Arthur Rex (63 page)

Therefore he left Camelot to recruit him an host, and as he failed ever to stir the loyal British churls to revolt, he went to Germany amongst the detestable Saxons and the loathsome Angles, and by making them large proffers he collected an army amongst these villainous peoples who had always coveted Britain, the which was a gem in the mud of the world, and these he brought across the British Channel to Kent.

Then he went to Cornwall, to the court of King Mark. Now owing to his witness of the love of Tristram and La Belle Isold, Mark became a kindly king, but when it had a tragic end he became embittered, for his grasp of philosophy did not exceed the near-at-hand, and he became an enemy of virtue and therefore he did not love King Arthur.

So when Sir Mordred came unto him and promised that in exchange for his aid against King Arthur, Mark could divide with him the entire island of Britain, the Cornish king did agree. And he did not know of the Germans who were camped in Kent.

And next Mordred went to Ireland, where King Anguish still occupied the throne, and he made him the same proffer as he had made to King Mark.

But King Anguish said, “I am too old for to go to battle, and I already have the finest land in the world. I made an error in sending Isold to Cornwall. Ireland for the Irish! I shall not fight unless some bloody buggers try to invade my lovely kingdom.” And he had Mordred stripped and taken to the sea and thrown therein.

And Mordred had no more success amongst the Picts and the Scots. Therefore he went back to join his precious Angles and Saxons, and he formed an host of these beastly men, and they feloniously marched towards Camelot.

Now King Arthur had gone to the castle of Joyous Garde, the which he had besieged for many months, and between him and Sir Launcelot, who was therein, a stalemate existed. For Launcelot would not surrender the queen for to be burned, and King Arthur could not go away without her. And yet they loved each other, so that they would not fight to determine whose will should prevail, nor did any of the knights on either side fight those of the other, for they were all dear friends.

And when King Arthur learned that the supply of foodstuffs within the castle had been exhausted he sent in great stores of meat, and Sir Kay though loyal to Arthur went along with these stores, and he prepared many a delicate meal for Guinevere and her ladies-in-waiting (whom King Arthur had sent to attend her), for to please the queen’s fine palate had ever been his greatest joy.

But Sir Gawaine that noble knight did not love Sir Launcelot any longer, and he would fain have fought with him, but Launcelot refused to meet him, and from the battlements of Joyous Garde he spake to him as follows.

“Gawaine, my dear friend,” said he. “I believe that I could not have done other than to defend myself against the attacks of thy gallant brothers. Yet I know a terrible shame that I did slay them, for they were all three fine knights and my friends! I shall henceforth never have a moment’s peace from anguish. But that they would have taken the queen for her burning I should not have resisted them, and even now I should surrender myself to thee for whatever punishment thou wouldst bring me, were it not that I must protect the queen, who is blameless in all our troubles.”

“Sir Launcelot,” said Sir Gawaine, standing below the wall, “I do not seek to punish thee, which is something only God may do. But I would fight thee honestly, to the death of whichever one. I can not live with honor when thou hast killed all of my family, for what would my sons think of a father who forsook his duty?”

But Launcelot said, “My dear Gawaine, I will not again raise my sword against anyone of thy blood. I have shed too much of it!” And weeping copiously he went within.

Now this colloquy had taken place many times in the weeks in which King Arthur had besieged Joyous Garde, and neither changed his opinion, nor did King Arthur in his dutiful conviction that Guinevere must be taken and burned at the stake. And only God knows how long they all might have remained
in statu quo
like unto figures woven into a tapestry were it not for Mordred.

For Sir Mordred marched on Camelot with his Germans from the east, and King Mark had come with an host of Cornishmen from the southwest, and these forces had converged on Salisbury Plain, near Stonehenge (for which Merlin had brought the great stones from Ireland many years before, and which was sometimes thought to be a druidical monument, but which was actually an immense and cunning calendar).

And reports were brought to King Arthur by the loyal Britons who lived in that region and who had escaped the murder and rapine wreaked by the Germans on the land.

And hearing these news King Arthur said to Sir Gawaine, “Nephew, the realm is in dire peril. We must needs leave the siege of Joyous Garde and go to repel the foe.”

Now Gawaine, having heard who led the enemy host, hung his head in shame, and he said, “Doth it not seem futile that I am here to defend the honor of my family when my youngest brother is a vile traitor!” And he was so tormented by this that his uncle the king at last made an admission that he had never made before to anyone, so that he might relieve that good knight his nephew.

“Gawaine,” said he, “thou shouldst know that Mordred is thy brother but by half. Like thou and Agravaine and Gaheris and Gareth, his mother was Queen Margawse, but he did never come from the loins of thy father King Lot. Nay!” And his noble countenance become the seat of a shame much greater than that of Gawaine. “God forgive me,” said King Arthur, “for Mordred is mine own son! And begat in incest he has lived in unnatural bastardy, and I can not but hate him, for he is the creature of mine own detestable lust. And now I must go and kill him, and then methinks I am ready to die myself.”

And he wept greatly, and Sir Gawaine though in great grief himself sought to comfort him, but he could find no way in which to do it. And then Gawaine thought of his old friend Launcelot again, and how that he filled a need for the queen, who else had been alone all her life, for King Arthur had been unmanned through his unnatural connection with Gawaine’s own mother. And Sir Gawaine, first the merry lecher and then the satisfied husband, understood that he had been a rare man in being made happy by all women he had ever met, and few knights and fewer kings could say the same.

But then thinking further, he believed that if Sir Launcelot had not engaged in an illegal congress with Guinevere and then carried her away when it was discovered, the detestable traitor Mordred could not have gone so far in his design to ruin King Arthur and destroy the Round Table.

Now King Arthur soon dried his eyes and he prepared to march on Mordred’s host, for he was the king and kings can not allow the accidents of personality to obscure the essence of their rule.

And he said to Sir Gawaine, “In this extreme situation Guinevere’s crime must be seen as a mere foible, and furthermore we require the service of the many good knights who joined Sir Launcelot at Joyous Garde. Therefore go to him and say that King Arthur doth withdraw the siege, and that he shall not fear punishment on the condition that he void Britain absolutely and stay in banishment forever.”

“And what of the queen?” asked Sir Gawaine.

“She may go anywhere she listeth,” said King Arthur, “except to return to Camelot. I will not lift mine hand against her now or in the future.”

And Sir Gawaine went below the wall of Joyous Garde and he called to Sir Launcelot, who came onto the battlements, and he told him of King Arthur’s decision. And Sir Launcelot was pleased to hear that the queen would not be burned, and therefore he had the gates opened and all the knights that had been with him came out and they joined the king’s forces without prejudice.

Then Guinevere rode forth alone on her white palfrey, and on that morning when the sky was leaden it was as if the sun had appeared upon the earth. And she came to the pavilion of King Arthur, and she dismounted and she went in unto him and she fell upon her knees.

Now King Arthur protested, “Rise, Guinevere! You have nothing for to beg of me, for I would do you no harm, having taken my oath upon it.”

“Arthur,” said Guinevere, “I kneel before you because you are the king and I am your subject like any other, but what I beg of you is nothing for myself. Indeed, with me you have been more merciful than any other king would have been in all the world. But I beg you not to banish Sir Launcelot, and not for mine own sake, but rather for yours. To overcome your enemies you will need his sword, which is invincible. Nor is he guilty of wrongdoing, for what he did was by command of his queen, to whom you had sent him as her own knight.
And I had nobody else to rule over!
Therefore he bears no responsibility for this shame, and all of it is mine.”

And though kneeling in entreaty Guinevere was humble in no wise, but rather she was as proud as she had ever been, for she was the sort of woman who could not be otherwise to save her soul.

And King Arthur came to her and taking her hands he lifted her to her feet. “My dear queen,” he said, “you do embarrass me and not for the first time. Of late I have considered whether you would not have been a better sovereign than I, and whether were our situations reversed I should as consort have acted as well as you.

“But to proceed further with this fantasy would no doubt be blasphemous, God having decided which must rule and which must serve. And power came to me by surprise: until I drew the sword from the stone a second time that fatal day, I never knew I was so much as a prince, let alone a king.”

And King Arthur looked very old and weary, and he sat down upon the portable throne which he used when afield.

“Indeed, though I was proficient with weapons when a boy I did not foresee a career as a knight. I expected to be a farmer, Guinevere! And I confess to thee alone that I have never felt so comfortable with men as with animals, and the best friends I ever had in all my life were the hounds of Sir Hector my foster-father, R.I.P., and the horses, and even the sheep and the swine. And it is a curious thing that my father Uther Pendragon, with whom I have shared little else, did also have a great love for his beasts.”

And King Arthur smiled awhile, but then he came out of his reverie, and he said, “But when rule was thrust upon me by God, who had arranged that no one else could withdraw the sword from the stone, I must needs accept it. Yet, though one must never question the decision of Heaven, I have ever believed myself a strange choice for the throne of Britain. Power, Guinevere, hath never been to my taste.”

“But perhaps,” said Guinevere, “that is because you have always had all of it! Those who crave power are neither those who have none, like the churls, nor those who have all, like you, but rather those who have some claim to it but can not get enough.”

“Yea,” said King Arthur, “like Caesar, for whom Europe was not enough, and therefore he came here to our blessed island, which God permitted the Romans to take and hold briefly only so that the Christian religion might be brought to our stout Britons, so that when Rome fell to the barbarians we might be the only bastion in a world of utter savagery.”

But then King Arthur said to the queen, “Enough of this, for this is a matter which is of concern to men and not to women, and now I must go to war.”

And she did therefore believe him to be the most innocent of men though the greatest king of all, and perhaps there was some connection.

And she said to him, “Arthur, I am sorry to have committed an offense against you.”

But the king said, “Nay, Guinevere, not against
me,
for what I am in myself is nothing, but rather against the crown, which is all. Therefore I can not permit Launcelot to fight at my side, much as I need his sword, indeed much as I love him dearly as my friend, for that love is merely personal.”

“And what of me?” asked Guinevere. “Where shall I go now? And if I ask, Is there a place for me in all the world?, then I wonder whether there has ever been one!”

“What you do now is a matter between you and God,” said King Arthur. “It were truly impertinent for me to think about this.” But then he looked softly upon her, and he said, “I have thought too much in time past. I loved thee greatly, my dear Guinevere, in mine own fashion. And I love thee yet. Never have I pronounced an animadversion upon thee! We must part now, never to meet again in this life. As a man and lately thine husband, I say only, Go with God!” And then he became stern though not unkind, and he said, “As a king my counsel is to cultivate discretion.”

And then he strode from his pavilion and he commanded his knights to assemble and to march on Salisbury Plain, there to meet the host assembled by the vile Mordred.

And Guinevere, alone in the pavilion, did think King Arthur not so innocent after all, and she forgave him as he had forgiven her.

Now last of all to come out of Joyous Garde was Sir Launcelot, and he was alone as well, for now that he had preserved Guinevere from burning they had no more reason to cleave together.

But Sir Gawaine was waiting for him without the gate, and when Launcelot rode out, Gawaine said to him, “Sir, we have an appointment.”

“Dear Gawaine,” said Sir Launcelot, “must we fight? All of it is finished now, for whatever the outcome of King Arthur’s war with Mordred, the Round Table is no longer a perfect circle, if it ever was, for at its finest moment there was one seat unfilled. But methinks there was a moral continuity amongst us, and that such a company of knights could come together in the common cause of virtue for even an instant was unique in the history of the world.”

“Well,” said Sir Gawaine, “the principle was noble and we all of us did uphold it each in his own fashion, and perhaps we did well as we could, being but men.”

“Alas!” said Sir Launcelot, “certes, that is true of thee and the others, but I could not have done worse! And to say that I could not help myself is no excuse before God nor man. I did what I did, and I can not undo it. And now, having caused this great peril to come to King Arthur, I can not even defend him against it.”

“Nay,” said Sir Gawaine, “thou didst not cause it, Launcelot, but thou didst give an opportunity to a vile knight to use for his cause, and that caitiff is my only remaining brother. And though I can finally forgive thee for killing Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth in self-defense, I can not pardon thee for assisting Mordred, though unwittingly, in his detestable scheme. Unless I fight thee now, this greatest of all shames to my family will never be expunged.”