The Once and Future King Read online

  "But you can't refuse to go away ever. You can't spend the rest of your life chained to the Queen, on purpose to keep Lancelot away. What about the hunting party you were supposed to join next week? If you don't go on that, you will be altering your plans deliberately, so as to thwart justice."

  "Nobody succeeds in thwarting justice, Agravaine."

  "So you will go on the hunting party, Uncle Arthur, and we have permission to break into the Queen's room, if Lancelot is there?"

  The elation in his voice was so indecent that even Mordred was disgusted. The King stood, pulling his gown round him, as if for warmth.

  "We will go."

  "And you will not tell them beforehand?" The man's voice tripped over itself with excitement. "You won't warn them after we have made the accusation? It would not be fair?"

  "Fair?" he asked.

  He looked at them from an immense distance, seeming to weigh truth, justice, evil and the affairs of men.

  "You have our permission."

  His eyes came back from the distance, fixing them personally with a falcon's gleam.

  "But if I may speak for a moment, Mordred and Agravaine, as a private person, the only hope I now have left is that Lancelot will kill you both and all the witnesses—a feat which, I am proud to say, has never been beyond my Lancelot's power. And I may add this also, as a minister of Justice, that if you fail for one moment in establishing this monstrous accusation, I shall pursue you both remorselessly, with all the rigour of the laws which you yourselves have set in motion."

  Chapter VI

  Lancelot knew that the King had gone to hunt in the New Forest, so he was sure that the Queen would send for him. It was dark in his bedroom, except for the one light in front of the holy picture, and he was pacing the floor in a dressing–gown. Except for the gay dressing–gown, and a sort of turban wound round his head, he was ready for bed: that is, he was naked.

  It was a sombre room, without luxuries. The walls were bare and there was no canopy over the small hard couch. The windows were unglazed. They had some sort of oiled, opaque linen stretched over them. Great commanders often have these plain, campaigning bedrooms—they say that the Duke of Wellington used to sleep on a camp bed at Walmer Castle—with nothing in them except perhaps a chair, or an old trunk. Lancelot's room had one coffin–like, metal–bound chest. Apart from that, and from the bed, there was nothing to be seen—except his huge sword which stood against the wall, its straps hanging about it.

  There was a kettle–hat lying on the chest. After some time, he picked it up and carried it to the picture light, where he stood with the same puzzled expression which the boy had had so long ago—looking at his reflection in the steel. He put it down, and began to march once more.

  When the tap came on the door, he thought it was the signal. He was picking up the sword, and stretching his hand to the latch, when the door opened on its own account. Gareth came in.

  "May I come?"

  "Gareth!"

  He looked at him in surprise, then said without enthusiasm: "Come in. It is nice to see you."

  "Lancelot, I have come to warn you."

  After a close look, the old man grinned.

  "Gracious!" he said. "I hope you are not going to warn me about anything serious?"

  "Yes, it is serious."

  "Well, come in, and shut the door."

  "Lancelot, it is about the Queen. I don't know how to begin."

  "Don't trouble to begin then."

  He took the younger man by the shoulders, began propelling him back to the door.

  "It was charming of you to warn me," he said, squeezing the shoulders, "but I don't expect you can tell me anything I don't know."

  "Oh, Lancelot, you know I would do anything to help you. I don't know what the others will say when they hear I have been to you. But I couldn't stay away."

  "What is the trouble?"

  He stopped their progress to look at him again.

  "It is Agravaine and Mordred. They hate you. Or Agravaine does. He is jealous. Mordred hates Arthur most. We tried our best to stop them, but they would go on. Gawaine says he won't have anything to do with it, either way, and Gaheris was never good at making up his mind. So I had to come myself. I had to come, even if it is against my own brothers and the clan, because I owe everything to you, and I couldn't let it happen."

  "My poor Gareth! What a state you have got yourself in!"

  "They have been to the King and told him outright that you—that you go to the Queen's bedroom. We tried to stop them, and we wouldn't stay to listen, but that is what they told."

  Lancelot released the shoulder. He took two paces through the room.

  "Don't be upset about it," he said, coming back. "Many people have said so before, but nothing came of it. It will blow over."

  "Not this time. I can feel it won't, inside me."

  "Nonsense."

  "It is not nonsense, Lancelot. They hate you. They won't try a combat this time, not after Meliagrance. They are too cunning. They will do something to trap you. They will go behind your back."

  But the veteran only smiled and patted him.

  "You are imagining things," he announced. "Go home to bed, my friend, and forget it. It was nice of you to come—but go home now and cheer up, and have a good sleep. If the King had been going to make a fuss, he would never have gone off hunting."

  Gareth bit his fingers, plucking up the face to speak directly. At last he said: "Please don't go to the Queen tonight."

  Lancelot lifted one of his extraordinary eyebrows—but lowered it on second thoughts.

  "Why not?"

  "I am sure it is a trap. I am sure the King has gone away for the night on purpose that you should go to her, and then Agravaine will be there to catch you."

  "Arthur would never do a thing like that."

  "He has."

  "Nonsense. I have known Arthur since you were in the nursery, and he wouldn't do it."

  "But it is a risk!"

  "If it is a risk, I shall enjoy it."

  "Please!"

  This time he put his hand in the small of Gareth's back, and began moving him seriously to the door.

  "Now, my dear kitchen page, just listen. In the first place, I know Arthur: in the second place, I know Agravaine. Do you think I ought to be afraid of him?"

  "But treachery…"

  "Gareth, once when I was a young fellow a lady came skipping past me, chasing after a peregrine which had snapped its creance. The trailing part of the creance got wound up in a tree, and the peregrine hung there at the top. The lady persuaded me to climb the tree, to get her hawk. I was never much of a climber. When I did get to the top, and had freed the hawk, the lady's husband turned up in full armour and said he was going to chop my head off. All the hawk business had been a trap to get me out of my armour, so that he would have me at his mercy. I was in the tree in my shirt, without even a dagger."

  "Yes?"

  "Well, I knocked him on the head with a branch. And he was a much better man than poor old Agravaine, even if we have grown rheumaticky since those bright days."

  "I know you can deal with Agravaine. But suppose he attacks you with an armed band?"

  "He won't do anything."

  "He will."

  There was a scratch at the door, a gentle drumming. A mouse might have made it, but Lancelot's eyes grew vague.

  "Well, if he does," he said shortly, "then I shall have to fight the band. But the situation is imaginary."

  "Couldn't you stay away tonight?"

  They had reached the door, and the King's captain spoke decisively.

  "Look," he said, "if you must know, the Queen has sent for me. I could hardly refuse, once I was sent for, could I?"

  "So my treachery to the Old Ones will be useless?"

  "Not useless. Anybody who knew would love you for facing it. But we can trust Arthur."

  "And you will go in spite of everything?"

  "Yes, kitchen page, and I shall go this
minute. Good gracious, don't look so tragic about it. Leave it to the practised scoundrel and run away to bed."

  "It means Good–bye."

  "Nonsense, it means Good night. And, what is more, the Queen is waiting."

  The old man swung a mantle over his shoulder, as easily as if he were still in the pride of youth. He lifted the latch and stood in the doorway, wondering what he had forgotten.

  "If only I could stop you!"

  "Alas, you can't."

  He stepped into the darkness of the passage, dismissing the subject from his mind, and disappeared. What he had forgotten was his sword.

  Chapter VII

  Guenever waited for Lancelot in the candle–light of her splendid bedroom, brushing her grey hair. She looked singularly lovely, not like a film star, but like a woman who had grown a soul. She was singing by herself. It was a hymn—of all things—the beautiful Veni, Sancte Spiritus which is supposed to have been written by a Pope.

  The candle flames, rising up stilly on the night air, were reflected from the golden lioncels which studded the deep blue canopy of the bed. The combs and brushes sparkled with ornaments in cut paste. A large chest of polished latoun had saints and angels enamelled in the panels. The brocaded hangings beamed on the walls in soft folds—and, on the floor, a desperate and reprehensible luxury, there was a genuine carpet. It made people shy when they walked on it, since carpets were not originally intended for mere floors. Arthur used to walk round it.

  Guenever was singing and brushing, her low voice fitting the stillness of the candles, when the door opened softly. The commander–in–chief dropped his black cloak on the chest and stepped across to stand behind her. She saw him in the mirror without surprise.

  "May I do it for you?"

  "If you like."

  He took the brush, and began sweeping it through the silver avalanche with fingers which were deft from practice, while the Queen closed her eyes.

  After a time, he spoke.

  "It is like … I don't know what. Not like silk. It is more like pouring water, only there is something cloudy about it too. The clouds are made of water, aren't they? Is it a pale mist, or a winter sea, or a waterfall, or a hayrick in the frost? Yes, it is a hayrick, deep and soft and full of scent."

  "It is a nuisance," she said.

  "It is the sea," he said solemnly, "in which I was born."

  The Queen opened her eyes and asked: "Did you come safely?"

  "Nobody saw."

  "Arthur said he was coming back tomorrow."

  "Did he? Here is a white hair."

  "Pull it out."

  "Poor hair," he said. "It is a thin one. Why is your hair so beautiful, Jenny? I should have to plait about six of them together, to be as thick as one of mine. Shall I pull?"

  "Yes, pull."

  "Did it hurt?"

  "No."

  "Why didn't it? When I was small, I used to pull my sisters' hair, and they used to pull mine, and it hurt like fury. Do we lose our faculties as we get older, so that we can't feel our pains and joys?"

  "No," she explained. "It is because you only pulled one of them. When you pull a whole lock together, then it hurts. Look."

  He held down his head so that she could reach, and she, stretching up backward with a white arm, twisted his forelock round her finger. She tugged until he made a face.

  "Yes, it still hurts. What a relief!"

  "Was that how your sisters pulled it?"

  "Yes, but I pulled theirs much harder. Whenever I came near one of my sisters she used to hold her pigtails in both hands, and glare at me."

  She laughed.

  "I'm glad I wasn't one of your sisters."

  "Oh, but I should never have pulled yours. Yours is too beautiful. I should have wanted to do something else with it."

  "What would you have done?"

  "I should … well, I think I should have curled up inside it like a dormouse, and gone to sleep. I should like to do that now."

  "Not until it is finished."

  "Jenny," he asked suddenly, "do you think this will last?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Gareth came to me just now, to warn us that Arthur had gone away on purpose to set a trap, and that Agravaine or Mordred was going to catch us out."

  "Arthur would never do a thing like that."

  "That's what I said."

  "Unless he was made to," she reflected.

  "I don't see how they could make him."

  She went off at a tangent.

  "It was nice of Gareth to go against his brothers."

  "Do you know, I think he is one of the nicest people at court. Gawaine is decent, but he is quick–tempered and rather unforgiving."

  "He is loyal."

  "Yes, Arthur used to say that if you were not an Orkney, they were frightful: but, if you were, you were a lucky man. They fight like cats, but they adore each other really. It is a clan."

  The Queen's tangent had somehow brought her back to the circle.

  "Lance," she asked in a startled voice, "do you think they could have forced the King's hand?"

  "How do you mean?"

  "Arthur has a terrific sense of justice."

  "I wonder."

  "There was that conversation last week. I thought he was trying to warn us. Listen! Did you hear something?"

  "No."

  "I thought I heard somebody at the door."

  "I'll go and see."

  He went to the door and opened it, but there was nobody there.

  "A false alarm."

  "Bolt it then."

  He slid the wooden beam across—a great bar of oak five inches thick, which slid into a channel deep in the thickness of the wall. Coming back to the candle–light, he separated the shining hair into convenient strands and began to plait them swiftly. His hands moved like shuttles.

  "It is silly to be nervous," he observed.

  She was still speculating, however, and replied with a question.

  "Do you remember Tristram and Iseult?"

  "Of course."

  "Tristram used to sleep with King Mark's wife, and the King murdered him for it."

  "Tristram was a lout."

  "I thought he was nice."

  "That was what he wanted you to think. But he was a Cornish knight, like the rest of them."

  "He was said to be the second–best knight in the world. Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristram, Sir Lamorak…"

  "That was tittle–tattle."

  "Why did you think he was a lout?" she asked.

  "Well, it's a long story. You don't remember what chivalry used to be before your Arthur started the Table, so you don't know what a genius you have married. You don't see what a difference there is between Tristram, and, well, Gareth for instance."

  "What difference?"

  "In the old days it was a case of every knight for himself. The old stagers, people like Sir Bruce Saunce Pité, were pirates. They knew they were impregnable in armour, and they did as they pleased. It was open manslaughter and bold bawdry. When Arthur came to the throne, they were furious. You see, he believed in Right and Wrong."

  "He still does."

  "Fortunately he had a tenacious character as well as this idea of his. It took him about five years to set it on foot, but it was that people ought to be gentle. I must have been one of the first knights to catch the idea of gentleness from him, and I caught it young, and he made it part of my inside. Everybody is always saying what a parfit, gentle knight I am, but it has nothing to do with me. It is Arthur's idea. It is what he has wished on all the younger generation, like Gareth, and now it is fashionable. It led to the Quest for the Grail."

  "And why was Tristram a lout?"

  "Well, he just was. Arthur says he was a buffoon. He lived in Cornwall; he had never been educated by Arthur; but he had got wind of the fashion. He had got some garbled notion into his head that famous knights ought to be gentle, and he was always rushing about trying to live up to the fashion, without properly understanding it o
r feeling it in himself. He was a sort of copy–cat. Inside, he was not a bit gentle. He was foul to his wife, he was always bullying poor old Palomides for being a nigger, and he treated King Mark most shamefully. The knights from Cornwall are Old Ones and have always been hostile to Arthur's idea, inside themselves, even if they do get hold of a part of it."

  "Like Agravaine."

  "Yes. Agravaine's mother was from Cornwall. The reason why Agravaine hates me is because I stand for the idea. It is a funny thing, but all three of us that the common people used to call the three best knights—I mean Lamorak, Tristram and myself—have been hated by the Old Ones. They were delighted when Tristram was murdered because he copied the idea, and, of course, it was the Gawaine family who actually killed Sir Lamorak by treachery."

  "I think," she said, "that the reason why Agravaine hates you is the old story of sour grapes. I don't think he cares a bit about the idea, but he naturally envies anybody who is a better fighter than himself. He loathed Tristram because of the thrashing he got from him on the way to Joyous Gard, and he helped to murder Lamorak because the boy had beaten him at the Priory Jousts, and—how many times have you upset him?"

  "I don't remember."

  "Lance, do you realize that the two other people he hated are dead?"

  "Everybody dies, sooner or later."

  Suddenly the Queen had swept her plaits out of his fingers. She had twisted round in the chair, and, with one hand holding a pigtail, she was staring at him with round eyes.

  "I believe it is true, what Gareth said! I believe they are coming to catch us tonight!"

  She jumped out of the chair and began pushing him to the door.

  "Go away. Go while there is time."

  "But, Jenny…"

  "No. No buts. I know it is true. I can feel it. Here is your cloak. Oh, Lance, please go quickly. They stabbed Sir Lamorak in the back."

  "Come, Jenny, don't get excited about nothing. It is only a fancy…"

  "It is not a fancy. Listen. Listen."

  "I can't hear anything."

  "Look at the door."

  The handle which lifted the latch of the door, a piece of wrought iron shaped like a horse–shoe, was moving softly to the left. It moved like a crab, uncertainly.