Stories from Le Morte DArthur and the Mabinogion | Page 7

Beatrice Clay
their enemies. So there
was ever great friendship between Arthur and the Kings Ban and Bors,

and all their kindred; and afterwards some of the most famous Knights
of the Round Table were of that kin.
Then King Arthur set himself to restore order throughout his kingdom.
To all who would submit and amend their evil ways, he showed
kindness; but those who persisted in oppression and wrong he removed,
putting in their places others who would deal justly with the people.
And because the land had become overrun with forest during the days
of misrule, he cut roads through the thickets, that no longer wild beasts
and men, fiercer than the beasts, should lurk in their gloom, to the harm
of the weak and defenceless. Thus it came to pass that soon the peasant
ploughed his fields in safety, and where had been wastes, men dwelt
again in peace and prosperity.
Amongst the lesser kings whom Arthur helped to rebuild their towns
and restore order, was King Leodegrance of Cameliard. Now
Leodegrance had one fair child, his daughter Guenevere; and from the
time that first he saw her, Arthur gave her all his love. So he sought
counsel of Merlin, his chief adviser. Merlin heard the King sorrowfully,
and he said: "Sir King, when a man's heart is set, he may not change.
Yet had it been well if ye had loved another."
So the King sent his knights to Leodegrance, to ask of him his daughter;
and Leodegrance consented, rejoicing to wed her to so good and
knightly a King. With great pomp, the princess was conducted to
Canterbury, and there the King met her, and they two were wed by the
Archbishop in the great Cathedral, amid the rejoicings of the people.
On that same day did Arthur found his Order of the Round Table, the
fame of which was to spread throughout Christendom and endure
through all time. Now the Round Table had been made for King Uther
Pendragon by Merlin, who had meant thereby to set forth plainly to all
men the roundness of the earth. After Uther died, King Leodegrance
had possessed it; but when Arthur was wed, he sent it to him as a gift,
and great was the King's joy at receiving it. One hundred and fifty
knights might take their places about it, and for them Merlin made
sieges or seats. One hundred and twenty-eight did Arthur knight at that
great feast; thereafter, if any sieges were empty, at the high festival of

Pentecost new knights were ordained to fill them, and by magic was the
name of each knight found inscribed, in letters of gold, in his proper
siege. One seat only long remained unoccupied, and that was the Siege
Perilous. No knight might occupy it until the coming of Sir Galahad;
for, without danger to his life, none might sit there who was not free
from all stain of sin.
With pomp and ceremony did each knight take upon him the vows of
true knighthood: to obey the King; to show mercy to all who asked it;
to defend the weak; and for no worldly gain to fight in a wrongful
cause: and all the knights rejoiced together, doing honour to Arthur and
to his Queen. Then they rode forth to right the wrong and help the
oppressed, and by their aid, the King held his realm in peace, doing
justice to all.

CHAPTER III
OF THE FINDING OF EXCALIBUR
Now when Arthur was first made King, as young knights will, he
courted peril for its own sake, and often would he ride unattended by
lonely forest ways, seeking the adventure that chance might send him.
All unmindful was he of the ruin to his realm if mischief befell him;
and even his trusty counsellors, though they grieved that he should thus
imperil him, yet could not but love him the more for his hardihood.
So, on a day, he rode through the Forest Perilous where dwelt the Lady
Annoure, a sorceress of great might, who used her magic powers but
for the furtherance of her own desires. And as she looked from a turret
window, she descried King Arthur come riding down a forest glade,
and the sunbeams falling upon him made one glory of his armour and
of his yellow hair. Then, as Annoure gazed upon the King, her heart
grew hot within her, and she resolved that, come what might, she
would have him for her own, to dwell with her always and fulfil all her
behests. And so she bade lower the drawbridge and raise the portcullis,
and sallying forth accompanied by her maidens, she gave King Arthur

courteous salutation, and prayed him that he would rest within her
castle that day, for that she had a
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