"
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.
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.
Tennyson
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.
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.
