knights of the country, when they heard what had happened, thought that
Lancelot was right and came to help him. By the time that the King and
his army came to Joyous Gard Lancelot had a good army of his own there.
But Lancelot did not want to fight the King, and for many days he kept
all his men inside the town. He sent messages to the King and to
Gawain. He told the King that neither he nor the Queen had ever thought
of doing him any wrong, and he begged him to let the Queen come back to
him and to leave off this war. He told Gawain that he had loved his
brother Gareth as if he had been his own brother and that he would as
soon have killed his own brother as Gareth or Gaheris, if he had known
who they were. And the King was so sad at all that had been done that
he wanted to give up the whole war, but Gawain would not hear of it. He
would never forgive Lancelot for killing his brothers, he said, till one
of them should kill the other.
"Then Lancelot's friends urged him to fight. Gawain would never let the
King give up the war, they said, and it would be best to end it now.
And Lancelot felt that they were right, and at last he yielded and said
that he would go out to battle the next morning. In the morning
Lancelot's army marched out of the city and the army of the King came to
meet it. Lancelot had ordered all his men that whatever they did they
should do no harm to the King or to Gawain. As for himself, he scarcely
fought at all. He rode about the field and saw others fight. He saw
many of his own men wounded and killed, but he had no heart to strike a
blow against King Arthur or any knight of his. At last he saw the King
himself charging against his cousin Bors. Bors met the charge with his
spear and threw King Arthur from his horse. When Lancelot saw that he
rode to where the King was and got off his horse. 'Here, my lord,' he
said, 'take this horse; you and your knights fight against me and have
no mercy, but I cannot fight against my King or see him overthrown and
not try to help him.'
"And the King took Lancelot's horse and rode away from the field and
called all his men away too, and Lancelot's men went back to the town.
"The next day Lancelot sent messengers to King Arthur again to ask him
to let the Queen come back, to promise that she should not be harmed,
and to end the war. And the King would have done everything that
Lancelot asked, but again Gawain would not hear of it. 'Let the Queen
come back if you like,' said Gawain; 'that is nothing to me. But I will
not forgive Lancelot for killing my brothers and I will always follow
him and fight with him till I kill him or he kills me.'
"You know I told you long ago of the old story that Gawain could speak
so well that nobody could ever refuse him anything that he asked. I
think that must have been why the King let him have his own way all
through this war with Lancelot. I am sure that the King himself must
have got back his senses now, and I almost think, after all, that he
never really believed that the Queen or Lancelot could wish to do any
wrong to him. How could he let her come back at all if he believed
that? And he did let her come back, but still Gawain was firm against
Lancelot, and the King would not make peace with him till Gawain wished
it.
"When Lancelot had sent the Queen back to King Arthur he thought that it
was of no use to stay in England any longer, so he took all his knights
and his army with him and crossed over into France. He went to Benwick,
his father's old city and his own city now, because his father was dead
long ago. And soon King Arthur and Gawain followed him with their army,
for Gawain still vowed that he would go where Lancelot went and would
not leave him till one of them had killed the other. In these last
dreadful days of King Arthur's reign it seems as if no one ever missed a
chance of making a mistake, and now Arthur made another. For when he
went over to France he left Mordred in his place to rule England till he
came back, and he left the Queen in Mordred's care too.
"So the King and Gawain and their army came to Benwick and besieged it,
as they had besieged Joyous Gard. Lancelot sent a message to them
again. He would do anything if they would end the war and not make him
fight against the King and his old friend. He would give up his city to
them, if they would take it, and let all the world think that he was
beaten, when he was not beaten at all, or that he was a coward and did
not dare to fight. Still Gawain would be content with nothing but that
Lancelot must fight with him. But he sent back word that if Lancelot
alone would come out and fight with him alone, till one of them should
kill the other, that one fight should end the war.
"When this message was brought to Lancelot his friends told him that it
was of no use any longer to hope for peace. Gawain would never yield,
and it must be as he said at last. It would be better for Lancelot to
fight with him now than to wait. Lancelot knew that they were right,
and he sent word that the next morning he would meet Gawain outside the
city and fight with him.
"They met the next morning, in the space between the city walls and King
Arthur's army. Both the knights were thrown from their horses at the
first charge, and then it was the old story of a sword fight that I have
told you so many times before. But Gawain had the gift of growing
stronger every day, from nine o'clock till noon, and then he had three
times his natural strength. This had been given to him by a magician
long ago, and nobody knew that he had it except himself and King Arthur.
Lancelot knew nothing about it, but he had not been fighting long before
he knew that there was something strange about Gawain's fighting. He
felt him growing so strong that he scarcely tried to strike at Gawain at
all, but used all his strength in defending himself. And so for a long
time neither of them was much harmed, but when noon came, all at once
Lancelot felt that Gawain had grown weaker. Then he said: 'Gawain, I do
not know with what magic you have fought till now. But, whatever it
was, I feel now that it has left you and you are like any other man.
Now I must begin to fight.'
"Then he struck Gawain a great blow on the head and wounded him, so that
he fell, and Lancelot stood still beside him, resting on his sword.
'Why do you stop your fight?' Gawain cried. 'You have beaten me; finish
it now and kill me.'
"'You know,' said Lancelot, 'that I cannot kill any knight who is
wounded and helpless, and least of all you, who have been my friend so
long. Our fight is over.'
"'Kill me and make an end to it,' Gawain said again, 'or as soon as I am
cured of this wound I shall come and fight you again.'
"'If I must fight with you again," said Lancelot, 'I shall be ready; I
can do no more now.'
"So Gawain was carried back to his tent and was kept there for many
days, while his wound was healing. And as soon as he was strong enough
he sent word to Lancelot that he must fight him again. There is no need
of making a long story of it. Gawain and Lancelot fought again and the
fight ended exactly as the first one had done. Lancelot wounded Gawain
in the very same place where he had wounded him before, and Gawain was
carried back to his tent, vowing that he would still fight with Lancelot
as soon as his wound should heal.
"And what do you suppose had been going on in England all this time?
You might almost guess. You would think that Mordred could not possibly
keep out of mischief so long, and you would be quite right. King Arthur
had not had much more than time to get to Benwick before Mordred began
to tell people that the King was dead. He showed some letters, which he
had written himself, but he pretended that they had come from France,
and they said that the King had been killed in a battle against
Lancelot. Of course the only thing to do in such a case was to crown
Mordred himself as King, and Mordred took care that it should be done in
a hurry. Then, to make everything as sure as possible, he gave notice
that he was going to marry Queen Guinevere. Of course he did not
trouble himself to ask Queen Guinevere whether or not it suited her to
be married to him. He had begun to have his own way and he was resolved
to go on. The Queen saw that it would not do any good to pretend that
she did not want to be married to him, so she let Mordred think that
there was nothing that would please her better than to be his wife. But
she said that if she was to be married she should have to go to London
to get some new gowns. Mordred saw nothing wrong about that and he let
her go. Then, as soon as she got to London, she shut herself up in the
Tower and found men who were friendly to her to guard it, and waited for
Mordred to come and try to get her out of it.
"He came, you may be sure, as soon as he heard where she was, and he
laid siege to the Tower, but it was so strong, and Queen Guinevere's men
fought so well, that he could not take it. He kept up the siege till he
heard that King Arthur and all his men were coming back from France and
Lancelot and his men were coming with them. When he heard that he drew
his army away from London and marched to Dover to meet the King and to
keep him from getting England away from him.
"It was true that the King and his men were coming back from France, but
it was not true that Lancelot was coming. Lancelot did not know why
King Arthur and his army had so suddenly left Benwick. It was because
the King had heard of the mischief that Mordred had done and of the more
mischief that he was trying to do. Even Gawain could not ask the King
to make war upon Lancelot any longer, when England itself was likely to
be lost. Gawain had been acting in a mad fashion enough for a long time,
but the news from England brought him back to his senses. His wound was
nearly healed and he was beginning again to want to fight with Lancelot,
but now he saw all at once what harm his wild anger against Lancelot had
done. He was filled with shame and grief at the thought of it. 'It is
I,' he said to the King, 'who have done all this. I see it now. It is
Lancelot who has always been your truest and best friend, and it is I
who have been your enemy. I fear that I have done too much for you to
forgive, but there is hope still, for I know that Lancelot will still be
your friend. Send for him; tell him that I was wrong in everything--that
I confess it--and ask him to go with you and help you to win back
England from Mordred.'
"If the King had ever doubted Lancelot he doubted him no longer now.
Gawain, who had been against him so long, was for him now. But the King
looked sadly at Gawain and shook his head. 'Gawain, Gawain,' he said,
'we have gone too far. We have wronged Lancelot too much. We cannot
ask him to help us now. We must fight our battles and win them or lose
them by ourselves.'
"So the King and Gawain and their army left Lancelot and Benwick and
crossed into England. As soon as they landed at Dover Mordred met them
and there was a hard battle. Many were killed and wounded on both sides
and at last Mordred was driven back. But when the battle was over
Gawain had been wounded again just where Lancelot had wounded him twice
before.
"And this time he felt that he could not live. Then Gawain thought: 'If
the King could not ask Lancelot to help him, yet surely I can ask him,
now that I am dying. It was I who wronged him and I who was his enemy.
But when he comes I shall not be here any more, and I know that he
always loved the King and that he loves him still.'
"And Gawain told those who were about him to bring him pen and paper,
and he wrote a letter to Lancelot. The letter said: 'Sir Lancelot, I am
dying from a wound that I got in battle to-day, just where you wounded
me twice. I have been blind and deaf and mad all this while. I would
not see or hear the truth, and the truth is, Lancelot, that it is you
who have been always the King's friend and that it is I who, in these
last days, have been his enemy. My pride and my selfishness and my
anger have almost ruined the King, but it may be that your true love and
your strength can save him yet. Come and help him, Lancelot. I have
given you cause to hate me, but do not stay away from the King for that,
for when you come to him I shall be dead.'
"This letter Gawain gave to a messenger and ordered him to cross with it
to France and to ride as fast as he could to Benwick and give it to
Lancelot. And a little while after that Gawain died.
"The next day King Arthur marched against Mordred. Mordred, with his
army, fell back before him and day after day the King pushed him farther
and farther into the West, till at last the two armies were here in
Cornwall. They had both been gathering strength as they marched, for
many knights and many other men joined them as they passed through the
country. Some joined Mordred because they were friends to Lancelot, not
knowing, they were so little and so narrow themselves, that Lancelot was
great enough to be the King's friend still.
"At last Mordred and his army halted and would retreat no farther. Then
it seemed that the great battle must come the next day. But that night
King Arthur had a dream. He dreamed that Gawain came and stood before
him, and Gawain said: 'My lord, do not fight with Mordred to-morrow. If
you fight with him to-morrow you will be killed. But put off the battle
for a little while and Lancelot and all his knights and all his men will
come to help you.'
"In the morning, when the King awoke, he sent messengers to Mordred to
ask him to meet him between the lines of the two armies and agree upon a
truce. So it was arranged that Arthur and Mordred should each bring
fourteen knights and that they should meet half-way between the two
armies. Then Arthur said to his knights whom he left behind: 'I do not
trust Mordred. I fear that he will try some treachery. So watch us
when we meet and while we talk, and if you see any sword drawn among the
men on either side, do not wait for any more, but charge forward and
begin the battle.' And Mordred, before he went to meet the King, gave
just the same command to his knights who stayed behind.
"All the knights who went with the King and with Mordred were told that
this was to be a peaceful meeting and that no sword must be drawn. But
after the King and Mordred had met and while they were talking, a little
snake came out from under a bush and stung the foot of one of the
knights. The knight forgot the order that had been given and drew his
sword to kill the snake. But the men of the armies were too far away to
see the snake and to know why the sword was drawn. They saw only the
flash of the drawn sword and that was the signal of battle. It was of
no use for Arthur or for Mordred to try to stop them or to delay the
battle then. The trumpets blew, the knights charged forward, the two
great waves of horses and men broke upon each other with a harsh rattle
and jangle and clash of arms all along the field, and the battle was
joined.
[Illustration: "The two great waves broke upon each other"]
"In all his long reign, King Arthur had never fought such a battle as
this before. There were thousands of men on each side and they were all
men who had learned to fight in King Arthur's own battles and
tournaments. They were men who had learned from him to fight and to
fight and to go on fighting and never to stop till they had won. With
men like that on both sides there was only one way that the battle could
end. The battle went on all day. Slowly the knights on each side grew
fewer and fewer and all who saw them knew that the fight would go on
till there was none at all on one side or the other. Arthur's men were
faithful to him to their last breath, and Mordred's men felt that they
should be ruined if they were beaten. Once Arthur saw one of his old
knights surrounded by enemies, and the old knight's son was close beside
the King. The King and those around him had as much fighting as they
could do, but Arthur said to the young knight: 'Do you not see your
father there in danger? Why do you not go to help him?'
"And the young knight answered: 'My lord, my father told me this morning
to stay beside you all day and to let nothing draw me away from you. My
father is a good knight and he must fight for himself.' And the old
knight was killed, and afterward the son was killed, too.
"When the evening came there were few left to fight. It may be that
some had run away, but the most were dead or wounded. King Arthur stood
with only two of his knights beside him. They were Sir Lucan and Sir
Bedivere. The King looked all about him and saw only one other man
near. And that was Mordred. The King spoke under his breath: 'The end
is come, I fear, for all of us, but before I die that man there shall
die, who has brought this end to all of us.'
"Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere tried to hold him back. 'My lord,' said Sir
Bedivere, 'do not try to fight any more with him to-day, or he may kill
you. Remember what Gawain said to you in your dream. Mordred has no
friends left now. Leave him for to-night, and to-morrow we can do
justice upon him.'
"'No,' said the King, 'that traitor shall not live any longer, and I
will kill him myself.'
"Arthur had his sword Excalibur in his hand. He rushed upon Mordred
with it and struck him one blow upon the head, and Mordred fell down
dead. But Arthur had been so eager against Mordred that he had not
thought to defend himself. Mordred had struck too at the same time and
had struck well and Arthur had a great wound on his head. Lucan and
Bedivere went to him and he tried to stand, but he could not. 'You must
help me,' he said, 'to some place of shelter; I cannot help myself any
more.'
"They tried to lift him up, but Lucan, who had been wounded in the
battle, suddenly fell down beside the King and died. Then Arthur said:
'Bedivere, you are the last one left to me and there is only a little
more that you can do. Take my sword Excalibur and go up this hill here
before us. At the top of it there is a lake. Throw my sword into the
lake, as far out into the middle of it as you can, and then come back
and tell me what you see.'
"Bedivere took the sword and climbed the hill and came to this very spot
where we are standing. But on the way he looked at the sword and at the
jewels in the hilt and he thought: 'It would be wrong to throw away this
beautiful sword. I will hide it here, instead of throwing it into the
lake. Then, if the King is cured of his wound, he will be glad to have
his sword again, and if he dies, someone else can have it.'
"So he hid the sword among the reeds that grew by the side of the lake
and went back to the King. 'Did you throw my sword into the lake?' the
King asked.
"'Yes, my lord,' said Bedivere.
"'And what did you see or hear?' said the King.
"'Nothing,' said Bedivere, 'but the water and the wind.'
"'Then you did not throw it in,' the King answered. 'Go back now and
throw it in, as I told you, and come back and tell me what you see.'
"Then Bedivere went up the hill again to the lake and took the sword out
from where he had hidden it. He held it up in the moonlight and saw the
shining of the rich jewels and the gleam of the long blade and again he
thought: 'It would be a sin to lose such a wonderful thing as this. The
King is wounded and weak and he is wandering in his mind, or else he
would not tell me to do it. I will tell him again that I have thrown it
in.'
"He hid the sword again and went back to the King, and the King said:
'Did you throw my sword into the lake?'
"'Yes, my lord,' said Bedivere, 'I threw it in.'
"'And what did you see or hear?' said Arthur.
"'I saw nothing but the water,' said Bedivere, 'and I heard nothing but
the wind and the waves.'
"'Oh, Bedivere,' said Arthur, 'you are the last of my knights and you
will not obey me. Go now once more and throw my sword as far as you can
out into the lake. And if you do not obey me this time, when you come
again, wounded as I am, I will rise up and kill you, if I can, with my
hands.'
"Then Bedivere went as fast as he could up the hill again and found the
sword and took it and swung it above his head and threw it as far as he
could out over the lake. He watched it as it whirled through the air,
and when it was near the water he saw an arm, covered with white silk,
come up out of the water. The hand caught the sword as it fell and
brandished it three times in a circle, and then the hand and the arm
went down under the water, and Bedivere went back and told the King.
'And now, Bedivere,' said Arthur, 'help me to go to the lake too.'
"But the King could not stand at all, so Bedivere took him on his back
and carried him up the hill to the side of the lake. And there they saw
a boat lying close to the shore. It was filled with women, all dressed
in black, and three, who stood in the midst of them, were queens and
wore crowns. 'Put me in the boat,' said Arthur, and Bedivere carried
him to the boat and the three queens received him, and all the women in
the boat wept when they saw him. The three queens laid him down and one
of them took his head in her lap and said: 'My dear brother, why did you
wait so long? You should have come here to us as soon as you had this
wound.'
"And this woman was King Arthur's sister, Queen Morgan-le-Fay. I don't
know when or why she had ceased to be his enemy and had become his
friend, but she was his friend now and she did all that she could to
help him and to cure his wound.
"Then Bedivere saw that the boat was moving from the shore, and he
cried: 'My lord--my King--where shall I go and what shall I do without
you? Let me go with you where you go and die with you, if you are to
die.'
"But Arthur answered: 'Do not be grieved for me, Bedivere, but go your
own way. Perhaps you may hear of me again, but now I can do no more for
you or for my people. I am going to the Valley of Avalon, to be cured
of my wound, and some time, perhaps, when my wound is well, I shall come
again.'
"Then the boat moved farther and farther away along the lake. The King
did not speak again, but Bedivere could hear Queen Morgan-le-Fay
speaking softly to him, and he could hear the other women weeping. Only
for a little while he could hear them, and then he strained his eyes to
see the boat as long as he could. But the light was dim and soon the
dark shape of the boat mixed with the dark shadows and was lost.
"And so King Arthur floated away to Avalon. You know that Avalon was
Glastonbury, and you do not see, perhaps, how any boat could go from
this mountain lake, all shut in by the land, out to the sea and inland
again to that island with the marsh around it. You must think of the
magic of Queen Morgan-le-Fay. Where she wanted her boat to go I am sure
that water-ways would open of themselves to let her pass. A ship with
her upon it would go as fast and as far as she would have it go. And
then, one of the old stories says, they had a pilot who knew all the
seas and all the stars of the heavens.
"Sir Bedivere looked after the boat till it had been gone from his sight
for a long time. Then he turned away from the lake, went down the hill,
and wandered away through the woods. He did not know where he was going
and he did not care. He scarcely saw what places he passed. He was
thinking of his King who had been taken away from him. He thought of
the bright old days when Arthur won his crown in the battles with the
rebel Kings, when his own knights learned to love his strength and his
truth and his nobleness. He thought of the happy days when the greatest
knights of the world gathered at the Round Table in Camelot. He thought
of how they had helped the King to bring peace and plenty and content to
the land. He thought of the sad later days and of these last days of
all and he wished that he might have died before they came. He could
not think at all yet of what he was still to do or how he was to live
without his King.
"So, deep in these sad thoughts, he went on and on, stopped now and
then, where he could, to eat or drink, because he knew he must, or lay
down in the forest to sleep, but never thought and never knew how long
he had been on the way or how weary he was. At last he heard a bell and
saw an abbey before him. He went into the chapel and saw a man kneeling
upon a tomb. The man rose and came to meet him. He was the abbot.
'Sir,' said Bedivere, 'whose tomb is that where I saw you praying?'
"'I do not know,' said the abbot. 'Last night a great company of ladies
came here and brought a dead man and begged me to bury him. And I
buried him in that tomb there before the altar, but they did not tell me
who he was.'
"'Then I will tell you,' said Bedivere. 'If a company of ladies brought
him, it was King Arthur.'
"Then Bedivere asked the hermit to let him stay there and live with him.
And he stayed for a long time there in the Abbey of Glastonbury, and
visited the poor and the sick, and at last he became a priest.