Sir Garlon asked him as they sat at +table. + +"The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest, best and +purest gave it to me to wear," said Balin. + +But Sir Garlon only hissed at him and made fun of what he said, and +Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with a sacred picture to +hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the gentle queen about whom he +was talking soothed his temper. The next morning, however, in the court +Sir Garlon mocked him again and Balin's face grew black with anger. He +tore out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, "Ha! I'll +make a ghost of you!" struck Garlon hard on the helmet. + +The blade flew and splintered into six parts which clinked upon the +stones below while Garlon reeled slowly backward and fell. Balin dragged +him by the banneret of his helmet and struck again, but in a minute +twenty warriors with pointed lances were making for him from the castle. +Balin dashed his fist against the foremost face then dipped through a +low doorway out along a glimmering gallery until he saw the open portals +of King Pellam's chapel. He slipped inside this and crept behind the +door while the others howled past outside. + +Before the golden altar he noticed lying the brightest lance he had ever +seen with its point painted red with blood. Seizing it he pushed it out +through an open casement, leaned on it and leaped in a half-circle to +the ground outside. Running along a path he found his horse, mounted him +and scudded away. An arrow whizzed to his right, another to his left and +a third over his head while he heard Pellam crying out feebly, "Catch +him, catch him! he mustn't pollute holy things!" + +But Balin quickly dove beneath the tree boughs and raced through miles +of thick groves and open meadowland until his good horse, at last +wearied and uncertain in his footsteps, stumbled over a fallen oak and +threw Balin headlong. + +As Balin rose to his feet he looked at the Queen's crown on his shield +and then drew the shield from off his neck. "I have shamed you," he +cried. "I won't carry you any more," and he hung it up on a branch and +threw himself on the ground in a passionate sleep. + +While he slept there the beautiful wicked Vivien came riding by through +the woodland alleys with her squire, warbling a song. + +"What is this?" she cried as she noticed the shield on the tree, "a +shield with a crown upon it. And there's a horse. Where's the rider? Oh! +there he is sleeping. Hail royal knight, I'm flying away from a bad king +and the knight I was riding with was hurt, and my poor squire isn't of +much use in helping me. But you, Sir Prince, will surely guide me to the +Warrior King Arthur, the Blameless, to get me some shelter." + +"Oh, no, I'll never go to Arthur's court again," cried Balin. "I'm not a +prince any more, or a knight. I have brought the Queen's crown to +shame." + +Then Vivien laughed shrilly, and told Balin a wicked story about the +Queen which she just imagined in her wicked mind. But she told it so +cunningly and smiled so sunnily as she talked that Balin believed her +and he flew into the more passionate rage because he thought he had been +deceived in the Queen whom he had worshipped. + +He ground his teeth together, sprang up with a yell, tore the shield +from the branch and cast it on the ground, drove his heel _into the +royal crown_, stamped and trampled upon it until it was all spoiled, +then hurled the shield from him out among the forest weeds and cursed +the story, the queen and Vivien. + +His weird yell had thrilled through the woods where Balan was lurking +for his foe. "There! that's the scream of the wood-devil I'm looking +for," he thought. "He has killed some knight and trampled on his shield +to show his loathing of our order and the queen. Devil or man, +whichever you are, take care of your head!" + +[Illustration: HE DROVE HIS HEEL INTO THE ROYAL CROWN.] + +With that he made swiftly for his poor brother whom he did not +recognize. Sir Balin spoke not a word but snatched the buckler from +Vivien's squire, vaulted on his horse and in a moment had clashed with +his brother's armor. King Pellam's holy spear reddened with blood as it +pricked through Balan's shield to his flesh. Then Balin's horse, wearied +to death, rolled back over his rider and crushed him inward and both men +fell and swooned away. + +"The fools!" cried Vivien to her young squire. "Come, you Sir Chick, +loosen their casques and see who they are. They must be rivals for the +same woman to fight so hard." + +"They are happy," her gentle squire answered, "if they died for love. +And Vivien, though you beat me like your dog I would die for you." + +"Don't die, Sir Boy," cried Vivien, "I'd rather have a live dog than a +dead lion. Come away, I don't like to look at them," and she made her +palfrey leap off over the fallen oak tree. + +Balin was the first to wake from his swoon. As soon as he saw his +brother's face he crawled over to his side moaning. Then Balan faintly +opened his eyes and seeing who was with him kissed Balin's forehead. + +"O Balin," he cried, "why didn't you carry your own shield which I knew, +and why did you trample all over this one which bears the queen's own +crown which I know?" + +So Balin slowly gasped out the whole story of his shield. Then they each +said good-night to the other and closed their eyes, locked in each +other's arms. + + + + +LANCELOT AND ELAINE. + + +Long before Arthur was crowned king while he was roving one night over +the trackless realms of Lyonesse he came upon a glen with a gray boulder +and a lake. As he rode up the highway in the misty moonshine he suddenly +stepped upon a white skeleton of a man with a crown of diamonds upon its +skull. The skull broke off from the body and rolled away into the lake. +Arthur alighted, reached down and picked up the crown and set it on his +head murmuring to himself, "_You too shall be king some day_," for the +skeleton was the bones of a king who had fought with his brother there +and been killed. + +[Illustration: YOU TOO SHALL BE KING SOME DAY.] + +When Arthur was crowned he plucked the nine gems out of the crown he had +found on the skeleton and showed them to his knights with the words: + +"These jewels belong to the whole kingdom for everybody's use and not to +the king. Hereafter there is to be joust for one of them every year and +in that way in nine years time we will learn who is the mightiest in the +kingdom and we will race with each other to become skilful in the use +of arms until at last we shall be able to drive away the heathen horde +from the land." + +Eight years had now passed and there had been eight jousts. Lancelot had +won the diamond every year and intended when he had been victorious in +all the jousts, to give the nine gems to the queen. When the ninth year +came Arthur proclaimed the tournament for the central and largest +diamond to be held at Camelot, where he was holding his court. But the +queen became ill as the time for the tour jousts drew near and he asked +her whether she was too feeble to go to see Lancelot in the lists. + +"Yes, my lord," replied Guinevere, "and you know it," and she looked up +languidly to Lancelot who stood near. + +Lancelot thinking that she would rather have him near while she was ill +than to receive all the diamonds of the crown, said: + +"Sir King, that old wound of mine is not quite healed so I can hardly +ride in my saddle." + +So the king went, excused Lancelot, and rode away alone to the lists +while Lancelot remained, but as soon as Arthur was gone the _queen told +Lancelot that he ought by all means go too and fight_. + +"But how can I go now," replied Lancelot, "after what I have said to the +king." + +"I will tell you what to do," said Guinevere. "Everybody says that men +go down before your spear just because of your great name. They are +afraid as soon as you appear and of course, they are conquered. Go in +today entirely unknown and win for yourself, then after all is over the +king will be pleased with you for being so clever." + +[Illustration: THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY ALL MEANS +FIGHT.] + +Lancelot quickly got his horse and leaving the beaten thoroughfare, +chose a green path among the downs to take him to the lists. It was a +new road to him however and he lost his way and did not know where to go +until at last he came upon a faintly traced pathway that led to the +castle of Astolat far away on a hill. He went thither, blew the horn at +the gate where a _dumb, wrinkled old man came to let him in_. In the +castle court he met the lord of Astolat with his two young sons, Sir +Torre and Sir Lavaine and behind them the lily maiden Elaine, Astolat's +daughter. They were jesting and laughing as they came. + +[Illustration: A WRINKLED OLD MAN CAME AND LET HIM IN.] + +"Where do you come from, my guest, and what is your name?" asked +Astolat. "By your state and presence I would guess you to be the chief +of Arthur's court, for I have seen him although the other knights of the +Round Table are strangers to me." + +Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight replied, "I am of Arthur's court and I +am known, and my shield which I have happened to bring with me, is known +too. But as I am going to joust for the diamond at Camelot as a +stranger do not ask me my name. After it is over you shall know me and +my shield. If you have some blank shield around, or one with a strange +device, pray lend it to me." + +"Here is Torre's," the Lord of Astolat replied. "He was hurt in his +first tilt and so his shield is blank enough, God knows. You can have +his." + +"Yes," added Sir Torre simply, "since I can't use it you may have it." + +His father laughed. "Fie, Churl, is that an answer for a noble knight? +You must pardon him, but Lavaine, my younger boy, is so full of life he +will ride in the lists, joust for the diamond, win and bring it in one +hour to set upon his sister's golden hair and make her three times as +wilful as before." + +"Oh, no, good father! don't shame me before this noble knight. It was +all a joke. Elaine dreamed that some one had put the diamond into her +hand and it was so slippery it dropped into a pool of water. Then I told +her that if I fought and won it for her she must keep it safer than +that. But it was all in fun. However, if you'll give me your leave, I'll +ride to Camelot with this noble knight. I shall not win but I'll do my +best to win." + +Lancelot smiled a moment. "If you'll give me the pleasure of your +company over the downs where I lost myself I'll be glad to have you as a +friend and guide. You shall win the diamond if you can and then give it +to your sister if you wish." + +"Such diamonds are for queens and not for simple little girls," said Sir +Torre. + +Elaine flushed at this and Lancelot said, "If beautiful things are for +beautiful people this maiden may wear as fine jewels as there are in the +world." + +Then the lily maid lifted her eyes and thought that Lancelot was the +greatest man that had ever lived. She loved his bruised and bronzed face +seamed across with an old sword-cut. + +They took the pet knight of Arthur's court into the rude hall of Astolat +where they entertained him with their best meats, wines and minstrel +melodies. They told him about the dumb old man at the gate, how ten +years ago he had warned Astolat of the heathen fighters coming, and how +they had all escaped to the woods and lived in a boatman's hut by the +river while the old man had been caught and had his tongue cut off. + +"Those were dull days," said the Lord of Astolat, "until Arthur came and +drove the heathen away." + +"O, great Lord!" cried Lavaine to Lancelot, "you fought in those +glorious wars with Arthur. Tell us about them!" + +So Lancelot told him all about the fight all day long at the white mouth +of the river Glenn, the four loud battles on the shore of Duglas where +the glorious king wore on his cuirass an emerald carved into Our Lady's +head. "On the mount of Badon," he said, "I saw him charge at the head of +all of his Round Table and break the heathen hosts. Afterward he stood +on a heap of the killed, all red, from his spurs to the plumes of his +helmet, with their blood, and he cried to me: 'They are broken! they are +broken!' In this heathen war the fire of God filled him, I never saw +anyone like him, there is no greater leader." + +"Except yourself," thought the lily maid Elaine. All through the night +she saw his dark, splendid face living before her eyes and early in the +morning she arose as if to bid goodbye to Lavaine, stole step after step +down the long tower stairs and passed out to the court where Lancelot +was smoothing the glossy shoulders of his horse. She drew nearer and +stood in the dewy light, studying his face as though it was a god. He +had never dreamed she was so beautiful. + +[Illustration: "FAIR LORD," SAID ELAINE.] + +"Fair lord," said Elaine, "I don't know your name but I believe it is +the noblest himself of them all. Will you wear a token of me at the +tournament today?" + +"No, pretty lady," said he, "for I've never worn a token of any woman in +the lists; as every one who knows me knows." + +"Then by wearing mine you'll be less likely to be found out this time." + +"That's true, my child, well, I'll wear it. Fetch it out to me. What is +it?" + +"A red sleeve bordered with pearls," replied Elaine, and she went in and +brought it out to him. + +Then he wound it round his helmet and said he had never before done so +much for any girl in the world. The blood sprang to Elaine's face as he +said that, and filled her with delight, although she grew all the paler +as Lavaine came out and handed Sir Torre's shield to Lancelot. Lancelot +gave his own shield to Elaine saying, "Do me this favor, child, keep my +shield for me until I come back." + +"It's a favor to me," she replied smiling, "I'll be your squire." + +"Come, Lily Maid," cried Lavaine, "you'll be a lily maid in earnest if +you don't get to bed and have some sleep," and he kissed her good-bye. + +Lancelot kissed her hand as they moved away. She watched them at the +gateway until their sparkling arms dipped below the downs, then climbed +up to her tower with the shield and there she studied it and mused over +it every day. + +Meanwhile Lancelot and Lavaine passed far over the long downs until they +reached an old hermit who lived in a white rock. Here they spent the +night. The next morning as they rode away Lancelot said, "Listen to me, +but keep what I say a secret, you're riding with Lancelot of the Lake." + +"The great Lancelot?" stammered Lavaine, catching his breath with +surprise. "There is only one other great man to see, and that is +Britain's king of kings, Arthur. And he's going to be at the tournament, +too." + +As soon as they reached the lists in the meadows by Camelot, Lancelot +pointed out the king who, as he sat in the peopled gallery was very easy +to recognize because of his five dragons. A golden dragon clung to his +crown, another writhed down his robe while two others in gilded carved +wood-work formed the arms of his chair. The canopy above him blazed with +the last big diamond. + +"You call me great," cried Lancelot, "I'm not great, there's the man." + +Lavaine gaped at Arthur as if he were something miraculous. Then the +trumpets blew. The two sides, those who held the lists and those who +attacked them, set their lances in rest, then struck their spurs, moved +out suddenly and shocked in the center of the field. The ground shook +and there was a low thunder of arms. Lancelot waited a little until he +saw which was the weaker side, then sprang into the fight with them. In +those days of his glory, whomever he struck he overthrew, whether they +were kings, dukes, earls, counts or barons. But that day in the field +some of his relatives were holding the lists who did not know him and +who could not bear the idea that any stranger knight should out do the +feats of their own Lancelot. + +"Who is this?" one of them asked, "Isn't it Lancelot?" + +"When has Lancelot ever worn a lady's token?" the others replied. + +"Who is it then?" they cried, furious to guard the name of Lancelot. +They pricked their steeds and moving all together bore down upon him +like a wild wave that upsets a ship. One spear lamed Lancelot's charger +and another pierced through Lancelot's side, snapped there and stuck. +Lavaine now did splendidly for he brought a famous old knight down by +Lancelot's side. Lancelot in the meantime rose to his feet in all his +agony and by a sort of miracle as it seemed to those who were on his +side, drove all his opponents back to the barrier. Then the trumpet blew +and proclaimed that the knight who wore the scarlet sleeve with pearls +was victor. + +"Go up and get your diamond," his men said to him. + +"Don't give me any diamonds," said Lancelot. "My prize is death, I'll +leave and don't follow." + +Then he vanished into the poplar grove where he told Lavaine to draw out +the lance head. + +"I'm afraid you'll die, if I do," cried Lavaine. + +"I'm dying now with it," said Lancelot, so Lavaine drew it out and +Lancelot gave a wonderful shriek and swooned away. + +Then the old hermit came out, carried him into the white rock and +stanched his wound. + +Immediately after he had left the field the men of his side went to the +king and said that the knight who had won the day had left without +receiving his prize. + +"Such a knight as that must not go uncared for," said the king. "Gawain, +ride out and find him and since he didn't come for his diamond we will +send it to him. Don't leave your quest until you have him." + +Gawain the courteous was a good young knight but he didn't like it that +he had to leave the banquet and the king's side to look for a stranger +knight, so he mounted his horse rather crossly. He rode all round the +country to every place except the right one, poplar grove, and at last +very late reached the Castle of Astolat. + +"What news from Camelot?" cried Elaine as soon as she saw him, "What +about the knight with the red sleeve?" + +"He won." + +"I knew it," she said. + +"But he left the jousts wounded in his side." + +Then Elaine almost swooned away. When the Lord of Astolat came out and +heard about Gawain's quest, "Stay with us, noble prince," said he. "For +the knight was here and left his shield with us, so he will certainly +come back or send for it. Besides my son is with him." + +Gawain thought he would have a pleasant time with Elaine so he stayed. +But Elaine rebelled against his pretty love-making and asked him why he +neglected the king's quest and why he didn't ask to see the knight's +shield. + +"I've lost my quest in the light of your blue eyes," said Gawain, "but +let me see the shield. Ah! the king was right!" he cried out when Elaine +showed it to him. "It was our Lancelot." + +"I was right too," Elaine said merrily, "for I dreamed that my knight +was the greatest of them all." + +"And suppose that I dreamed that you love this greatest knight?" +returned Gawain. + +"What do I know?" Elaine answered simply. "I don't know whether I know +what love is, but I do know that if I do not love him there isn't +another man whom I can love." + +"Yes, you love him well," said Gawain. "And I suppose you know just +where your greatest knight is hidden, so let me leave my quest with you. +If you love him it will be sweet to you to give him the diamond and if +he loves you it will be sweet to him to receive it from you, while even +if he doesn't love you, a diamond is always a diamond. Farewell a +thousand times. If he loves you I may see you at court after while." + +Then Gawain lightly kissed her hand as he laid the diamond in it, and, +wearied of his quest, leaped on his horse and carrolling a love-ballad +airily rode away to the court where it was soon buzzed abroad that a +maid of Astolat loved Lancelot and that Lancelot loved a maid of +Astolat. + +The maid meanwhile crept up to her father one day and received his leave +to take the diamond to Sir Lancelot. Sir Torre went with her to the +gates of Camelot where they saw Lavaine capering about on a horse. + +"Lavaine!" she cried, "how is it with my lord Sir Lancelot?" and she +told him about the diamond. Then Sir Torre went on into the city while +Lavaine guided Elaine to the hermit's cave. As she saw her handsome +knight on the floor, a sort of skeleton of himself, she gave a little +tender dolorous cry. + +"Your prize, the diamond, sent you by the king," said she, as she put it +into his hand and explained how she had received it from Gawain. Then he +kissed her as a father would kiss a dear little daughter and she went +back to the dim, rich city of Camelot for the night. But the next +morning she was back in the cave, and day after day she came, caring for +him more mildly, tenderly and kindly than any mother could with a child, +until at last the old hermit said she had nursed him back to life, then +all three rode back together one morning to Astolat where Lancelot asked +Elaine to tell him the dearest wish of her heart so that he could grant +it to her. Elaine turned as pale as a ghost when he first spoke but at +last one day she told him. She said she wanted him to love her, she +wanted to be his wife. + +"If I had chosen to wed," Lancelot replied, slowly, "I would have been +married long before this. But now I shall never marry, sweet Elaine." + +"No, no," cried Elaine, "it won't matter if I can't be your wife, if I +can only go with you always and go round the world with you and serve +you." + +But Lancelot said that would be a poor way for him to requite the love +and kindness her father and brothers had shown him. "Noble maid," he +went on, "this is only the first flash of love with you. After awhile +you will smile at yourself about it when you find a knight who is fitter +for you to marry and not three times older than you as I am, and then I +will give you broad lands and territories even to a half of my kingdom +across the seas and I'll always be ready to fight for you in your +troubles. I'll do this, dear girl, but more I cannot." + +"Of all this I care for nothing," Elaine said growing deathly pale and +falling in a swoon. + +That evening Lancelot sent for his shield from the tower where Elaine +sat with it, and as his horse's hoofs clattered off upon the stone of +the highway she looked down from her tower, but he did not glance back. + +After that Elaine dreamed her time sadly away in the tower and only +wished that she could die. She begged her father to send for the priest +to confess her and asked Lavaine to write a letter for her to Lancelot. +Then she arranged it that when she died the dumb old man at the gate was +to take her in the barge down the river to the king's palace. Eleven +days later this was done. Elaine was dressed like a little sleeping +queen and floated along the stream with her letter in one hand and a +lily in the other. + +That day Lancelot was with the queen and as he looked out of the +casement upon the river he saw the barge hung with rich black samite, +the dumb old man and the lily maid of Astolat gliding up to the palace +door. + +"What is it?" cried everybody streaming round. "A pale fairy queen come +to take Arthur to fairy land?" + +Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad carry her +reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came and wondered at her +and Lancelot came and mused over her, and the queen came and pitied her. +But King Arthur spied a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the +lords and ladies. It was Elaine's goodbye to Lancelot. + +[Illustration: A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND.] + +Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and how he had +promised to give her his lands and riches when she should be ready to +marry some knight of her own age. The king said that he should see that +she was buried very grandly. So they had a procession with all the pomp +of a queen, with gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all +the Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then they laid +the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her hand. + + + + +THE HOLY GRAIL. + + +One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. There was +something about him different from all the other monks there. He was so +polished and clever that old Ambrosious who had lived in the old +monastery for fifty years and had never seen a bit of the world guessed +in a minute that the new brother had come from King Arthur's court. And +one windy April morning as Ambrosious stood under the yew tree with this +gentle monk he asked him why he left the Knights of the Round Table. + +Then Sir Percival answered: + +"It was the sweet vision of the Holy Grail." + +[Illustration: "THE HOLY GRAIL," CRIED AMBROSIOUS.] + +"The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. "Heaven knows I don't know much, but +what is that, the phantom of a cup that comes and goes?" + +"No, no," said Percival, "what phantom do you mean? It's the cup that +our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and after he died Joseph of +Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at Christmas time, and there it +stayed a while and every one who looked at it or touched it was healed +of their sicknesses. But the times grew so wicked that the cup was +caught up into heaven where nobody could see it." + +"Yes, I remember reading in our old books," said Ambrosious, "how Joseph +built a lonely little church at Glastonbury on the marsh, but that was +long ago. Who first saw the vision of the Holy Grail to-day?" + +"A woman," said Sir Percival, "a nun, my sister who was a holy maid if +ever there was one. The old man to whom she used to tell her sins (or +what she called her sins), often spoke to her about the legend of the +Holy Grail which had been handed down through six people, each of them a +hundred years old, from the Lord's time. And when Arthur made the order +of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a time this +old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come back again. 'O Christ!' +he used to say to my sister, 'if only it would come back and help all +the world of its wickedness!' And then my sister asked him whether it +might come to her by prayer and fasting. + +"'Perhaps,' said the father, 'for your heart is as pure as snow.' + +"So she prayed and fasted until the sun shone and the wind blew through +her and one day she sent for me. Her eyes were so beautiful with the +light of holiness that I did not know them. + +"'Sweet Brother,' she said, 'I have seen the Holy Grail. I heard a sound +like a silver horn but sweeter than any music we can make, and then a +cold silver beam of light streamed in through my cell, and down the beam +stole the Holy Grail, rose red and throbbing as if it were alive. All +the walls of my cell grew rosy red with quivering rosy colors. Then the +music faded away, the Holy Grail vanished and the colors died out in +the darkness. So now we know the Holy Thing is here again, Brother fast, +too, and pray, and tell your brother-knights about it, then perhaps the +vision may be seen by you all, and the whole world will be healed.' + +[Illustration: MY KNIGHT OF HEAVEN, GO FORTH.] + +"So I told all the knights and we fasted and prayed for many weeks. Then +my sister cut off all her long streaming silken hair which used to fall +to her feet and out of it braided a strong sword belt and with silver +and crimson thread she wove into it a crimson grail in a silver beam. +Then she bound it on our beautiful boy knight, Sir Galahad, and said: + +"'My knight of heaven, go forth, for you shall see what I have seen and +far in the spiritual city you will be crowned king.' Then she sent the +deathless passion of her eyes through him and he believed what she said. + +"Then came a year of miracles. In our great hall there stood a chair +which Merlin had fashioned carved with strange figures like a serpent +and in and out among the strange figures ran a scroll of strange letters +in a language nobody knew like a serpent. Merlin called it the Seat +Perilous, because he said if any one sat in it he would get lost. And +Galahad said that if he got lost in it he would save himself. So one +summer night Sir Galahad sat down in the chair and all at once there was +a cracking of the roofs above us, and a blast and thunder, and in the +thunder there was a cry and in the blast there was a beam of light seven +times clearer than the daylight. Down the beam stole the Holy Grail all +covered over with a luminous cloud. Then it passed away but every knight +saw his brother knight's faces in a glory and we all rose and stared at +each other until at last I found my voice and swore a vow. + +"I swore that because I had not seen the Holy Grail behind the cloud I +would ride away a year and a day in quest of it until I could see it as +my sister saw it. Galahad swore too, and good Sir Bors, and Lancelot and +many others, knights, and Gawain louder than all the rest. + +"The king was not in the hall that day for he had gone out to help some +poor maiden, but as he came back over the plains beyond Camelot he saw +the roofs rolling in smoke and thought that his wonderfully dear, +beautiful hall which Merlin had built for him so wonderfully was afire. +So he rode fast and rushed into the tumult of knights and asked me what +it all meant. + +"'Woe is me!' cried the king when I told him. 'Had I been here you would +not have sworn the vows.' + +"'My king,' I answered boldly, had you been here you would have sworn +the vows yourself.' + +"'Yes, yes,' said he, 'are you so bold when you didn't see the Grail? +You didn't see farther than the cloud, and what can you expect to see +now if you go out into the wilderness?' + +"'No, no, Lord, I didn't see the Grail, I heard the sound, I saw the +light and since I didn't see the holy thing I swore the vow that I would +follow it until I did see.' + +"'Then he asked us, knight by knight, whether we had seen it and each +one said, 'No, no, Lord, that was why we swore our vows,' but suddenly +Galahad called out, 'But I saw the Holy Grail, Sir Arthur, and heard the +cry, "O Galahad, follow me."' + +"Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the king, 'the vision is for such as you +and for your holy nun but not for these. Are you all Galahads or all +Percivals? No, no, you are just men with the strength to right the +wrongs and violences of the land. But now since one has seen, all the +blind want to see. However, since you have made the vow, go. But oh, how +often the distressed people of the kingdom will come into the hall for +you to help them and all your chairs will be vacant while you are out +chasing a fire in the quagmire! Many of you, yes, most of you will never +come back again! But come to-morrow before you go, let us have one more +day of field sports so that before you go I can rejoice in the unbroken +strength of the Order I have made.' + +"So the next day there was the greatest tournament that Camelot had ever +seen, and Galahad and I, with a strength which we had received from the +vision, overthrew so many knights that all the people cheered hotly for +Sir Galahad and Sir Percival. The next morning all the rich balconies +along the streets of Camelot were laden with ladies and showers of +flowers fell over us as we passed out and men and boys astride lions and +dragons, griffins and swans at the street corners, called us all by name +and cried, 'God Speed!' while many lords and ladies wept. Then we came +down to the gate of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own +way. + +"I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought the sky +never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my blood danced within +me for I knew that I would see the Holy Grail. But after a while I +thought of the dark warning of the king. I looked about and saw that I +was quite alone in a sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of +thirst. Then I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees +overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and eating of the +apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and thirsty again in +among the sands and thorns. Next I saw a woman spinning beside a +beautiful house. She rose to greet me and stretched out her arms to +welcome me into her house to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell +to dust, and the house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and +then it fell to dust too. + +"Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was a walled city, +the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up to the sky, and at the +gateway there was a crowd of people who cried out to me: + +"Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men!" + +"But when I reached the top there was no one there. I passed through to +the ruined old city and found only one person a very, very old man. +'Where is the crowd who called out to me?' I asked him. + +"He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, 'Where are you from and who +are you?' and then fell to dust. + +[Illustration: NEXT I SAW A WOMAN SPINNING.] + +"Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I should see +the Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble into dust. From +there I passed down into a deep valley, as low down as the city was +high up, where I found a chapel with a hermit in a hermitage near by. I +told him about all these phantoms. + +"'You haven't true humility,' he said, 'which is the mother of all +virtue. You haven't lost yourself to find yourself as Galahad did.' + +"Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in silver armor. +He laid his lance beside the chapel door and we all went in and knelt in +prayer. Then my thirst was quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw +only the holy elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon +the shrine. + +"'The Holy Grail,' he said, 'has always been at my side ever since we +came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at night. In its +strength I have overcome evil customs wherever I have gone, and have +passed through Pagan lands and clashed with Pagan hordes and broken them +down everywhere. But the time is very near now when I shall go into the +spiritual city far away where some one will crown me king. Come with me +for you will see the Holy Grail in a vision when I go.' + +"At the close of the day I started away with him. We came to a hill +which only a man could climb, scarred all over with a hundred frozen +streams, and when we reached the top there was a wild storm. Galahad's +armor flashed and darkened again every instant with quick, thick +lightnings which struck the dead old tree trunks on every side until at +last they blazed into a fire. At the base was a great black swamp partly +whitened with bones of dead men. A chain of bridges lead across it to +the great sea, and Galahad crossed them, one after the other, but each +one burned away as soon as he had passed over so that I had to stay +behind. When he reached the great sea the Holy Grail hung over his head +in a brilliant cloud. Then a boat came swiftly by and when the sky +brightened again with the lightning I could see him floating away, +either in a boat with full sails or a winged creature which was flying, +I couldn't tell which. Above him hung the Holy Grail rosy red without +the cloud. I had seen the holy thing at last. When I saw Sir Galahad +again he looked like a silver star in the sky, and beyond the star was +the spiritual city with all her spires and gateways in a glory like one +pearl, no larger than a pearl. From the star a rosy red sparkle from the +Grail shot across to the city. But while I looked a flood of rain came +down in torrents, and how I ever came away I don't know, but anyway at +the dawn of the next day I had reached the little chapel again. There I +got my horse from the hermit and rode back to the gates of Camelot. + +"Just once I met one of the other knights. That was one night when the +full moon was rising and the pelican of Sir Bors' casque made a shadow +on it. I spurred on my horse, hailed him and we were both very glad to +see each other. + +"'Where is Sir Lancelot,' he asked. 'Have you seen him? Once he dashed +across me very madly, maddening his horse. When I asked him why he rode +so hotly on a holy quest he shouted, 'Don't keep me, I was a sluggard, +and now I'm going fast for there's a lion in the way.' Then he vanished. +When I saw how mad he was I felt very sad for I love him, and I cared no +more whether I saw the Holy Grail, or not; but I rode on until I came to +the loneliest parts of the country where some magicians told me I +followed a mocking fire. This vexed me and when the people saw that I +quarrelled with their priests they bound me and put me into a cell of +stones. I lay there for hours until one night a miracle happened. One +of the stones slipped away without any one touching it or any wind +blowing. Through the gap it made I saw the seven clear stars which we +have always called the stars of the Round Table and across the seven +stars the sweet Grail glided past. Close after a clap of thunder pealed. +Then a maiden came to me in secret and loosed me and let me go.' + +[Illustration: ACROSS THE SEVEN STARS THE SWEET GRAIL GLIDED PAST.] + +"Sir Bors and I rode along together and when we reached the city our +horses stumbled over heaps of ruined bits of houses that fell as they +trod along the streets. At last brought us to Arthur's hall. + +"As we came in we saw Arthur sitting on his throne with just a tenth of +the knights who had gone out on the quest of the Holy Grail standing +before him, wasted and worn, also the knights who had stayed at home. +When he saw me he rose and said he was glad to see me back, that he had +been worrying about me because of the fierce gale that had made havoc +through the town and shaken even the new strong hall and half wrenched +the statue Merlin made for him. + +"'But the quest,' the king went on, 'have you seen the cup that Joseph +brought long ago to Glastonbury?' + +"Then when I told him all that you have been hearing just now and how I +was going to give up the tournament and tilt and pass into the quiet of +the life of the monk, he answered not a word, but turning quickly to +Gawain asked, + +"'Gawain, was this quest for you?' + +"'No, Lord,' replied Gawain, 'not for such as I. I talked with a saintly +old man about that and he made me very sure that it wasn't for me. I was +very tired of it. But I found a silk pavilion in the field with a lot of +merry girls in it, then this gale tore it off from the tenting pin and +blew my merry maidens all about with a great deal of discomfort. If it +hadn't been for that storm my twelve months and a day would have passed +very pleasantly for me.' + +"Then Arthur turned to Sir Bors, who had pushed across the throng at +once to Lancelot's side, caught him by the hand and held it there half +hidden beside him until the king spied them. + +"'Hail, Bors, if ever a true and loyal man could see the Grail you have +seen it,' cried Arthur. + +"'Don't ask me about it,' replied Sir Bors with tears in his eyes 'I may +not speak about it; I saw it.' + +"The others spoke only about the perils of their storm, and then it was +Lancelot's turn. Perhaps Arthur kept his best for the last. + +"'My Lancelot,' said the king, 'our Strongest, has the quest availed for +you?' + +"'Our strongest, O King!' groaned Lancelot and as he paused I thought I +saw a dying fire of madness in his eyes. 'O King, my friend, a sin lived +in me that was so strange that everything pure, noble and knightly in me +twined and clung around it until the good and the poisonous in me grew +together, and when your knights swore to make the quest I swore only in +the hope that could I see or touch the Holy Grail they might be pulled +apart. Then I spoke to a holy saint who said that if they could not be +plucked apart my quest would be all in vain. So I vowed to him that I +would do just as he told me, and while I was out trying to tear them +away from each other my old madness came back to me and whipped me off +into waste fields far away. + +"There I was beaten down by little knights whom at one time I would have +frightened away just by the shadow of my spear. From there I rode over +to the sea-shore where such a blast of wind began to blow that you could +not hear the waves even although they were heaped up in mountains and +drove the sea like a cataract, while the sand on the beach swept by like +a river. A boat, half-swallowed by the seafoam, was moored to the shore +by a chain. I said to myself that I would embark in the boat and lose +myself and wash away my sin in the great sea. + +"For seven days I rode around over the dreary water and on the seventh +night I felt the boat striking ground. In front of me rose the enchanted +towers of Carbonek, a castle like a rock upon a rock, with portals open +to the sea and steps that met the waves. A lion sat on each side of +them. I went up the steps and drew my sword. Suddenly flaring their +manes the lions stood up like men and gripped me on my shoulders. When I +was about to strike them a voice said to me, 'Don't be afraid, or the +beasts will tear you to pieces; go on.' Then my sword was dashed +violently from my hand and fell. Up into the sounding hall I passed but +saw not a bench, table, picture, shield or anything else except the moon +over the sea through the oriel window, but I heard a sweet voice as +clear as a lark singing in the topmost tower to the east. I climbed up a +thousand steps with great pain. It seemed as though I was climbing +forever but at last I reached a door with light shining through the +crannies and I heard voices singing 'Glory and joy and honor to our Lord +and the Holy Vessel, the Grail.' + +"'Then I madly tried the door, it gave way and through a stormy glare of +heat that burned me and made me swoon away I thought I saw the Grail, +all veiled with crimson samite and around it great angels, awful shapes +and wings and eyes!' + +"The long hall was silent after Lancelot was done, until airy Gawain +began with a sudden. + +"'O King, my liege, my good friend Percival and your holy nun have +driven men mad. By my eyes and ears I swear I'll be deeper than a +blue-eyed cat and three times as blind as any owl at noon-time +hereafter to any holy virgins in their ecstasies.' + +"'Gawain,' replied the king, 'don't try to become blinder; you're too +blind now to want to see. If a sign really came from heaven Bors, +Lancelot and Percival are blessed for they have each seen according to +their sight.'" + + + + +PELLEAS AND ETTARRE. + + +When his knights went after the Holy Grail Arthur made many new knights +to fill the gaps made by their absence. As he sat in his hall one day at +old Caerleon the high doors were softly parted and through these in came +a youth, and with him the outer sunshine and the sweet scent of meadows. + +"Make me your knight, Sir King!" he cried, "because I know all about +everything that belongs to a knight and because I love a maiden." + +This youth was Sir Pelleas-of-the-Isles who had heard that the king had +proclaimed a great tournament at Caerleon with a sword for the victor +and a golden crown for the victor's sweetheart as the prize. He longed +to win them, the circlet for his lady love, the sword for himself. + +Just a few days before, while riding across the Forest of Dean to find +the king's palace hall at Caerleon, Pelleas had felt the sun beating on +his helmet so sharply that he reeled and almost fell from his horse. +Then, seeing a hillock near-by overgrown with stately beech trees and +flowers here and there beneath, he tied his horse to a tree, threw +himself down and was very soon lost in sweet dreams about a maiden, not +any particular maiden for he had no sweetheart at that time. + +But suddenly he was wakened with a sound of chatter and laughing at the +outskirts of the grove, and glancing through fern he saw a party of +young girls in many colors like the clouds at sunset, all of them riding +on richly dressed horses. They were all talking together in a +hodgepodge, some pointing this way, some that, for they had lost their +way. + +[Illustration: WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN.] + +Pelleas sprang up, loosed his horse and led him into the light. + +"Just in time!" cried the lady who seemed to be the leader of the party. +"See, our pilot-star! Youth, we are wandering damsels riding armed, as +you see, ready to tilt against the knights at Caerleon, but we've lost +our way. To the right? to the left? straight on? forward? backward? +which is it? tell us quickly." + +Pelleas gazed at her and wondered to himself whether the famous Queen +Guinevere herself was as beautiful as this maiden. For her violet eyes, +scornful eyes, were large and the bloom on her cheeks was like the rosy +dawn. Her beauty made Pelleas timid and when she spoke to him he could +not answer but only stammered, for he had come from far away waste +islands where besides his sisters, he had scarcely known any women but +the tough wives of the islands who made fish nets. + +With a slow smile the lady turned round to her companions the smile +spreading to them all. For she was Ettarre, a very great lady in her +land. + +"O, wild man of the woods," she cried, "don't you understand our +language, or has heaven given you a beautiful face and no tongue?" + +"Lady," he answered, "I just woke from my dreams, and coming out of the +gloomy woods I was dazzled by the sudden light, and beg your pardon. But +are you going to Caerleon? I'm going too. Shall I lead you to the king?" + +"Lead," said she. + +So through the woods they went together but his tender manner, his awe +of her and his bashfulness bothered her. "I've lighted on a fool," she +muttered to herself, "so raw and yet so stale!" + +But since she wished to be crowned the Queen of Beauty in the king's +tournament, and since Pelleas looked strong she thought perhaps he would +fight for her, so she flattered him and was very pleasant and kind. Her +three knights and maidens were kind to him too, for she was a very +great lady and they had to do as she did. When they reached Caerleon +before she passed on to her lodgings she took Pelleas by the hand and +said: + +[Illustration: SHE TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND.] + +"O, how strong your hand is! See; look at my poor little weak one! Will +you fight for me and win me the crown, Pelleas, so that I may love you?" + +Pelleas' heart danced. "Yes! Yes!" he cried, "and will you love me if I +win?" + +"Yes, that I will," answered Ettarre laughing and flinging away his hand +as she peeped round to her knights and ladies until they all laughed +with her. + +"O what a happy world!" thought glad Pelleas, "everybody seems happy and +I am the happiest of all." + +He couldn't sleep that night for joy and on the next day when he was +knighted he swore to love one maiden only. As he came away from the +king's hall the men who met him all turned around to look at his face, +for it flamed with happiness, and at the great banquets which Arthur +gave to knights from all parts of the country Pelleas looked the noblest +of the noble. For he dreamed that his lady loved him and he knew that he +was loved by the king. + +On the morning when the jousts began the first that was called was the +tournament of youth. Arthur wanted to keep the older, stronger men out +of it so that young Pelleas might win his lady's love as she had +promised, and be lord of the tourney. Down by the field along the river +Usk where it was held the gilded parapets were crowned with faces and +the great tower filled with eyes up to its top. Then the trumpets blew +for the tournament to begin. + +All day long Sir Pelleas held the field. At the close a shout rang round +the galleries as Ettarre caught the gold crown from his lance and +crowned herself before all the people. Her eyes sparkled as she looked +at him, but that was the last time she was kind to her knight. + +She lingered a few days at Caerleon, sunny to all the other people but +always frowning at him. + +Still when she left for home with her knights and maidens Sir Pelleas +followed. + +"Damsels," cried she as she saw him coming, "I ought to be ashamed to +say it and yet I can't bear that Sir Baby. Keep him back with +yourselves. I'd rather have some rough old knight who knows the ways of +the world to chatter and joke with; so don't let him come near me. +Tell him all sorts of baby fables that good mothers tell their little +boys, and if he runs off for us--it doesn't matter." + +[Illustration: ETTARRE CROWNED HERSELF BEFORE ALL THE PEOPLE.] + +So the young women didn't let him go near Ettarre but made him stay with +them, and as soon as they had all passed into Ettarre's castle gate up +sprang the drawbridge, down rang the iron grating, and Sir Pelleas was +left outside all alone. + +"These are only the ways of ladies with their lovers when the ladies +want to find out whether the lovers are true or not. Well, she can try +me with anything, I'll be true through all." + +So he stayed there until dark, then went to a priory not far off and the +next morning came back. Every day he did the same whether it rained or +shone, armed on his charger, and stayed all the day beneath the walls, +although nobody opened the gate for him. + +This made Ettarre's scorn turn to anger. She told her three knights to +go out and drive him away. But when they came out Pelleas overthrew them +all as they dashed upon him one after the other. So they went back +inside and he kept his watch as before. This turned Ettarre's anger into +hate. As she walked on top of the walls with her three knights about a +week later she pointed down to Pelleas and said: + +"He haunts me, look, he besieges me! I can't breathe. Strike him down, +put my hate into your blows and drive him away from my walls." + +So down they went but Pelleas overthrew them all again so Ettarre called +down from the tower above, "Bind him and bring him in." + +Pelleas heard her say this so he did not resist, but let the men bind +him and take him into his lady love. "See me, Lady," he said cheerily, +"your prisoner, and if you keep me in your dungeon here I'll be quite +content if you'll just let me see your face every day. For I've sworn my +vows and you've given me your promise and I know that when you've done +proving me you will give me your love and have me for your knight." + +But she made fun of his vows and told her knights to put him outside +again and "if he isn't a fool to the middle of his bones," said she, +"he'll never come back." Then the three knights laughed and thrust him +out of the gates. + +But a week later Ettarre called them again, "He's watching there yet. He +comes just like a dog that's been kicked out of his master's door. Don't +you hate him? Go after him, all of you at once, and if you don't kill +him bind him as you did before and bring him in." + +So the three knights couched their spears all together, three against +one, ready to dash upon Pelleas, low down beneath the shadow of the +towers. + +Gawain passing by on a lonely adventure saw them. + +"The villains!" he shouted to Pelleas, "I'll strike for you!" + +"No," cried Pelleas, "when one's doing a lady's will one doesn't need +any help." + +Gawain stood by quivering to fight while the three knights sprang down +upon Pelleas, but Pelleas all alone beat the three of them together. +Then they rose to their feet, and he stood still while they bound him +and took him into their lady. + +"You're scarcely fit to touch your victor, you dogs!" she cried to her +men, "far less bind him; but take him out as he is and let whoever wants +to untie him. Then if he comes again--" + +She paused just a minute and Pelleas broke in at once with, "Lady, I +loved you and thought you very beautiful, but if you don't love me +don't trouble yourself about it; you won't see me again." + +As soon as Pelleas was put outside the gate Gawain sprang forward, +loosed his bonds, flung them over the walls and cried out: + +"My faith, and why did you let those wretches tie you up so when you +were victor of all the jousts?" + +"O," said Pelleas, "they were just obeying the wishes of my lady, and +her wishes are mine." + +Gawain laughed. "Lend me your horse and armor," he said, "and I'll tell +her I've killed you. Then she'll let me in just to hear all about it and +when I've made her listen I'll tell her all about you, what a great and +good fellow you are. Give me three days to melt her and on the third +evening I'll bring you golden news." + +"Don't betray me," cried Pelleas, as he handed over his horse and all +his weapons except his sword. "Aren't you the knight they call +'Light-of-love?'" + +"That is just because women are so light," Gawain rejoined, laughing. + +Then he rode up to the castle gate, and blew the bugle so musically that +all the hidden echoes in the walls rang out. + +"Away with you!" cried Ettarre's maidens, running up to the tower +window. "Our lady doesn't love you." + +"I'm Gawain from Arthur's court," cried Gawain, lifting his vizor so +that they could see his face. "I've killed Pelleas whom you hate so. +Open the gates and I'll make you merry with my story." + +The ladies ran down crying out to Ettarre, "Pelleas is dead! Sir Gawain +of Arthur's court has killed him and is blowing the bugle to come in to +tell us." + +"Let him in," said Ettarre. + +Then they opened the gates and Gawain rode inside. + +For three days Pelleas wandered all about, doing nothing but thinking of +Gawain and Ettarre, and on the third night, when Gawain did not come, he +wondered why Gawain lingered with his golden news. At last he rode up to +Ettarre's castle, tied his horse outside and walked in through the wide +open gates. The court he found all dark and empty, not a light +glimmering from anywhere, so he passed out by the back gate, into the +large gardens beyond of red and white roses, where he saw three +pavilions. In one he found the three knights with their squires, all red +with revelling, and all asleep, in the second he saw the girls with +their scornful smiles frozen stiff in slumber, and in the third lay +Gawain with Ettarre, the golden crown he had won for her at the joust on +her forehead, both sleeping. + +Pelleas drew back as if he had touched a snake. + +"I'll kill them just as they lie," he cried in a passion. "O! to think +that any knight could be so false!" + +But he was too manly to kill anyone in sleep, so he just laid his sword +across their throats and passed out to his horse, crushed his saddle +with his thighs, clenched his hands together and groaned. + +"I loathe her now just as much as I loved her!" he cried, and dashing +his spurs into his horse he bounded out into the darkness and never came +back. + +Meanwhile Ettarre, feeling the cold sword on her neck, awoke. + +"Liar!" she cried to Gawain, as she saw that it was the sword of +Pelleas, "you haven't killed Pelleas, for he's been here and could have +killed us both just now." + +And ever after that, as those who tell the story say, the proud and +scornful Ettarre sighed for Pelleas, the one true knight in the world, +her only faithful lover, and at last pined away because he never came +back. + + + + +THE LAST TOURNAMENT. + + +One day while King Arthur and Sir Lancelot were riding far, far beneath +a winding wall of rock they heard the wail of a child. + +A half-dead oak tree climbed up the sides of the rock and up in mid-air +it held an eagle's nest. Through its branches rushed a rainy wind and +through the wind came the voice of a little child. Lancelot sprang up +the crag and from the nest at the tree-top he brought down a baby girl. +Round her neck was twined a necklace of rubies, wound round and round +three times. + +Arthur took the baby and gave it to Queen Guinevere, who soon loved it +very tenderly and named her "Nestling." But Nestling had caught a +terrible cold in her strange little home in the wild eagle's nest and +died. And after that whenever the Queen looked at the ruby necklace it +made her very sad so she gave it to Arthur and said: + +"Take these jewels of our Dead Innocence and make them a prize at a +tournament." + +"Just as you wish," cried the King, "but why don't you wear the diamonds +that I found for you in the tarn, which Lancelot won for you at the +jousts?" + +"Don't you know that they slipped out of my hands the very day that he +gave them to me, while I was leaning out of the window to see Elaine in +the barge on the river? But these rubies will bring better luck than +that to the lady who gets them, for they didn't come from a dead king's +skeleton, but from the body of a sweet baby girl. Perhaps, who knows, +the purest of your knights will win them at the jousts for the purest of +my ladies." + +So the great jousts were proclaimed with trumpets that blew all along +the streets of Camelot and out across the faded fields to the farthest +towers, and everywhere the knights armed themselves for a day of glory +before the king. + +But just the day before they were to be held, as King Arthur sat in his +great hall, a churl staggered in through the door; his face was all +striped with the lashes of a dog whip, his nose was broken, one eye was +out, a hand was off and the other hand dangled at his side with +shattered fingers. + +"My poor Churl," cried the king, full of indignant pity, "what beast or +fiend has been after you? Or was it a man who hurt you so?" + +"He took them all away," sputtered the churl, "a hundred good ones. It +was the Red Knight. He--Lord, I was tending sheep, my pigs, a hundred +good ones, and he drove them all off to his tower. And when I said that +you were always kind to poor churls like me as well as gentle lords and +ladies, he made for me and would have killed me outright if he didn't +want me to bring you message and made me swear that I would tell you. + +"He said, 'Tell the king that I have made a Round Table of my own in the +North, and that whatever his knights swear not to do mine swear that +they will do; and tell him his hour has come, and that the heathen are +after him, and that his long lance is broken, and that his sword +Excalibur is a straw.'" + +Then Arthur turned to Sir Kay the Seneschal and said: "Take this churl +of mine and tend him very carefully as if he were the son of a king +until all his hurts are healed," and as Sir Kay left the hall with the +churl the king went on to Lancelot: "The heathen have been quiet for a +long, long time, but now they are rising again in the North, and I will +go with my younger knights to put them down, so as to make the whole +island safe from one shore to the other. And while I go away, you, Sir +Lancelot, will sit in my chair to-morrow at the tournament and be the +judge there of the field. For why should you anyway care to go in again +yourself, when you've already won the nine diamonds for the queen?" + +"Very well," replied Lancelot, "if you wish, although it would be better +if you would let me go off with the younger knights and you stay here +with the others and watch the tournament. But, if not, all is well?" + +"Is all really well?" cried the king, "or have I just dreamed that our +knights are not quite so true and manly as they used to be and that my +noble realm which has been built up by noble deeds and noble vows is +going to fall back into beastly roughness and violence again?" + +He gathered all the younger Knights of the Round Table together and +started away with them down the hilly streets of Camelot, and at the +gateway turned sharply North. + +The next morning, the day of the Tournament, the Tournament of the Dead +Innocence they called it, a wet wind blew. But the streets were hung +with white samite, the fountains were filled with wine, and round each +fountain twelve little girls, all dressed in purest white sat with the +cups of gold and gave drinks to all that passed. The stately galleries +were filled with white-robed ladies. Lancelot mounted the steps to the +king's dragon-carved chair, the trumpets blew and the jousts began. + +[Illustration: TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED.] + +But Lancelot did not think of the sport before him, he was dreaming over +and over again the words of the king about the kingdom, and many rules +of the tournament were broken, and he didn't say a word. Once one of the +knights, who was overthrown cursed the little baby girl, the dead +innocence, and the king, and once one of the knight's helmets became +unlaced and the wicked face of Modred peeped through like a vermin, but +Lancelot didn't see. + +After a while a roar of welcome shouted all round the galleries and +lists as a new knight came in dressed from his head to his feet in green +armor all trimmed with tiny silver deer, with holly berries on his +helmet crest. It was Sir Tristram of the Woods who had just crossed over +the seas from Brittany. Lancelot had fought with him long ago and +conquered him, and now he saw him and longed to fight him again. As +many, many knights of the Round Table fell down before the new knight +Lancelot gripped the golden dragons on each side of his throne to keep +himself in his seat, and groaned with passion. "Craven crests! oh, +shame!" he muttered, "the glory of the Round Table is gone." + +So Tristram won the jousts and Sir Lancelot gave him the jewels. + +"The hands with which you take these rubies are red," he said as he put +the necklace in Tristram's hands. + +Then the thick rain began to fall, the plumes on the helmets of the +knights drooped and the dresses of the ladies were mussed. When they +went inside to feast the ladies took off their pure white gowns and +robed themselves in all the colors of the rainbow and field flowers, +like poppies, blue-bells, kingcups, and one said she was glad the time +to wear the pure innocent simple white was over. They grew so loud in +their frolics that at last the queen, who was angry that Sir Tristram +had won the prize and angry with the lawless youths, broke up the +banquet. + +The next morning as Sir Tristram stood before the hall little Dagonet, +the fool, came dancing along and Sir Tristram threw his rubies round +the little fool's neck as he skipped about like a withered leaf, asking +him why he danced. + +"It's stupid to dance without music," Tristram said, and picked up his +harp and began to twangle a tune on it; but as soon as Sir Tristram +began to play Dagonet stopped his dance. "And why don't you go on +skipping, Sir Fool?" asked Tristram. + +"Because I'd rather skip twenty years to the music of my little brain +than skip a minute to the broken music you make." + +"And what music have I broken?" cried Sir Tristram. "Arthur the King's +music," cried little Dagonet, skipping again and again as Sir Tristram +ceased. Then down the city he danced all the way, while Sir Tristram +passed out into the lonely avenues of the forests. He rode on toward +Lyonesse and the West, thinking of Isolt, the White, whom he loved, and +how he would put the rubies round her neck. + +[Illustration: LITTLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN AND AGAIN.] + +Arthur, meanwhile, with his hundred spearmen had gone far, far away, +until at last over the countless reeds of marshes and islands he saw a +huge tower glaring in the wide-winged sunset of the West. As he drew +near he saw that the tower doors stood open and heard roars of rioting +and wicked songs of ruffian men and women. + +"Look," cried one of his knights, for there high on a grim dead tree +before the tower, a brother of the Round Table was swinging by his neck, +his shield flowing with a shower of blood on a branch near by. + +All the knights wanted to dash forward and blow the great horn that hung +beside the gate, but Arthur waved them back and went himself. He blew so +hard that the horn roared until all the grasses of the marshes flared +up, and out of the castle gate sallied a knight dressed from tip to toe +in blood-red arms, the Red Knight. + +"Aren't you the king?" he bellowed, "the king that keeps us all with +such strict vows that we can't have any pleasures, a milky-hearted king? +Look to your life now!" + +Arthur scorned to speak to so vile a man or to fight him with his sword. +He simply let the drunkard, stretching out from his horse to strike, +fall head-heavy, over from the castle causeway to the swamp below. + +Then all the Round Table Knights roared and shouted, leaped down on the +fallen man, trampled out his face in the mire, sank his head so that it +could not be seen, and, still shouting, sprang through the open doors +among the people within. They hurled their swords right and left on men +and women, hurled over the tables and the wines and slew and slew until +all the rafters rang with yells and all the pavements streamed with +blood. Then they set the tower all afire and half the night through it +flushed the long low meadows and marshlands and lazily plunging sea with +its flames. That was how Arthur made the ways of the island safe from +one shore to the other. + +Sir Tristram, not many nights after, reached Tintagil, where Isolt, the +White, lived in a crown of towers, where she now sat with the low +sea-sunset glorying her hair and glossy throat, thinking of him and of +Mark, her Cornish lord. + +When Tristram's footsteps came grinding up the tower steps she flushed, +started out to meet him and threw her white arms about him. + +"Not Mark, not Mark!" she cried. "At first your footsteps fluttered me, +for Mark steals into his own castle like a cat." + +"No, it's I," said Sir Tristram, "and don't think about your Mark any +more, for he isn't yours any longer." + +"But listen," she cried, "to-day he went away for a three days' hunt, he +said, and that means that he may be back in an hour for that's his way. +My God, my hate for him is as strong as my love for you. Let me tell you +how I sat here one evening thinking of you, one black midsummer night, +all alone, dreaming of you, and sometimes speaking your name aloud, when +suddenly there Mark stood behind me, for that's his way to steal behind +one in the dark. + +"'Tristram has married her!' he hissed out and then this tower shook +with such a roar that I swooned away." + +"Come," cried Sir Tristram, laughing, "never mind, I'm hungry, give me +some meat and wine." + +So they ate and drank, talked and laughed about Mark with his long +crane-like legs, and Sir Tristram took a harp and sang a song. Then +while the last light of the day glimmered away he swung the ruby +necklace before Isolt. + +"It's the fruit of a magical oak-tree that grew mid air," he cried, "and +was won by Sir Tristram as a tourney prize to bring to you." + +Flinging the rubies round her neck he had just touched her jeweled +throat with his lips when behind him rose a shadow and a shriek. + +"Mark's way!" cried Mark, the Cornish king, and he clove Tristram +through the brain. + + * * * * * + +That very night Arthur came back from the North, and as he climbed up +the tower steps to go to the queen, in the dark of the tower something +pulled at him. It was little Dagonet. + +"Who are you?" said the king. + +"I'm little Dagonet, your fool," sobbed the little jester, "and I cry +because I can never make you laugh again." + + + + +THE PASSING OF ARTHUR. + + +One night King Arthur saw Sir Gawain in a dream, and Gawain, who had +been killed, shrilly called out to him through the wind: + +"Hail King! to-morrow you are going to pass away, and there's a land of +rest for you. Farewell!" + +But when Arthur told his dream to Sir Bedivere, good old Sir Bedivere +replied, "Don't mind what dreams tell you, but get your knights together +and go out to the West to meet Sir Modred, who has stirred up against +you so many of the knights you love. They all know in their hearts that +you are king. Go and conquer them as of old." + +So the king took his army by night and pushed upon Modred league after +league, until they reached the Western part of Lyonesse where the long +mountains ended in the moaning sea. There Modred's men could flee no +farther, so on the waste lands by the barren sea they began that last +dim weird battle of the West. + +A white chill mist slept over all the land and water so that even Arthur +became confused since he could not see which were his friends and which +were his foes. Friends killed friends, some saw the faces of old ghosts +looking in upon the battle. Spears were splintered, shields were broken, +swords clashed, helmets were shattered, men shrieked and looked up to +heaven for help but saw only the white, white mists. There were cries +for light and moans. + +At last toward the close of the day a hush fell over the whole shore; a +bitter wind from the North blew the mist aside and the pale king looked +across the battlefield. But no one was there only the waves breaking in +among the dead faces. + +But bold Bedivere said: "My King! the man who hates you stands there, +Modred, the traitor of your house!" + +"Don't call this traitor a person of my house," the king replied. "The +men of my house are not those who have lived under one roof with me, but +those who always call me their king." + +With that, Arthur dashed after Modred. Modred struck at the king's +helmet, which had grown thin with all his heathen wars. Arthur with his +sword Excalibur struck Modred dead, then fell down himself almost killed +with the wound through his helmet. + +Sir Bedivere lifted him up and carried him to a chapel near by. + +"Take my sword, Excalibur," said the King, "and fling it out into the +middle of the sea, watch what happens to it and then come back at once +and tell me." + +"It doesn't seem right to leave you all alone here," said Sir Bedivere, +"when you are wounded and ill, but since you wish me to go, I will, and +will do all that you have told me." + +He slipped away by zigzag paths, points and jutting rock to the shining +level of the sea. There he drew out the sword Excalibur. The winter moon +sparkled against its hilt and made it twinkle with its diamond sparks, +with myriads of topaz lights and fine jewelry work. Bedivere gazed so +long at it that both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, and he wondered +whether he ought to throw away so beautiful a thing. At last he decided +to hide it away among the water-flags that grew along shore. + +"Did you do as I said?" asked the king, when he saw him. "What did you +see?" + +"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds," said Sir Bedivere, "and the +wild water lapping on the rock." + +"You are not giving me a true answer," said the king, faint and pale. +"It's shameful for men to lie. Quickly go again and as you are true and +dear, do just as I bade you. Watch and bring me word." + +Then Sir Bedivere went the second time and paced up and down beside the +pebbly water, counting the dewey pebbles, but when he saw the wonderful +sword he clapped his hands together and cried: + +"If I threw that sword away, a precious thing will be lost forever. The +King is ill; he does not know what he is doing. His great sword ought to +be kept, then in long years hereafter people will look at it at the +tournament and they will say: 'This was the great Arthur's sword +Excalibur which was made by the lonely lady of the Lake, working in the +deep sea for nine years.'" + +So the second time he hid Excalibur and strode very slowly back to the +king. + +"What did you see or what did you hear?" asked Arthur breathing very +heavily. + +"I heard the water lapping on the rock and the long ripples washing in +the reeds." + +"Unkind! miserable! untrue! unknightly!" cried Arthur, filled with +anger. "I see what you are, for you are the only one left me of all the +knights, yet you would betray me for my sword, either to sell it or like +a girl, because you love its beauty. Go out now the third time and if +you do not throw out my sword Excalibur I'll get up and kill you with my +hands." + +At this Sir Bedivere sprang up like a flash and ran down leaping lightly +over the ridges, plunged into the beds of bulrushes, clutched the sword, +wheeled it round strongly and threw it as far as he could. + +Excalibur made lightning in the moonlight as it flashed round and round +and whirled in an arch, shooting far out to the water. But before it +quite dipped into the sea an arm robed in white samite, mystic and +wonderful, rose out of the waves, caught it by the hilt, brandished it +three times and drew it under. + +"Now I can see by your eyes that you have done it!" cried the King. +"Speak out; what have you seen or heard?" + +"Sir King," cried Sir Bedivere, "I closed my eyes when I picked it up so +that I would not be turned from my purpose of throwing it into the +water, for I could live three lives, Sir King, and I wouldn't again see +such a wonderful thing as your sword. Sir, I threw it out with both +hands, wheeling it round and when I looked an arm robed in white samite +reached up out of the water and caught it by the hilt, brandished it +three times and drew it under." + +"Carry me to the shore," said the king. + +[Illustration: AN ARM ROBED IN WHITE SAMITE.] + +So Bedivere lifted him up and walked as swiftly as he could from the +ridge, heavily, heavily down to the beach. As they reached the shore +they saw a black barge beside the water filled with stately people all +dressed in black. Among the people were three queens wearing crowns of +gold. + +"Put me into the barge," cried Arthur. + +So they came to the barge and the three queens held out their hands and +took the king. + +The tallest and fairest of them held his head upon her lap loosed his +shattered helmet and chafed his hands, and moaned tenderly over him. + +"Ah, my lord Arthur," cried Sir Bedivere, "where shall I go now? For +the old times are past now and the whole Round Table is broken." + +"Go and pray," cried the king. "Farewell, for I am going a very long way +to the lovely Island-valley of Avilion where it will never hail nor rain +nor snow, and where the loud winds never blow. It lies in deep meadows, +beautiful with lawns and fruit trees and flowery glens." + +Then the barge set sail and oar, and moved away from the shore. + +"The king is gone!" groaned Bedivere. + +He walked away from the shore and climbed up to the highest peaks and +ridges about him and looked far, far away. And from far away out beyond +the world he thought he heard sounds from a beautiful city as if every +one in it all together were welcoming a great King who had just come +back from his wars. + +END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + +Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. +There are inconsistencies with italicising text that refers to +illustrations. I have left these as in the original text. + + Corrections made include the following: + p34. ecstacy => ecstasy + p37. meaintime => meantime + p52. magnificientn => magnificent + p66. Springly => Springing + p75. Geriant => Geraint + p90. jealously => jealousy + p100. though => through + p101. passed => past + p101. musn't => mustn't + p106. heathern => heathen + p106. Gunievere => Guinevere + p117. to => that + p146. Mordred => Modred + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Tennyson, by Molly K. 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