“You have not dealt truly with me,” said the King. “Go back, and do my command; spare not, but throw it in.” But again Sir Bedivere’s heart failed him, and he hid the sword, and returned to tell the King he had seen nothing but thewanwater.
“Ah, traitor!” cried King Arthur, “this is twice you have betrayed me. If you do not now fulfil my bidding, with mine own hands will I slay you, for you would gladly see me dead for the sake of my sword.” Then Sir Bedivere was shamed at having disobeyed the King, and drew forth the sword from its hiding-place, and carried it to the water-side, and with a mighty swing threw it far into the water. And as it flew through the air, an arm and hand lifted itself out of the water, and caught the hilt, and brandished the sword thrice, and vanished with it beneath the water. So Sir Bedivere came again unto the King, and told him what he saw.
“Alas!” said the King, “help me hence, for I have tarried overlong;” and Sir Bedivere took him on his back, and bare him to the water-side. And when they stood by the bank, a little barge containing many fair ladies and a Queen, all in black hoods, drew near, and they wept and shrieked when they beheld King Arthur.
“Now put me into the barge,” said the King, and Sir Bedivere laid him softly down, and the ladies made great mourning, and the barge rowed from the land.
“Ah, my lord Arthur!” cried Sir Bedivere, “what shall become of me now you go from me, and I am left here alone with my enemies?”
EXCALIBVR RETVRNS TO THE MERE
“Comfort yourself,” replied the King, “and do as well as you may, for I go unto the valley of Avilion, to be healed of my grievous wound. And if you never more hear of me, pray for my soul.” But Sir Bedivere watched the barge till it was beyond his sight, then he rode all night till he came to a hermitage. Now when Queen Guenevere heard of the battle, and how that King Arthur was slain and Sir Mordred and all their Knights, she stole away, and five ladies with her, and rode to Amesbury; and there she put on clothes of black and white, and became a nun, and did great penance, and manyalms deeds, and people marvelled at her and at her godly life. And ever she wept and moaned over the years that were past, and for King Arthur.
As soon as the messenger whom the King had sent with Sir Gawaine’s letter reached Sir Lancelot, and he learned that Sir Mordred had taken for himself the crown of England, he rose up in wrath, and, calling Sir Bors, bid him collect their host, that they should pass at once over the sea to avenge themselves on that false Knight. A fair wind blew them to Dover, and there Sir Lancelot asked tidings of King Arthur. Then the people told him that the King was slain, and Sir Mordred, and an hundred thousand men besides, and that the King had buried Sir Gawaine in the chapel at Dover Castle. “Fair Sirs,” said Sir Lancelot, “show me that tomb;” and they showed it to him, and Sir Lancelot kneeled before it, and wept and prayed, and this he did for two days. And on the third morning he summoned before him all the great lords and leaders of his host, and said to them, “Fair lords, I thank you all for coming here with me, but we come too late, and that will be bitter grief to me as long as I shall live. But since it is so, I will myself ride and seek my lady Guenevere in the west country, where they say she has gone, and tarry you here, I entreat you, for fifteen days, and if I should not return take your ships and depart into your own country.”
Sir Bors strove to reason with him that the quest was fruitless, and that in the west country he wouldfind few friends; but his words availed nothing. For seven days Sir Lancelot rode, and at last he came to a nunnery, where Queen Guenevere was looking out from her lattice, and was ware of his presence as he walked in the cloister. And when she saw him she swooned, and her ladies and gentlewomen tended her. When she was recovered, she spoke to them and said, “You will marvel, fair ladies, why I should swoon. It was caused by the sight of yonder Knight who stands there, and I pray you bring him to me.” As soon as Sir Lancelot was brought, she said to her ladies, “Through me and this man has this war been wrought, for which I repent me night and day. Therefore, Sir Lancelot, I require and pray you never to see my face again, but go back to your own land, and govern it and protect it; and take to yourself a wife, and pray that my soul may be made clean of its ill doing.”
“Nay, Madam,” answered Sir Lancelot, “that shall I never do; but the same life that you have taken upon you, will I take upon me likewise.”
“If you will do so,” said the Queen, “it is well; but I may never believe but that you will turn to the world again.”
“Well, Madam,” answered he, “you speak as it pleases you, but you never knew me false to my promise, and I will forsake the world as you have done. For if in the quest of the Sangreal I had forsaken its vanities with all my heart and will, I had passed all Knights in the quest, except Sir Galahad my son. And therefore, lady, since you have taken you to perfection, I must do so also, and if I may find a hermit that will receive me I will pray and do penance while my life lasts. Wherefore, Madam, I beseech you to kiss me once again.”
“No,” said the Queen, “that I may not do,” and Sir Lancelot took his horse and departed in great sorrow. Allthat day and the next night he rode through the forest till he beheld a hermitage and a chapel between two cliffs, and heard a little bell ring to Mass. And he that sang Mass was the Bishop of Canterbury, and Sir Bedivere was with him. After Mass Sir Bedivere told Sir Lancelot how King Arthur had thrown away his sword and had sailed to the valley of Avilion, and Sir Lancelot’s heart almost burst for grief. Then he kneeled down and besought the Bishop that he might be his brother. “That I will gladly,” said the Bishop, and put a robe upon him.
After the fifteen days were ended, and still Sir Lancelot did not return, Sir Bors made the great host go back across the sea, while he and some of Sir Lancelot’s kin set forth to seek all over England till they found Sir Lancelot. They rode different ways, and by fortune Sir Bors came one day to the chapel where Sir Lancelot was. And he prayed that he might stay and be one of their fellowship, and in six months six other Knights were joined to them, and their horses went where they would, for the Knights spent their lives in fasting and prayer, and kept no riches for themselves.
In this wise six years passed, and one night a vision came to Sir Lancelot in his sleep charging him to hasten unto Amesbury. “By the time that thou come there,” said the vision, “thou shalt find Queen Guenevere dead; therefore take thy fellows with thee and fetch her corpse, and bury it by the side of her husband, the noble King Arthur.”
Then Sir Lancelot rose up and told the hermit, and the hermit ordered him to make ready and to do all as the vision had commanded. And Sir Lancelot and seven of the other Knights went on foot from Glastonbury to Amesbury, and it took them two days to compass the distance, for it was far and they were weak with fasting.When they reached the nunnery Queen Guenevere had been dead but half an hour, and she had first summoned her ladies to her, and told them that Sir Lancelot had been a priest for near a twelvemonth. “And hither he cometh as fast as he may,” she said, “to fetch my corpse, and beside my lord King Arthur he shall bury me. And I beseech Almighty God that I may never have power to see Sir Lancelot with my bodily eyes.” “Thus,” said the ladies, “she prayed for two days till she was dead.” Then Sir Lancelot looked upon her face and sighed, but wept little, and next day he sang Mass. After that the Queen was laid on a bier drawn by horses, and an hundred torches were carried round her, and Sir Lancelot and his fellows walked behind her singing holy chants, and at times one would come forward and throw incense on the dead. So they came to Glastonbury, and the Bishop of Canterbury sang a Requiem Mass over the Queen, and she was wrapped in cloth, and placed first in a web of lead, and then in a coffin of marble, and when she was put into the earth Sir Lancelot swooned away.
“You are to blame,” said the hermit, when he awaked from his swoon, “you ought not make such manner of sorrow.”
“Truly,” answered Sir Lancelot, “I trust I do not displease God, but when I remember her beauty, and her nobleness, and that of the King, and when I saw his corpse and her corpse lie together, my heart would not bear up my body. And I remembered, too, that it was through me and my pride that they both came to their end.”
From that day Sir Lancelot ate so little food that hedwinedaway, and for the most part was found kneeling by the tomb of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere. None could comfort him, and after six weeks he was tooweak to rise from his bed. Then he sent for the hermit and to his fellows, and asked in a weary voice that they would give him the last rites of the Church; and begged that when he was dead his body might be taken to Joyous Gard, which some say is Alnwick and others Bamborough. That night the hermit had a vision that he saw Sir Lancelot being carried up to heaven by the angels, and he waked Sir Bors and bade him go and see if anything ailed Sir Lancelot. So Sir Bors went and Sir Lancelot lay on his bed, stark dead, and he smiled as he lay there. Then was there great weeping and wringing of hands, more than had been made for any man; but they placed him on the horse bier that had carried Queen Guenevere, and lit a hundred torches, and in fifteen days they reached Joyous Gard. There his body was laid in the choir, with his face uncovered, and many prayers were said over him. And there, in the midst of their praying, came Sir Ector de Maris, who for seven years had sought Sir Lancelot through all the land.
“Ah, Lancelot,” he said, when he stood looking beside his dead body, “thou wert head of all Christian Knights. Thou wert the courtliest Knight that ever drew sword, and the faithfulest friend that ever bestrode a horse. Thou wert the goodliest Knight that ever man has seen, and the truest lover that ever loved a woman.”
Page 2, l. 16.tourney, tournament; a fight in which many knights joined.
Page 3, l. 31.Arthur’s parentage.Uther Pendragon was King Arthur’s father. In Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur,” it is explained how he, when King of all England, marched into Cornwall against the powerful Duke of Tintagil. In the siege that followed the Duke of Tintagil was killed, and his lady, the dame Igraine, afterwards became the wife of King Uthur. It is also explained how, on the advice of Merlin, their son Arthur was fostered by the wife of a certain Sir Ector, and brought up with his son Kay. Uther Pendragon died two years after this, and on his deathbed Merlin asked if Arthur should not be proclaimed his successor. To this Uther Pendragon replied, “I give him my blessing, and righteously may he claim the crown on forfeiture of my blessing.” Merlin had to provide some other means therefore to enable Arthur to succeed to his heritage, and this we have in the tale of the “Drawing of the Sword.”
Page 3, l. 32.Merlin.A magician. One of the chief characters in the earlier tales.
Page 5, l. 7.seneschal, steward.
Page 5, l. 13.Twelfth Day, twelve days after Christmas.
Page 5, l. 18.Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, called Candlemas on account of the number of lighted candles used.
Page 6, l. 29.bargehere means pleasure-boat.
Page 7, l. 14.Carlion, or Carleon, at that time an important city in South Wales, situated about six miles from the mouth of the river Usk.
Page 7, l. 27.Round Table, the famous table at which King Arthur’s knights sat. There are several accounts of its origin. One of the reasons suggested for its shape is that, being round, no dispute could arise between the knights for the higher places.
Page 8, l. 32.Sir Lancelot, the best loved and bravest of King Arthur’s knights, famed for his chivalry.
Page 9, l. 13.Sir Gawainewas one of the five nephews of the King (the other brothers being Mordred, Agrawaine, Gaheris, and Gareth).
Page 11, l. 14.Avelion, or Avalon, is generally associated with Glastonbury.
Page 18, l. 18.Pentecost, Whitsuntide.
Page 19, l. 16.daïs, a raised platform in the hall at which the highly born sat.
Page 25, l. 16.scullion, the lowest servant of the kitchen; washer of dishes.
Page 29, l. 19.high degree, high station in life.
Page 33, l. 28.venison, the flesh of the deer.
Page 33, l. 28.capons, large chickens.
Page 36, l. 14.ger-falcon, or gyrfalcon, a large and fierce kind of falcon.
Page 37, l. 12.Feast of the Assumption.This took place on the 15th of August (Lady Day).
Page 37, l. 16.device, badge; distinguishing mark; coat of arms.
Page 37, l. 17.bare them.Bareis the old form of bore;themis themselves.
Page 41, l. 5.Michaelmas, the 29th of September.
Page 41, l. 28.chamberlain, a high officer of the court; master of the ceremonies.
Page 43, l. 31.Gore, or Gower, is a strip of hilly country in Glamorganshire, running out into the sea, and ending in Worm’s Head.
Page 46, l. 18.Nimueis the Lady of the Lake mentioned in the story of “Excalibur.” She is generally a good friend to King Arthur.
Page 48.the Holy Graal.The graal is the vessel which our Lord used at the Last Supper.
Page 49, l. 15.pall, a covering thrown over the dead.
Page 49, l. 23.ill-favoured, with unpleasant features.
Page 50, l. 28.“till I be shriven of the priest,” “till my sins have been confessed to a priest, and I have been absolved.”
Page 50, l. 33.wise, fashion.
Page 51, l. 14.divers, several, sundry.
Pegs 51, l. 28.samite, a kind of silk stuff.
Page 52, l. 4.wist, knew.
Page 52, l. 30.Sir Galahad, son of Sir Lancelot, the truest of knights in thought and deed.
Page 53, l. 16.White Abbey.The Benedictines wore black garments. This abbey belonged, no doubt, to one of the other orders of monks.
Page 53, l. 28.Mass.A service of the Catholic Church. There was, of course, only one Church in those days, Protestantism being of much later date.
Page 59, l. 4.palfrey, a horse for riding; distinct from a war-horse.
Page 59, l. 31.helm, helmet.
Page 60, l. 15.discomfited, routed, defeated.
Page 64, l. 9.hair shirt.The irritation caused by wearing a hair shirt was a penance for sins committed. This was a common form of penance.
Page 65, l. 17.purged, purified.
Page 65, l. 27.peer, equal.
Page 66, l. 1.Sir Ector de Maris, Sir Lancelot’s brother.
Page 66, l. 13.Sir Percivaleand his sister were the daughter of King Pellinore.
Page 74, l. 18.King Pelles, the father of Elaine.
Page 77, l. 22.almonries, or almories, cupboards. (Literally places where alms were distributed; places for broken victuals.)
Page 85, l. 10.made a covenant, made an agreement; undertook.
Page 85, l. 29.couched their spears, put their spears in rest, and levelled them for the charge.
Page 89, l. 13.Camelotis identified by Malory with Winchester, but there is reason to believe that actually it was in Somerset.
Page 90, l. 15.a joustwas a trial of strength between two knights.
Page 91, l. 10.token.It was the custom for knights to wear their ladies’ “tokens.”
Page 91, l. 31.burgess, citizen.
Page 93, l. 2.Sir Gawaine.Being the King’s nephew, the King took special interest in him.
Page 93, l. 18.press, throng, fight.
Page 94, l. 11.mêlée, thick of the fight.
Page 95, l. 32.Northgalis, North Wales.
Page 105, l. 10.Sir Brandiles, one of the knights of the Round Table.
Page 108, l. 2.pavilion, tent.
Page 109, l. 4.doublet, the upper part of a man’s dress.
Page 119, l. 28.lesses les aller, the old French form of the “Laissez aller” in “Ivanhoe,” meaning “Go!”
Page 131, l. 34.craven, coward.
Page 132, l. 13.Sir Lionel, Sir Bors’ brother.
Page 133, l. 28.olive, the token of peace.
Page 137, l. 14.bell, book, and candle.This curse was so called because a bell was rung while it was being read from a book, and as soon as it was over a candle was solemnly extinguished. The last part of the ceremony was meant to show more clearly to the offender how completely he was put beyond the grace of the Church.
Page 137, l. 17.waxed, grew.
Page 138, l. 34.salves, ointments.
Page 140, l. 28.tide me death, though death betide me.
Page 142, l. 2.stark, more commonly used with the word stiff (stiff and stark) to denote death.
Page 143, l. 5.wan, pale, grey.
Page 145, l. 6.alms deeds, deeds of charity.
Page 148, l. 32.dwined, dwindled.
THE END.
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