CHAPTER III.
THE RETURN OF GUENEVER.
It befell upon a day in harvest-time that Lancelot looked over the walls of Joyous Gard, and seeing below him the king and Gawaine, thus spoke to them,—
"My lords both, you besiege this castle in vain. You will gain more dishonor than worship here. If I chose to come out, with my knights, I should soon bring this war to an end."
"Come forth, if thou darest!" cried the king, in anger. "I promise to meet thee in the midst of the field."
"God defend that I should face on the field of battle the noble king who made me knight."
"A truce to your fair language," answered the king. "Trust me, that I am your mortal foe, and will be so till the day of my death. You have slain my knights and dishonored my queen, and hold her from me by force, like a traitor. Think you I shall lightly forgive this?"
"You may say what you will, my lord and king," answered Lancelot. "With you I will not fight; but as for your lady Guenever, I am ready to stand for her innocence against any knight under heaven. Those who have slandered me and her lie in their teeth, and I hold myself ready to prove to the death that she is as true and chaste a lady as ever lived. More than once, my lord, you have consented that she should be burnt, from the voice of slander, and more than once have I rescued her, and forced the lie down the throats of her slanderers. Then you thanked me for saving her from the fire. Now, for doing you the same high service again, you bring war upon me. Your queen is honest and true, and if you will receive her to your good grace again I stand ready to deliver her."
"Recreant knight!" cried Gawaine, in wrath, "I warrant you my lord the king shall have his queen and you too, despite your fair words and proud defiance, and shall slay you both if it please him."
"That may be, Gawaine," said Lancelot. "Yet if I chose to come out of the castle you would not find it quite child's play to win me and the queen."
"Save your boastful words," said Gawaine. "As for my lady, the queen, I shall say naught to her dishonor. But, recreant knight, what cause had you to slay my brother Gareth, who loved you with his whole soul?"
"I shall not seek an excuse for that deed," said Lancelot. "I would with as good will have slain my nephew Sir Bors. All I may say is that it was done in the heat of battle, and I knew not they were slain till word was brought me here."
"You lie in your teeth!" cried Gawaine. "You killed them in despite of me; and for this foul deed I shall make war on you while I live."
"If you are so hotly set, there is no use for me to seek accord; yet I am truly sorry for their deaths and your enmity. Only for this I would soon have the good grace of my lord Arthur."
"That may be, traitor, but you will wait long for peace. You have lorded it over me, and the whole of us, too long, and slain knights at your will. Now our turn has come."
"No one dare say that I ever killed a knight through treachery, as you, Gawaine, have done."
"You mean Sir Lamorak. Him I slew, man to man."
"Who lies now? You know well that you and the crew that set upon him dared not meet him face to face. You struck him treacherously from behind."
"A truce to Lamorak. This you may know, that I will never leave you till I deal with you as I did with him."
"Murder me, you mean! I fancy you might if you caught me in such a strait, which you will not easily do."
Then others took the cue from Gawaine, and the cry went up from many voices: "False and recreant knight! how long will you hide behind your castle walls, like a rat in his hole?"
"How long is this to last?" said Bors and others to Lancelot. "We pray you to keep us no longer within these walls, but let us out to do battle with them. Men will say next that you are afraid. As for fair speech, it is thrown away. Gawaine will never forgive you, nor suffer you to make accord with the king. Therefore fight for your right, for to that it must come."
"I am loath to do so," said Lancelot.
Then he called from the wall to the king,—
"My knights demand that I let them sally from the castle. I therefore pray that neither you nor Sir Gawaine come into the field, for to you two I wish no harm."
"What then? Shall we cower in our tents while others fight our battles?" cried Gawaine. "This quarrel is mine and the king's. Shall we not fight in it?"
"If you will, you will; but I seek not battle with either of you."
Then they drew back, and both sides made ready for battle. And Gawaine, with deadly intent, set aside a strong body of knights, bidding them to attack Lancelot in force, and slay him if they could.
When the next morning came, King Arthur drew up his host against the castle in three great bands. And Lancelot's fellowship issued from the castle at three gates, the three bands being led by Lancelot, Bors, and Lionel. But Lancelot had given strict charge to his knights to avoid harming King Arthur and Sir Gawaine.
Fierce was the battle that followed, and many good knights were slain. It began with a challenge from Gawaine, who came out before the king's host and dared any knight of Lancelot's to joust with him. This challenge Lionel accepted, but Gawaine thrust him through the body, and dashed him to the earth like a dead man. Then his friends rushed to his rescue and drove back his foes, bearing him from the field into the castle. This affray brought on a hot and fiery battle, and soon the air was filled with shouts, and the earth strewn with dead and wounded men.
In the midst of this fray the king hotly attacked Lancelot; but that faithful knight patiently endured his assault, and lifted not a hand in defence. But Bors, seeing his danger, rushed in, and, with a spear thrust, hurled King Arthur to the ground. Quickly leaping from his horse, he drew his sword, and said,—
"Shall I make an end of this war?"
"On pain of your head, no! Harm not the king! I shall not stand by and see him slain."
Then Lancelot sprang to the ground and helped the king to his horse again, saying,—
"My lord Arthur, for God's sake, end this strife! I will not fight you, though you kill me, nor have I the heart to fight your men. My lord, remember what I have done for you. Is not this an evil reward?"
When Arthur heard these words tears flowed from his eyes, for Lancelot's courtesy had overcome his anger. He turned and rode away, saying sadly,—
"Alas! that this war ever began."
Then both sides drew off, and parties of each began the sad duty of burying the dead, while the wounded were borne away, and healing salves applied to their wounds.
The next day the battle was renewed, and fought with the same deadly energy as before. On this day Bors led the foremost party, and met Gawaine as Lionel had done the day before. Fiercely together they rode, and both were hurled to the ground with deep and dangerous wounds. Around them the battle raged with double fierceness, but Lancelot broke in and rescued Bors, and had him borne to the castle, while the other party bore off Gawaine.
Then, as the battle continued, Lavaine and others begged Lancelot to put forth his strength and fight with his full might, for he imperilled them all by his forbearance.
"Why should you spare your foes?" they said. "You do but harm thereby. Your enemies spare not you."
"I have no heart to fight against the king," said Lancelot.
"If you spare them all this day they will never thank you," said Palamides. "And if they get the better of you they will slay you without mercy."
Lancelot saw that this was but the truth, and stirred by this and the wound of Sir Bors, he rushed into the fray with his old might and fury, forcing back all before him. Glad to see the old Lancelot, his followers pressed forward, driving back the foe, so that by eventide they had the best of the fray, and their horses went fetlock deep in the blood of the slain.
Then, in pity for Arthur, Lancelot blew the recall, and suffered the king's party to withdraw without further slaughter.
After this there was peace between the parties for many days, for Gawaine had been so sorely hurt that he could not stir the king to active war, and Arthur after awhile returned to Carlisle, leaving the castle closely besieged.
But the story of this war had now passed through Christendom, and had reached the pope, who, feeling that war between King Arthur and Lancelot was like battle between brothers, sent a letter to the king, commanding him, under pain of an interdict upon all England, to take his Queen Guenever into favor again, and to make peace and accord with Sir Lancelot.
This Papal bull was brought to Arthur by the bishop of Rochester, who was then at Rome. When the king had heard it read he knew not what to do. He agreed to take back the queen, and in his heart desired to make friends with Lancelot; but to this Gawaine, who had then the greatest influence over him, would not consent.
In the end it was agreed that if Lancelot would bring back the queen he should come and go in safety, and that no word should be spoken to Guenever, by the king or other person, of aught that had happened in the past.
Then the bishop had from the king his assurance, under the great seal of the realm, as he was a true anointed knight, that Sir Lancelot should come and return in safety, and that the queen should not be spoken to by the king, or any other, concerning what had passed. With this safe-conduct, written at length and signed by King Arthur, the holy prelate rode in state to Joyous Gard, where he made Lancelot acquainted with all that had happened, telling him of the pope's action, and of the peril he would encounter if he withheld the queen from the king.
"It was never in my thought," said Lancelot, "to withhold Queen Guenever from my lord Arthur. All men know why I have her in charge. She would have suffered a shameful death through the king's unjust anger had I not been on hand to save her life; and I hold her only from peril of that vile sentence, which has never until now been remitted. I thank the pope heartily that he has made peace between Guenever and the king, and God knows that I will be a thousand-fold gladder to take her back than I ever was to bring her away. All I demand is, that I shall come and go in safety, and that the queen shall have her liberty as before, and stand in no peril from this or any former charge against her. For else I dare venture to keep her from a harder shower than ever yet has fallen upon her or me."
"You need dread nothing either for yourself or the queen," replied the bishop. "You know full well that the pope must be obeyed, by the king as well as by you. It were not to the pope's worship nor my poor honor that you should be distressed, or the queen put to shame or peril. And as for King Arthur, here is his promise, under his own writing and seal."
Then he showed Lancelot all the written documents he had brought, both from the pope and the king.
"That suffices," said Lancelot. "I would trust King Arthur's bare word as I would the oath of half Christendom. No man can say that he ever broke his plighted faith. Therefore, I beg you to ride before me to the king, and recommend me to his good grace, letting him know that in eight days from to-day, by the grace of God, I shall bring to him his lady Queen Guenever. And say this further to him, that I stand ready to meet any one in the lists for the queen's fair fame except himself and Sir Gawaine, and the latter more from the king's love for him than from aught of his own deserts."
With this agreement the bishop departed to Carlisle, and when he had told the king how nobly Lancelot had spoken, the tears started from Arthur's eyes, and much he deplored in his heart the cruel chance that had aroused war between him and his dearest friend.
Lancelot now made ready a hundred knights, who were all dressed in green velvet, with their horses trapped to their heels, while each knight held in his hand an olive branch, in token of peace. For the queen there were provided four and twenty gentlewomen, who followed her in the same guise; while Lancelot was followed by twelve coursers, on each of which sat a young gentleman, and these were arrayed in green velvet with golden girdles, and the horses trapped to the heels with rich cloths, set with pearls and stones in gold, to the number of a thousand. As for Lancelot and Guenever, they were clothed in white cloth-of-gold tissue. And in this array they rode from Joyous Gard to Carlisle, and through Carlisle to the castle, while many an eye shed tears on seeing them.
Then Lancelot alighted and took the queen, and led her to where Arthur sat, with Gawaine and many great lords before him. Then he kneeled, and the queen with him.
Many of the assembled knights wept bitterly on seeing this, but the king sat in haughty silence, looking steadily upon the pair who knelt before him. Seeing his countenance, Lancelot rose and forced the queen to rise also. Then thus he spoke in knightly pride,—
"My lord the king, by the pope's command and yours I have brought you my lady, the queen, as right requireth. If there be any knight, whatever his degree, except your sacred self, who shall dare say she has been untrue to you, I, Lancelot du Lake, stand ready to make her honor good with my body. To liars you have listened, and that has caused all the trouble between you and me. Time has been, my lord Arthur, when you have been greatly pleased with me in that I did battle for my lady your queen. Full well you know, my most royal sir, that she has been put to great wrong before this time; and since it pleased you then that I should fight for her, it seems to me that I had still more cause this last time to rescue her from the fire, since she was to have been burnt for my sake. Had not the might of God been with me, think you that I could, unarmed, have prevailed over fourteen armed knights? I was sent for by the queen, who wished to confer with me, but had barely stepped within her chamber, when out burst Mordred and Agravaine, calling me traitor and recreant knight."
"They called you truly," said Gawaine.
"Did they so, Gawaine? By heaven, in their quarrel they failed to prove themselves in the right."
"I have given you no cause to do evil to me, Lancelot," said the king. "For I have loved you and yours more than all my other knights."
"My good lord and liege," answered Lancelot, "I beg it may not displease you if I answer that you have better cause to love me and mine than most knights, for none have done you such service as we have at many times and in many places. Often have I myself rescued you from deadly peril, when you were hard pressed by your foes; and it has ever been my joy to please you, and my lord Gawaine as well, in jousts and tournaments, and in set battles, both on horse and on foot. I wish not to boast of my deeds, yet you all know well that I never met a knight but that I was able to stand against him, and have always done my duty like a man. I have been matched with good knights, such as Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorak, whom I loved for their valor and honesty. And I take God to witness, that I was never angry with or jealous of any good knight whom I saw active to win honor, and was ever glad at heart when I found a knight who was able to endure me on horseback or on foot. Sir Carados of the dolorous tower was a noble knight and a man of mighty strength, and this you know full well, Sir Gawaine, since he pulled you from your horse, and bound you before him on his saddle. Yet I rescued you from him, and slew him before your eyes. In like manner I found his brother, Sir Turquine, leading your brother, Sir Gaheris, bound on his saddle, and slew him, and rescued your brother, as also three-score and four of King Arthur's knights whom he held in prison. Never met I with as strong and hard-fighting knights as Sir Carados and Sir Turquine, and I fought with them to the uttermost for the sake of you and your brother. It seems to me, Sir Gawaine, that you ought to bear in mind this good service I did for you in the past. If I might but have your good will in return, I would trust to God to have my lord Arthur's kindly grace."
"The king may do as he will," said Gawaine; "but while I live I shall never be in accord with you. I cannot forget that you have killed three of my brothers, two of them treacherously and pitilessly, for they wore no armor against you, and refused to bear any."
"Would to heaven they had been armed, for then they would now be alive," said Lancelot. "I tell you this, Sir Gawaine, that I love none of my own kinsmen as I did your brother, Sir Gareth, and would far rather have slain myself than him. Never while I live shall I cease to mourn his death, not alone for your bitter sorrow and anger, but for other causes which concern myself. One is, that it was I who made him a knight; another is, that he loved me above all other knights; a third is, that he was ever noble, true, courteous, and gentle. I never would have slain, or even hurt, either Gareth or Gaheris by my will; and sad at heart am I that this fatal chance has robbed me of your love and made undying war between us, and has caused my noble lord and king to be my mortal foe. May Jesus forgive me for this cruel chance, which the fates have laid upon me. In reparation for this sad misfortune, I shall freely offer, if it will please the king's good grace, and yours, my lord Gawaine, to do penance in this wise. I shall start from Sandwich, and go in my shirt, barefoot, and at every ten miles' end I shall found a religious house, of what order you wish, where shall be sung and read day and night psalms and masses for the repose of Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris. This I shall perform from Sandwich to Carlisle. This, Sir Gawaine, seems to me fairer, holier, and better for their souls than that you and the king should make war upon me; for little good to any is likely to come from it."
Then the knights and ladies there wept as though they were distracted, and the tears fell hot on King Arthur's cheeks. But no shadow of softness came to Gawaine's stern face.
"The king, as I have said, may do as it pleases him," he answered, "but I shall never forgive you for the murder of my brothers. If my uncle, King Arthur, accords with you, he shall lose my service, for I hold you false both to the king and me."
"The man lives not that can make that good," cried Lancelot. "If you charge me thus, I am ready to answer you with spear and sword since words you disdain."
"That cannot be at this time," said Gawaine. "You are here under the king's safe-conduct, and so must depart. If it were not for the pope's command and the king's given word, I should do battle with you, body to body, and prove upon you that you have been false both to the king and to me. In this land you shall not abide more than fifteen days, for I give you open warning that your safe-conduct lasts only for that time. In this the king and we all were agreed before you came hither. Only for this you would now find that my words are ready to be backed up with deeds. And this you shall find wheresoever I shall meet you hereafter."
Then Lancelot sighed, and tears fell upon his cheeks.
"Alas, most Christian realm," he said, "that I have loved above all other realms, and most Christian king, whom I have worshipped next to my God. From both I am banished, without cause or warrant. Truly I am sorry that I ever came into this land, to be thus causelessly and shamefully treated, after my long service here. So is it ever with fortune, whose wheel is so changeable that there is no constant abiding; and this may be proved by the old chronicles of noble Hector of Troy, and Troilus, and Alexander the mighty conqueror, and many more. When they were highest they quickly became lowest; and thus has it fared with me. No living men have brought more honor and glory to the Round Table than I and my kindred, and yet we stand banished from the land which owes us such worthy service. As for you, Gawaine, I can live upon my native lands as well as any knight here. And if you, redoubted king, shall seek me there in hostile array, I must endure you as well as I may. If you come thither, Gawaine, see that you charge me not with treason or felony, for if you do, it will scarcely end with words."
"Do your worst," cried Gawaine, hotly. "And get you gone from here as fast as you can. We shall soon come after, and tumble your strongest castle upon your head."
"That shall not need," said Lancelot. "You may find me ready to meet you in open field."
"There have been words enough," said Gawaine. "Deliver the queen and take yourself away."
"If I had looked for so short a reception I would have thought twice before coming," answered Lancelot, proudly. "If the queen had been as dear to me as you would make her, I durst have kept her from the best fellowship of knights under heaven."
Then he turned to Guenever and said, in full hearing of the king and all there,—
"Madam, now I must depart from you and this noble fellowship forever. Since it is so, I beseech you to pray for me. And if you be slandered by any false tongues, send me word, my lady, and if one knight's hands may deliver you by battle, I shall deliver you."
Then Lancelot kissed the queen, and said openly to all present,—
"Now let me see who there is in this place that dare say Queen Guenever is not true unto my lord King Arthur! Let him speak who dare speak."
He looked proudly around the hall, from right to left, but no voice came in answer. Then he took the queen by the hand and led her to the king, and delivered her to his royal hand. This done, Lancelot turned and walked from the hall with haughty stride; and there was neither duke, earl, nor king, baron nor knight, lady or maiden, that wept not at the sorrowful parting, except Sir Gawaine. And when Lancelot took his horse to ride out of Carlisle there was sobbing and weeping from all the people who had gathered in the streets to see him depart. And so he took his way to Joyous Gard, which ever after he called Dolorous Gard. And thus departed Sir Lancelot du Lake from the court of King Arthur forever.
He now called his fellowship about him, and asked them what they would do.
"Whatever you will," they answered with one voice.
"Then, my brave and faithful friends, we must leave this realm. It is sore to me to be banished, and had I not dreaded shame, the lady Guenever should never have left me."
"If you stay in this land we shall not fail you," said his knights. "If you depart hence we shall go with you."
"My fair lords, I thank you heartily," answered Lancelot, with much feeling. "If you come with me to my realm beyond the sea, I shall divide my lands among you, till I have as little as any of you. I care for only enough to live upon, and trust to maintain you in knightly honor."
"So let it be," they rejoined. "Here, now that the fellowship of the Round Table is broken, there will be no more peace, but only strife and turmoil. You were the stay of Arthur's court, Sir Lancelot. With you gone, all quiet and harmony will depart."
"You praise me too highly, gentlemen. I did my duty; but not I alone. Yet I fear, when we are gone, we will soon hear of wars and rebellions, from those who dared not raise their heads when we were all together. Mordred I fear above all. He is envious and ambitious, and if King Arthur shall trust him I dread me greatly he will find him a stinging serpent."
Then, soon after, they left Joyous Gard, and shipped at Cardiff to pass beyond the seas to Lancelot's realm of Benwick. Some men, indeed, call it Bayonne, and some call it Beume, the land whence comes the wine of Beume. Yet to say sooth, Lancelot and his nephews were lords of all France, and had there a host of towns and castles, and many people at their command.
There went with him a hundred proven knights, whom he rewarded as he had promised. For he shortly called a parliament, where he crowned Lionel king of France. Bors he made king of the realm of King Claudas; and Hector de Maris, King of Benwick and Guienne; while his other knights were made dukes and earls, till all were nobly provided for.
Thus Lancelot rewarded his faithful friends. And he furnished and provisioned his towns and castles, and gathered the men of war of the realm, for he felt well assured that Gawaine would not rest till he had brought King Arthur against him in martial array.