Idylls of the King | Page 5

seen the
cuckoo chased by lesser fowl,
And reason in the chase: but wherefore
now
Do these your lords stir up the heat of war,
Some calling
Arthur born of Gorlois,
Others of Anton? Tell me, ye yourselves,

Hold ye this Arthur for King Uther's son?'
And Ulfius and Brastias answered, 'Ay.'
Then Bedivere, the first of
all his knights
Knighted by Arthur at his crowning, spake--
For bold
in heart and act and word was he,
Whenever slander breathed against
the King--
'Sir, there be many rumours on this head:
For there be those who hate
him in their hearts,
Call him baseborn, and since his ways are sweet,

And theirs are bestial, hold him less than man:
And there be those
who deem him more than man,
And dream he dropt from heaven: but
my belief
In all this matter--so ye care to learn--
Sir, for ye know
that in King Uther's time
The prince and warrior Gorlois, he that held


Tintagil castle by the Cornish sea,
Was wedded with a winsome
wife, Ygerne:
And daughters had she borne him,--one whereof,

Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent,
Hath ever like a loyal
sister cleaved
To Arthur,--but a son she had not borne.
And Uther
cast upon her eyes of love:
But she, a stainless wife to Gorlois,
So
loathed the bright dishonour of his love,
That Gorlois and King Uther
went to war:
And overthrown was Gorlois and slain.
Then Uther in
his wrath and heat besieged
Ygerne within Tintagil, where her men,

Seeing the mighty swarm about their walls,
Left her and fled, and
Uther entered in,
And there was none to call to but himself.
So,
compassed by the power of the King,
Enforced was she to wed him in
her tears,
And with a shameful swiftness: afterward,
Not many
moons, King Uther died himself,
Moaning and wailing for an heir to
rule
After him, lest the realm should go to wrack.
And that same
night, the night of the new year,
By reason of the bitterness and grief

That vext his mother, all before his time
Was Arthur born, and all
as soon as born
Delivered at a secret postern-gate
To Merlin, to be
holden far apart
Until his hour should come; because the lords
Of
that fierce day were as the lords of this,
Wild beasts, and surely
would have torn the child
Piecemeal among them, had they known;
for each
But sought to rule for his own self and hand,
And many
hated Uther for the sake
Of Gorlois. Wherefore Merlin took the child,

And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight
And ancient friend of
Uther; and his wife
Nursed the young prince, and reared him with her
own;
And no man knew. And ever since the lords
Have foughten
like wild beasts among themselves,

So that the realm has gone to
wrack: but now,
This year, when Merlin (for his hour had come)

Brought Arthur forth, and set him in the hall,
Proclaiming, "Here is
Uther's heir, your king,"
A hundred voices cried, "Away with him!

No king of ours! a son of Gorlois he,
Or else the child of Anton, and
no king,
Or else baseborn." Yet Merlin through his craft,
And while
the people clamoured for a king,
Had Arthur crowned; but after, the
great lords
Banded, and so brake out in open war.'

Then while the King debated with himself
If Arthur were the child of
shamefulness,
Or born the son of Gorlois, after death,
Or Uther's
son, and born before his time,
Or whether there were truth in anything

Said by these three, there came to Cameliard,
With Gawain and
young Modred, her two sons,
Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney,
Bellicent;
Whom as he could, not as he would, the King
Made feast
for, saying, as they sat at meat,
'A doubtful throne is ice on summer seas.
Ye come from Arthur's
court. Victor his men
Report him! Yea, but ye--think ye this king--

So many those that hate him, and so strong,
So few his knights,
however brave they be--
Hath body enow to hold his foemen down?'
'O King,' she cried, 'and I will tell thee: few,
Few, but all brave, all of
one mind with him;
For I was near him when the savage yells
Of
Uther's peerage died, and Arthur sat
Crowned on the dais, and his
warriors cried,
"Be thou the king, and we will work thy will
Who
love thee." Then the King in low deep tones,
And simple words of
great authority,
Bound them by so strait vows to his own self,
That
when they rose, knighted from kneeling, some
Were pale as at the
passing of a ghost,
Some flushed, and others dazed, as one who
wakes
Half-blinded at the coming of a light.
'But when he spake and cheered his Table Round
With large, divine,
and comfortable words,
Beyond my tongue to tell thee--I beheld

From eye to eye through all their Order flash
A momentary likeness
of the King:
And ere it left their faces, through the cross
And those
around it and the Crucified,
Down from the casement over Arthur,
smote
Flame-colour, vert and azure, in three rays,
One falling upon
each of three fair queens,
Who stood in silence near his throne, the
friends
Of Arthur, gazing on him, tall, with bright
Sweet faces, who
will help him at