CHAPTER XIV
Sir Lancelot attacked by Sir Agravaine, Sir Modred, and thirteen other Knights -- He slays them all but Sir Modred -- He leaves the Court -- Sir Modred accuses him to the King -- The Queen condemned to be burnt -- Her rescue by Sir Lancelot and flight with him -- The War between Sir Lancelot and the King -- The Enmity of Sir Gawain -- The Usurpation of Sir Modred -- The Queen retires to a Nunnery -- Sir Lancelot goes on Pilgrimage -- The Battle of Barham Downs -- Sir Bedivere and the Sword Excali-
bur -- The Death of King Arthur
ILLUSTRATOR'S NOTE
f scenes from the Legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table many lovely pictures have been painted, showing much diversity of figures and surroundings, some being definitely sixth-century British or Saxon, as in Blair Leighton's fine paint-ing of the dead Elaine; others--for example, Watts' Sir Galahad--show knight and charger in fifteenth-century armour; while the warriors of Burne Jones wear strangely impracticable armour of some mystic period. Each of these painters was free to follow his
own conception, putting the figures into whatever period most appealed to his imagination; for he was not illustrating the actual tales written by Sir Thomas Malory, otherwise he would have found himself face to face with a difficulty.
King Arthur and his knights fought, endured, and toiled in the sixth century, when the Saxons were overrunning Britain; but their
achievements were not chronicled by Sir Thomas Malory until late in the fifteenth century.
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Sir Thomas, as Froissart has done before him, described the habits of life, the dresses, weapons, and armour that his own eyes looked upon in the every-day scenes about him, regardless of the fact that almost every detail mentioned was something like a thousand years too late.
Had Malory undertaken an account of the landing of Julius Caesar he would, as a matter of course, have protected the Roman legions with bascinet or salade, breastplate, pauldron and palette, coudiere, taces and the rest, and have armed them with lance and shield, jewel-hilted sword and slim misericorde; while the Emperor himself might have been given the very suit of armour stripped from the Duke of Clarence before his fateful encounter with the butt of malmsey.
Did not even Shakespeare calmly give cannon to the Romans and suppose every continental city to lie majestically beside the sea? By the old writers, accuracy in these matters was disregarded, and anachronisms were not so much tolerated as unperceived.
In illustrating this edition of "The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights," it has seemed best, and indeed unavoidable if the text and the pictures are to tally, to draw what Malory describes, to place the fashion of the costumes and armour somewhere about A.D.
1460, and to arm the knights in accordance with the Tabard Period. LANCELOT SPEED.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Marriage of King Arthur
Then fell Sir Ector down upon his knees upon the ground before young Arthur, and Sir Key also with him. The Lady of the Lake
The giant sat at supper, gnawing on a limb of a man, and baking his huge frame by the fire The castle rocked and rove throughout, and all the walls fell crashed and breaking to the earth Came forth twelve fair damsels, and saluted King Arthur by his name
Prianius was christened, and made a duke and knight of the Round Table
Sir Lancelot smote down with one spear five knights, and brake the backs of four, and cast down the King of Northgales
Beyond the chapel, he met a fair damsel, who said, "Sir Lancelot, leave that sword behind thee, or thou diest" "Lady," replied Sir Beaumains, "a knight is little worth who may not bear with a damsel"
So he rode into the hall and alighted
Then they began the battle, and tilted at their hardest against each other
And running to her chamber, she sought in her casket for the piece of iron ... and fitted it in Tristram's sword
By the time they had finished drinking they loved each other so well that their love never more might leave them
Waving her hands and muttering the charm, and presently enclosed him fast within the tree
Galahad ... quickly lifted up the stone, and forthwith came out a foul smoke
"This girdle, lords," said she, "is made for the most part of mine own hair, which, while I was yet in the world, I loved full well" At last the strange knight smote him to the earth, and gave him such a buffet on the helm as wellnigh killed him
Then was Sir Lancelot sent for, and the letter read aloud by a clerk
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But still the knights cried mightily without the door, "Traitor, come forth!" THE LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR
CHAPTER I
The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of Arthur
ing Vortigern the usurper sat upon his throne in London, when, suddenly, upon a certain day, ran in a breathless messenger, and cried aloud--
"Arise, Lord King, for the enemy is come; even Ambrosius and Uther, upon whose throne thou sittest--and full twenty thousand with them--and they have sworn by a great oath, Lord, to slay thee, ere this year be done; and even now they march towards thee as the north wind of winter for bitterness and haste."
At those words Vortigern's face grew white as ashes, and, rising in confusion and disorder, he sent for all the best artificers and craftsmen and mechanics, and commanded them vehemently to go and build him straightway in the furthest west of his lands a great and strong castle, where he might fly for refuge and escape the vengeance of his master's sons--"and, moreover," cried he, "let the work be done within a hundred days from now, or I will surely spare no life amongst you all."
Then all the host of craftsmen, fearing for their lives, found out a proper site whereon to build the tower, and eagerly began to lay in the foundations. But no sooner were the walls raised up above the ground than all their work was overwhelmed and broken down by night invisibly, no man perceiving how, or by whom, or what. And the same thing happening again, and yet again, all the workmen, full of terror, sought out the king, and threw themselves upon their faces before him, beseeching him to interfere and help them or to deliver them from their dreadful work.
Filled with mixed rage and fear, the king called for the astrologers and wizards, and took counsel with them what these things might be, and how to overcome them. The wizards worked their spells and incantations, and in the end declared that nothing but the blood of a youth born without mortal father, smeared on the foundations of the castle, could avail to make it stand. Messengers were therefore sent forthwith through all the land to find, if it were possible, such a child. And, as some of them went down a certain village street, they saw a band of lads fighting and quarrelling, and heard them shout at one--"Avaunt, thou imp!--avaunt! Son of no mortal man! go, find thy father, and leave us in peace."
At that the messengers looked steadfastly on the lad, and asked who he was. One said his name was Merlin; another, that his birth and parentage were known by no man; a third, that the foul fiend alone was his father. Hearing the things, the officers seized Merlin, and carried him before the king by force.
But no sooner was he brought to him than he asked in a loud voice, for what cause he was thus dragged there?
"My magicians," answered Vortigern, "told me to seek out a man that had no human father, and to sprinkle my castle with his blood, that it may stand."
"Order those magicians," said Merlin, "to come before me, and I will convict them of a lie."
The king was astonished at his words, but commanded the magicians to come and sit down before Merlin, who cried to them-- "Because ye know not what it is that hinders the foundation of the castle, ye have advised my blood for a cement to it, as if that
would avail;