“Sir, if you know our troubles, and, indeed, what is there that you do not know, have pity upon us, and help us in our need.”
Merlin sat silent awhile, for many thoughts were in his mind. At last he spoke: “Most noble maid, who have learned to love in this strange fashion, be not dismayed by this hard beginning of your life. It was no chance look, O Britomart, in the mirror of the king your father, but the unchanging course of the purposes of Heaven, that showed you this image. Believe me, it is no ill-fortune that you love this noble knight. Submit yourself, therefore, to the purposes of God, and be content to do His will.”
Then said Glaucé: “Tell us, man of wisdom, what means she shall use, what ways she shall take, to find this man. Or has she no need of toil, but may sit still while her fate is fashioned for her?”
“The fates,” answered Merlin, “are firmly fixed; not the less it becomes those whom they concern to do their own endeavour, and to be fellow-workers with God.” Then he told Britomart the true name and lineage of Sir Artegall, how that he was son to Gorloïs, King of Cornwall in time past, and brother to Cador, then king of the same land. Then he turned to Britomart and opened to her the future, how she should be wife to Sir Artegall, and how from them would come a line of kings who should reign with great glory. Many things that should come to pass in after days, both good and evil, did Merlin unfold to her.
CHAPTER XVII
HOW BRITOMART TOOK TO ARMS
From Merlin’s cave these two, Britomart and Glaucé, her nurse, went back to their own home. There they consulted together many days how they might best carry out their purpose of seeking Sir Artegall. At last Glaucé said: “My daughter, I have conceived in my heart a scheme, somewhat bold, I must confess, yet such as may be accomplished if you are both brave and prudent. And above all things, it is in good accord with the conditions of these present days. You must know that the good King Uther has of late made war against the pagan brothers, Octa and Oza, who are newly come to this country from the lands which lie about the Northern Sea, and has won a great victory over them and their people, and that all Britain is now in a great flame of war. My counsel therefore is, seeing that armed men are everywhere, let us make ourselves as armed men. Let our hands, weak though they be by nature, learn to handle the spear and the sword, nor shall we fail therein, for there are no scholars so apt as they who have need for their teacher. And, indeed, my daughter, you are one who should easily learn such matters, for you are both tall and strong, and need practice only, which being had, you should be as truly martial a maid as you could wish. Nor is such a thing unknown in the race from which you come. Such was the bold Boadicea, who reigned in old time over the Iceni, for she made haughty Rome to tremble before her, and others, as Gwendolen and Emmilen. Hear also this thing which I saw with my own eyes. On the battlefield at Menevia, where King Uther last fought against the pagan hosts, there was a Saxon virgin who thrice struck to the earth the great Ulfin himself. Verily she had slain him as he lay, but that Caradoc held her hand, and Caradoc himself had much ado to escape from her without hurt.”
“Tell me, I pray you, her name,” said Britomart.
“They call her Angela,” the nurse made answer, “and she is as fair as she is strong. She is the leader of a tribe who are more to be feared than all other Saxons; they call themselves Angles.”
Much was the maiden moved by this tale, so that she made her resolve, unknown to her father, to take upon herself all the duties and adventures which were fitting to a knight. And she said to her nurse: “See, Glaucé, that you have all things ready that are convenient to my new estate.” And this Glaucé did with all readiness and care. Fortune also helped in the matter; for about this time a band of Britons, being abroad on a foray, took a great spoil of Saxon goods, and among them goodly armour decked with gold, and arms of proof which belonged to the Saxon queen Angela. These spoils King Ryence commanded to be hung up in the chapel of his palace, that they might be a memorial for all time of the great victory which God had given to his arms. Into this same chapel Glaucé led the maiden Britomart late in the night when no one was near, and taking down the armour, clad her in it, and she gave her the arms also, chief among these being a wonderful spear which King Bladud had made by magical arts many years before. This virtue it had, that whosoever might be struck by the point thereof, could not stay in his saddle, but must be borne to the ground. And when Glaucé had so furnished the maiden with due equipment of war, then she took for herself such arms and armour as befitted a squire, and put them on. This done, they left the place by secret ways, unseen of any. Thus did it happen that Britomart came in guise of a knight into the company of Sir Guyon and the Red-Cross Knight.
Not long after this they parted from each other, for the Knight had an errand of his own, and Britomart was bent on the finding of Sir Artegall. Many miles did she ride, and through many lands did she travel, till at last she came to the shore of the sea. There she lighted from off her horse and bade Glaucé unlace her helmet, and sat down upon a rock to rest awhile and refresh herself with the breeze that blew from off the waves. And as she sat, she thought within herself: “Ah me, how like is love to this restless sea! How shall my frail bark escape where there are so many dangers, and no certain guide?” So she spake to herself, sighing the while; weep she would not, for tears, she thought, did not become a knight. But Glaucé comforted her, calling to her mind what Merlin had prophesied about the things to come. Nor were these words in vain; but there soon befell a thing which roused her more than many words. She spied a knight in shining armour riding towards her in all haste, with his spear in rest as one that had some hostile purpose. Quickly she mounted her horse, and bade Glaucé lace her helmet, and addressed herself without delay to battle. Now, by the time she had put her shield in place and made ready her spear, the knight was close at hand.