The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights | Page 3

about him,
regardless of the fact that almost every detail mentioned was something like a thousand
years too late.
Had Malory undertaken an account of the landing of Julius Caesar he would, as a matter
of course, have protected the Roman legions with bascinet or salade, breastplate,
pauldron and palette, coudiére, taces and the rest, and have armed them with lance and
shield, jewel-hilted sword and slim misericorde; while the Emperor himself might have
been given the very suit of armour stripped from the Duke of Clarence before his fateful
encounter with the butt of malmsey.
Did not even Shakespeare calmly give cannon to the Romans and suppose every
continental city to lie majestically beside the sea? By the old writers, accuracy in these
matters was disregarded, and anachronisms were not so much tolerated as unperceived.
In illustrating this edition of "The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights," it has
seemed best, and indeed unavoidable if the text and the pictures are to tally, to draw what
Malory describes, to place the fashion of the costumes and armour somewhere about A.D.
1460, and to arm the knights in accordance with the Tabard Period.
LANCELOT SPEED.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Marriage of King Arthur
Then fell Sir Ector down upon his knees upon the ground before young Arthur, and Sir
Key also with him.
The Lady of the Lake
The giant sat at supper, gnawing on a limb of a man, and baking his huge frame by the
fire
The castle rocked and rove throughout, and all the walls fell crashed and breaking to the
earth
Came forth twelve fair damsels, and saluted King Arthur by his name
Prianius was christened, and made a duke and knight of the Round Table
Sir Lancelot smote down with one spear five knights, and brake the backs of four, and
cast down the King of Northgales
Beyond the chapel, he met a fair damsel, who said, "Sir Lancelot, leave that sword behind
thee, or thou diest"

"Lady," replied Sir Beaumains, "a knight is little worth who may not bear with a damsel"
So he rode into the hall and alighted
Then they began the battle, and tilted at their hardest against each other
And running to her chamber, she sought in her casket for the piece of iron ... and fitted it
in Tristram's sword
By the time they had finished drinking they loved each other so well that their love never
more might leave them
Waving her hands and muttering the charm, and presently enclosed him fast within the
tree
Galahad ... quickly lifted up the stone, and forthwith came out a foul smoke
"This girdle, lords," said she, "is made for the most part of mine own hair, which, while I
was yet in the world, I loved full well"
At last the strange knight smote him to the earth, and gave him such a buffet on the helm
as wellnigh killed him
Then was Sir Lancelot sent for, and the letter read aloud by a clerk
But still the knights cried mightily without the door, "Traitor, come forth!"

THE LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR
CHAPTER I
The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of Arthur
King Vortigern the usurper sat upon his throne in London, when, suddenly, upon a
certain day, ran in a breathless messenger, and cried aloud--
"Arise, Lord King, for the enemy is come; even Ambrosius and Uther, upon whose
throne thou sittest--and full twenty thousand with them--and they have sworn by a great
oath, Lord, to slay thee, ere this year be done; and even now they march towards thee as
the north wind of winter for bitterness and haste."
At those words Vortigern's face grew white as ashes, and, rising in confusion and
disorder, he sent for all the best artificers and craftsmen and mechanics, and commanded
them vehemently to go and build him straightway in the furthest west of his lands a great
and strong castle, where he might fly for refuge and escape the vengeance of his master's
sons--"and, moreover," cried he, "let the work be done within a hundred days from now,
or I will surely spare no life amongst you all."

Then all the host of craftsmen, fearing for their lives, found out a proper site whereon to
build the tower, and eagerly began to lay in the foundations. But no sooner were the walls
raised up above the ground than all their work was overwhelmed and broken down by
night invisibly, no man perceiving how, or by whom, or what. And the same thing
happening again, and yet again, all the workmen, full of terror, sought out the king, and
threw themselves upon their faces before him, beseeching him to interfere and help them
or to deliver them from their dreadful