Delectable Isle. There is the Red City, and there you will find these
two brothers, Helius and Helake. Go and conquer them and we shall pray
for you and wait to hear what you have done.'
"Then Palamides went back to his boat, and just as he came to it he met
a knight who said: 'Sir Knight, tell me who you are and where you are
going.'
"'By what right,' said Palamides, 'do you command me so?'
"'If you are going to the Red City,' said the knight, 'to avenge the
death of King Hermance, turn back and go no farther. It is for me, not
for you, to avenge him. I am the brother of King Hermance.'
"'That may be true,' Palamides answered, 'but when the letter was taken
out of the dead King's hand we did not know that there was any knight to
avenge him. I promised then that I would do it, and I must do it now or
I shall be false to my promise.'
"'That is true,' said the other knight, 'but now let us try a few
strokes together, to see which of us is the better knight, and then that
one shall avenge the King my brother.'
"So they drew their swords and struck a few strokes, and then the
brother of the King said: 'You are the better; the adventure is yours.
But I will go to the Red City too, so that I can fight with these
traitors if they kill you.
"'Come with me, then,' said Palamides, 'but if they kill me go to my
lord, Sir Tristram, and tell him of it, and I am sure that he or Sir
Lancelot will come to avenge me and the King your brother.'
"So they both went on in the boat till they came to the Delectable Isle
and the Red City. And there all the people welcomed them, for they all
loved their King who was dead and hated the traitors who had killed him.
And they sent messengers to the brothers to tell them that one of King
Arthur's knights had come to fight with them, to avenge King Hermance.
And the brothers sent back word that they would be ready for the fight
the next morning.
"In the morning Palamides was ready in the lists and the people of the
city came to see the battle. And when they saw what a bold and
strong-looking man Palamides was they began to hope that they should be
free of their tyrants and have another King as good as Hermance. Then
the brothers came and took their places at the other end of the lists,
and when the people looked at them they began to fear again that the one
knight from King Arthur's court could never beat them.
"It was Helake who came first against Palamides, and Palamides ran him
through with his spear at the first charge and he fell dead upon the
field. But the battle with Helius was not so easy. At the first charge
Palamides was thrown from his saddle, and as he lay on the ground,
before he could get up, Helius tried to drive his horse over him, to
crush him. But Palamides sprang up and caught the bridle and cried:
'Come down and fight me fairly on foot or I will kill your horse and
make you do it.'
"Then Helius got off his horse and they began to fight again with their
swords. It was a fight for life and death, and it was a hard one. It
lasted for a long time, with no rest, and Helius seemed never to lose
any ground or any strength, but Palamides grew weaker and fainter and he
was forced back and back across the field. The people saw it and a low,
sad murmur ran through the crowd. And Palamides heard it, and for an
instant he glanced away from his enemy and saw the anxious faces of the
people and the tears in the eyes of some and the fear in the looks of
many. Then he said to himself: 'Palamides, you are a knight of the
Round Table. Will you let the news go back to King Arthur that you were
beaten in a fight by a traitor and a murderer? And you are here for
Tristram. Will you lose his battle for him?'
"And with that thought he gathered all his strength and struck Helius
three great blows with his sword, one upon the other, and with the third
he cut through his helmet and laid him dead upon the field with his
brother.
"Then a great shout went up from all the people and some of them ran
away to tell those who had not seen the fight how it had gone, and they
built bonfires and set all the bells of the city ringing, and others
crowded around the knight and cheered and shouted: 'Long live King
Palamides!'
"But when they would let him speak to them Palamides said: 'You must not
call me so; all that I have done was for my lord, Sir Tristram. If he
could have come he would have fought this battle better than I. If you
have any new king it is he, and now I must go back to him. But I leave
here this good knight, the brother of your old King Hermance, and he
shall rule you till Sir Tristram sends to tell you what else to do.'
"Then Palamides went on board his boat again and it took him away toward
the Humber and toward Lonazep to find Sir Tristram."
[Illustration: The Round Table at Winchester]
*CHAPTER V*
*"CAMELOT, THAT IS IN ENGLISH WINCHESTER"*
Even while we were at Camelford, and again while we were at Cadbury
Castle, I had not forgotten the words of my favorite book, "Camelot,
that is in English Winchester." If we were talking about hard history,
I suppose that I should have to say that, if there ever was a real
Camelot at all, it was probably that pleasant hill-top that we had seen
in Somerset. Yet, when a story-teller whom I love as much as I do good
old Sir Thomas says that Winchester was Camelot, it shall be Camelot for
me, at least while I am there. So we went down from London to see if
this third Camelot pleased us as much as the two that we had seen.
First we walked about the streets and aimed at nothing in particular.
That is a good thing to do on the first day when you are in a strange
city. "If I were to try to tell you," I said, "all the interesting and
useful and delightful things that there are to tell about Winchester, I
should have to go first and learn the most of them for myself. And then
you would get tired of listening to them, for there would be enough of
them to make a book as big as a dictionary. We are supposing, you know,
while we stay, that King Arthur lived here, and, whether he did or not,
other kings of England lived here more or less for I don't know how many
hundred years. King Alfred lived here and King Canute lived here and
William the Conqueror built a castle here, on the very spot, we will let
ourselves believe, where King Arthur's castle stood."
If the first thing to be done in a town newly visited is to walk about
the streets, the second is to go to the cathedral, if there is one. So
the next thing that we did was to go to Winchester Cathedral. It is not
much to look at from the outside, though it is pretty enough, with the
trees and grass around it. It has only the lowest of towers. It had a
higher one once, but when King William Rufus was killed, they buried him
in the cathedral and seven years afterward the tower fell down. They
thought that it must be because they had buried such a wicked man in the
church. But I think that there are kings as bad as William Rufus buried
under some English towers that have not fallen down. There are kings
and kings, good and bad, lying here in this cathedral. Canute is here,
and it was here that he brought his crown and put it up over the cross,
after he had found, down yonder at Southampton, that he could not rule
the waves, as England has since been supposed to do. To be fair to the
cathedral, I ought to say that, though it is unpromising outside, it is
surely very beautiful inside. After that I think I do not need to say
anything more about it at all, because there are so many people who can
tell you about this cathedral and others so much better than I can.
We left it and walked up the street to find the castle. I think I
forgot to say at the proper place that the whole town of Winchester that
day was in a state of breathless excitement about a cricket match. The
boys of Winchester College were playing against the boys from Eton, and
pretty nearly everybody in town had gone to see the game. When we got to
the castle, the man who ought to have been there to show it to us had
gone to see the cricket match, like the rest. But his wife, who was a
very pleasant elderly lady, said that she would show it to us.
They hold court in the castle still. Not the sort of court that King
Arthur used to hold, but courts of justice for the County of Hants. The
old woman took us into one room after another and told us about the
trials that had taken place in them. We pretended to be greatly
interested, but we were not a bit. But by and by she took us to a place
where we were interested. It was the great hall of the castle. I
should feel sorry for anybody who was not interested in the great hall
of Winchester Castle. It belonged to the old castle that William the
Conqueror built, where more kings and queens lived or were born or died
or did other fascinating things than I should dare to try to remember.
And this was the hall of Parliament for almost four hundred years. "And
we may as well believe," I said, "that now we are standing in King
Arthur's hall. If Winchester was Camelot there is no reason to suppose
that his castle was not on this very spot, and there is no reason to
suppose, either, that the great hall was not on this very spot. Henry
VII. believed it, when his son was born here and he named him Arthur."
It is a beautiful room as it stands to-day. It is long and wide and
high. It has fine arches and cluster columns and windows of stained
glass. But what we gazed at most hung high up on the wall at the west
end of the hall. The old woman told us that it was King Arthur's Round
Table. Well, there was no doubt that it was round, and she said that
there was no doubt that it had been a table once, because there were
places at the back of it to fasten legs. We found a picture of the back
of it afterwards in a book about Winchester, and it showed that she was
right. The table is eighteen feet across, if you insist on my being
exact. The table is painted in quite an elaborate style. There is a big
rose in the middle of it, and then there is a border, and in the border
are the words: "This is the round table of King Arthur and his
twenty-four Knights." This did not make us believe in the table any the
more, because we knew very well that twenty-four knights would not make
any show at all in King Arthur's hall. Above the rose, as the table
hangs now, and with his feet resting on it, is a picture of King Arthur
himself. The rest of the table, except the outer edge, is painted with
broad stripes of dark and light, which run from the border around the
rose to the larger border of the whole table. The old woman asked us to
notice that the names of the knights were around the edge of the table.
We tried to make out the names and we did make out some of them. There
were Lancelot and Lionel and Tristram and Gareth and Bedivere and
Palamides and Bors and Kay and Mordred and others that we could not
read. The old woman said that there were some of them that nobody had
ever been able to read, and we were not so proud as to try to read what
we were told that nobody could. It was King Henry VIII. who had this
table painted in such a gorgeous way, and it seemed to us that the
picture of King Arthur did not look quite unlike Henry. No, we could
not quite believe in the table after all. King Arthur's Round Table had
places, as we knew, for a hundred and fifty knights, and this had places
for only twenty-four. Still we could not help being uncommonly
interested in anything that had even been called King Arthur's Round
Table for four hundred years at the very least, and probably for six
hundred.
"You see," said the old woman, "the three pictures on the windows over
the Round Table are King Arthur and King Alfred and King Canute, a
Briton and a Saxon and a Dane."
We looked up at the three kings on the stained glass windows, and it was
then that I made a dreadful mistake. It came into my mind that it would
be a good plan to show off to this good lady who had so kindly shown us
the hall, how much we knew about these three kings. Pride does
sometimes go before a fall. "Helen," I said, "tell this lady something
about King Arthur, just to show her how much we have learned."
"I don't want to tell about him," Helen answered, "I would rather you
would tell a story about him."
"But I am not going to tell any story now," I said, "I want you to tell
one--any one you like, just to show that you can do it."
"But I don't want to show that I can do it."
"Helen, if you do not tell us something about King Arthur at once, I
will not tell you another story for a week."
And then what did this horrible child do but stand there and recite:
"When good King Arthur ruled this land
He was a goodly King;
He stole three pecks of barley meal
To make a bag-pudding.
A bag-pudding the king did make,
And stuffed it well with plums;
And in it put great lumps of fat,
As big as my two thumbs.
The King and Queen did eat thereof,
And noblemen beside;
And what they could not eat that night,
The Queen next morning fried."
I tried to look as sorrowful as I could. "You know very well," I said,
"that that is not true at all. That was written by some enemy of King
Arthur. There are plenty of good things that you know and might have
told us; and so, to punish you for telling that, you shall tell us now
about King Canute and his courtiers."
Now Helen did not like this any more than she liked telling about King
Arthur, but she must have seen how very determined I looked, and she
gave a little gasp and said: "King Canute's courtiers told him that he
was the greatest King in the world, and that the sea would obey him if
he told it to do anything. So he had his chair put on the sand and he
ordered the tide not to come up and wet him, and it did come up and wet
him. And he told his courtiers not to flatter him any more, and he
never smiled again."
"You get worse every minute," I said. "You know very well that it was
not Canute who never smiled again, and for telling that story wrong you
shall tell us now about King Alfred and the cakes."
By this time Helen saw that it was getting serious and that it would not
do any good to make any more mistakes, so she said: "King Alfred was
hiding from his enemies, and he was in the house of a cowherd. And the
cowherd's wife was baking some cakes, and King Alfred was sitting by the
fire. And the cakes burned and he was so busy mending his bows and
arrows that he didn't know it, so the cowherd's wife said: 'Can't you
look at the cakes and not let them burn? You'll be ready to eat them
fast enough when the time comes.' And she didn't know that he was the
King."
"I can't say," I said, "that you have told that quite as well as you
might, but it will do. And now, who was it that never smiled again?
"Henry I."
"And why?"
"Because his son William was drowned when the White Ship was lost."
"Very well. The first class in English history could sit down, if there
was anything to sit on."
The old woman was quite speechless with astonishment by this time. I
don't suppose anybody had ever come into this hall and tried to tell her
so many things about the kings who used to live in Winchester before.
We thanked her for her trouble and said good-by, and she just managed to
get back enough of her senses to say that we were welcome and to bid us
good-by in turn. "And now," I said, "suppose we do what everybody else
in town is doing and go and see the cricket match."
[Illustration: Winchester Cathedral]
*CHAPTER VI*
*THE BOAT ON THE RIVER*
Neither Helen nor I knew enough about cricket to tell a wicket-keeper
from a maiden over. But, whether we understood what was going on or
not, the Winchester cricket-field that day was a pretty sight. The
grass all over it was fresh and green, and around it were crowds of
gayly dressed people, watching the game and talking and laughing and
enjoying the warm, soft air and the bright sunshine. For a little while
we walked around the edge of the field and looked at the people and the
boys who were playing, running about and doing such absurd things as the
players of a game you do not understand always do. Then we found a
quiet place across the field from where the most of the people were, and
there we sat down on the grass to rest and to try to make something out
of the game. But that was hopeless, and we soon gave it up.
"Just suppose," I said, "that instead of these boys, with their harmless
bats and balls and wickets, this field was filled with armored knights
on horses, with long spears and great swords. Suppose that they were
playing their own rough game of the tournament, charging together and
throwing one another off their horses and not caring any too much,
sometimes, whether they killed one another or not. Suppose that the
people from the town had all come out to see the tournament, just as
they have come out to-day to see the game of cricket, and that we had
come, too, just as we really have. And suppose that King Arthur was
sitting over there in his high seat to judge the knights. If we can
suppose all this, I think that wee shall see pretty clearly how one of
King Arthur's tournaments looked when Winchester was Camelot. There is
a story, very pretty and very sad, about a tournament that was held at
this very Camelot, and for all I know it may have been on this very
field.
"The court was at Westminster just then but the King had given out that
this tournament was to be at Camelot, so, when the time came, he and his
knights set out to ride here. The Queen was sick and said that she would
not come with them, and Lancelot said that a wound that he had was not
yet well and so he would stay behind too and would not fight in this
tournament. Now, although Lancelot was usually honest, I am sorry to
say that just now he was saying what was not quite true. The truth was
that Lancelot wanted to be at the tournament without King Arthur or any
of the knights knowing that he was there. He had won in so many
tournaments and all the knights knew so well that he was sure to win if
he fought, that none of them liked to fight against him, and tournaments
where Lancelot was had come to be rather one-sided affairs. So he
thought that he would wait till the others were gone and then come to
Camelot by himself, in armor that they did not know and carrying some
strange shield, and join in the tournament and fight with whom he
pleased.
"It was early morning when the others went away. Lancelot waited till
noon, so that he should not overtake them on the way, and then he
mounted his horse and rode toward Camelot. Late in the day he came to a
place called Astolat. There was a castle, and Lancelot thought it best
to stay there for the night. The lord of the castle was an old knight,
Sir Bernard of Astolat. He welcomed Lancelot and asked him who he was,
but Lancelot said: 'If you will pardon me, I do not wish to tell my
name. I am going to the tournament at Camelot, to try what I can do
against the knights who will be there, and I do not wish that any of
them shall know who I am.'
"When it was time for supper Lancelot sat at the table with Sir Bernard
and his two sons, and Sir Bernard's daughter served them. Her name was
Elaine. And wherever Elaine went and whatever she did, she was always
looking at Lancelot. It seemed to her that there was something about
him that was wonderful and new. She thought that she had never seen a
man who looked so noble, and, as he talked with her father, she thought
that she had never heard a man who spoke so well. They lived a quiet
life there at Astolat, and this knight was telling her father about the
court and about battles and tournaments. He told things that were
strange to her about many of the knights, and she listened to hear him
say something about himself, but he did not say anything. 'Still,' she
thought, 'when I look at him I know that he is the best of them all.'
And she knew so little about knights that this was really a very good
guess for her to make.
"But Lancelot scarcely saw Elaine at all. He knew that she was there, of
course, and he knew that she was young and beautiful, and he knew that
she was serving them, as they sat there. But Lancelot had seen many
young girls serving at many tables--yes, and a good many of them had
fallen in love with him, too, before this one, with or without his
knowing it. And Lancelot asked the old man: 'Have you any plain shield
here that you could lend to me for this tournament? I have told you
that I do not want to be known at Camelot, but every knight would know
my shield, if I should carry my own.' And when she heard that, Elaine
thought: 'He is some famous knight, I knew he was!'
"And the old man answered: 'Here are my two sons, Torre and Lavaine;
they are both new knights and their shields are plain and blank. It may
be that Lavaine will like to go and see this tournament, but Torre
cannot go, for he has a wound that is not well yet. You can have his
shield.'
"'And may I leave my own shield here,' said Lancelot, 'till I come
back?'
"'Surely,' said the old man, 'Elaine will take good care of it for you.'
"And when she heard that, Elaine blushed from her forehead down to her
throat, and she stood still and gazed at Lancelot, and he looked up at
her and said: 'If she will do that for me I shall be very grateful.'
"Lavaine had been listening to all that Lancelot said, almost as much as
his sister, and now he said: 'Father, if this knight will let me, might
I not ride with him to the tournament and see the knights, and perhaps
try a joust with one of them?'
"'No, no," said his father, 'it would trouble the knight too much to
have such a boy with him.'
"'It would not trouble me at all,' said Lancelot; 'let him come. He
shall see everything, and if he wants to joust I will advise him and
help him all I can. It would be a poor return for your kindness to me
to do less than that.'
"Then Elaine, although she scarcely dared to speak to Lancelot, said:
'Sir Knight, if I am to keep your shield, could you not wear some token
of mine at the tournament?'
"'My child,' said Lancelot, 'I have never done that for any lady, and it
is against my rule.' And then he thought again: 'All my friends know
that I never wear a token of any lady, and, if I do it now, it will be
all the harder for them to know me.' So he said: 'Very well, then, I
will wear something for you; what is it?'
"And Elaine blushed again with happiness, and she went away and brought
him a sleeve of red silk, all embroidered over with pearls. And Lancelot
bound it on his helmet. Then they all went to bed, and in the morning
Lancelot and Lavaine rode away from Astolat together and came here to
Camelot. And Elaine took Lancelot's shield to her own chamber, and from
the tower of the castle she watched Lancelot and her brother till they
were out of sight.
"I don't see why I should tell you about the tournament. I have told
you about such things so many times that you know how the knights
fought, and I am sure you do not care to hear it again. But I will tell
you that Lancelot came to the tournament and nobody knew him, that he
did better than any other knight there, that Lavaine did well, too, for
so new a knight, and that Lancelot at last got a dreadful wound.
"Then he called to Lavaine to follow him and they rode away. Lancelot
could scarcely sit on his horse, but they rode a little way from Camelot
to a place that Lancelot knew, where a hermit lived. The hermit had
been a knight of the Round Table long ago, and when he saw Lancelot he
knew him, and he took him into his cell and took off his armor and
dressed his wound and did all that he could to help him. And Lancelot
was there with the hermit for a long time, and Lavaine stayed with him.
"Now when the tournament was over the King and all the knights wondered
what had become of the knight who had worn the red sleeve, with the
pearls, on his helmet. He had done better than any of them and the King
wanted to find him, so that he could give him the prize. Some of the
knights had seen that he was wounded, but none of them had seen which
way he went. Then Gawain said that he would hunt for him, but he rode
all around Camelot and could not find him, and then he went back to the
King' and told him that he feared that the knight who wore the red
sleeve was dead.
"So they all went back to Westminster. And at night Gawain came to
Astolat and to the castle of old Sir Bernard. And as soon as he and his
son and his daughter heard that Gawain had come from the tournament at
Camelot, they asked him to tell them all about it and what had been done
there and who had won the prize. 'The prize was won,' he said, 'by a
knight whom nobody knew, and he carried a plain shield and wore a red
sleeve, with pearls, on his helmet. I never saw a knight joust better,
but he went away before the tournament was over and afterwards he could
not be found.'