Read Online The Death of King Arthur by Peter Ackroyd - Free Book Online Page B

you, brother,’ Balan replied. ‘You were carrying the wrong shield, so I mistook you for another knight.’
    â€˜Someone in this castle was plotting against us. I was given this shield. I wish I could destroy this place, and put down its evil customs.’
    â€˜When I rode to this castle,’ his brother told him, ‘I was forced to confront a knight dressed in red. After I had defeated him I was doomed to remain here to challenge all newcomers. It would have happened to you.’
    The mistress of the castle then came out to them, and heard them moaning in their grief. ‘We came out of the same womb,’ Balan said to her. ‘We spring from the same mother’s belly. So bury us together here, where we fought in battle.’ Graciously she granted them their wish. She sent for a priest who anointed them and read the last rites to them.
    â€˜When we are buried in the same tomb,’ Balin said, ‘make mention of the fact that we were two brothers who fought and slew one another by sorrowful mischance. No worthy knight or good man will see this sepulchre without praying for our souls.’ Then Balin died, and his brother breathed his last at midnight. The lady set up the tomb, and recorded there the fact that Balan had been killed by his brother. But she did not know the name of Balin.
    Then Merlin came to this tomb, and inscribed his own message in letters of gold: HERE LIES BALIN THE SAVAGE. HE WAS KNOWN AS THE KNIGHT WITH TWO SWORDS. IT WAS HE WHO DELIVERED THE DOLOROUS STROKE. Merlin also made a bed out of magical wood, so that any man who lay in it would go out of his wits. Only Lancelot, in later years, was able to break the spell.
    By his sorcery Merlin also buried the tip of the sword in a stone of marble that, in years to come, would float down the river to the city of Camelot that is in English called Winchester. Here it would come under the gaze of the high prince, Galahad. This story is to be told in the Book of the Holy Grail, the holiest book in the world.

Arthur and Guinevere
    In these first far-off days of Arthur’s reign, the king relied very much on Merlin’s counsel. So there came a time when he came to him and spoke thus: ‘My barons will let me have no rest, Merlin, until I take a wife. But I will not choose a lady without your wisdom and advice.’

Merlin’s warning
    â€˜They are right, sire,’ he replied, ‘to press you so. A king should always have a consort. Is there anyone you love more than another?’
    â€˜There is indeed. Guinevere is the daughter of King Lodegreaunce, the lord of the land of Camelerd. She is the fairest and most fearless woman I have ever met in my life.’
    â€˜I grant you that she is the loveliest. But if you waited a little, I could find you another lady of beauty and of wisdom. But once a man’s heart is set, there he will abide.’
    â€˜True in my case.’
    Then Merlin warned Arthur that Guinevere in time would cause him great anguish – that Sir Lancelot would fall in love with her and that she would return his love. All this turned out as he predicted. Then he told the king certain secret matters concerning the Holy Grail, about which the old books are silent.
    The magician then travelled to the court of King Lodegreaunce, and informed him of Arthur’s proposal of marriage. ‘That is the best news I have ever heard,’ Lodegreaunce told him. ‘I cannot think of a better husband for her. I would give all my lands as a dowry, but I know that he has territory enough. I will send him a gift that will please him even more. I will dispatch to him the Round Table that his father, Uther Pendragon, granted to me. It can seat one hundred and fifty good knights. I have one hundred of my own, but the other fifty have been killed during the course of my reign.’
    So King Lodegreaunce, with his daughter and one hundred knights, made their way to the court of Arthur at