Idylls of the King | Page 5

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 his need.
'And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit?And hundred winters are but as the hands?Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege.
'And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,?Who knows a subtler magic than his own--?Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.?She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,?Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist?Of incense curled about her, and her face?Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;?But