The other was ready, and they fought; but it was not for long, for Pellinore gave Sir Ontzlake so stern a stroke on the helmet that he clove his head to the chin, and he fell dead to the earth. When the other knight saw that, he would not fight, but yielded to Pellinore’s mercy, only asking that his kinswoman should be put to no shame. This Pellinore promised, and the knight entertained him in his pavilion till the next day, and then gave him a good horse in place of that which Ontzlake had killed. So Pellinore and the lady rode toward Camelot. When they passed by the place where the wounded knight and the lady had been, both their bodies had been eaten by wild beasts, all save the lady’s head. At this Pellinore mourned, for he knew that he might have saved them if he would. When they came to the court, they were heartily welcomed, and King Pellinore told his adventures, as the other two knights had done. Then Pellinore was greatly blamed because he had not stayed to help the wounded knight and the lady, and he confessed that he repented sorely that he had been too eager in his quest to do so. Thereupon Merlin told him that he had good reason to repent, for the lady that had called to him was his own daughter; and he warned Pellinore that even as he had failed that knight and lady, his own nearest friend should fail him in the hour of his greatest need.
And thus ended the three quests of the hart, and the hound, and the lady, which were the first adventures that befell in King Arthur’s court after he was married to the Lady Guenever.
CHAPTER V. THE EVIL DEVICES OF MORGAN LE FAY.
KING ARTHUR was now firmly established in his kingdom. He ruled wisely and lived nobly, so that there was a great concourse about him of men of good condition, and in the island of Britain at that time were gathered the strongest and bravest knights of Christendom. To such of the Knights of the Round Table and others of his court as were of poor estate the king gave lands, that they might the better perform all that to which they were pledged by the oaths they took when they were made knights. Castles and fair towns arose in the land ; and knights were ever riding about, seeking adventures, of which there was no lack, for evil men who had gotten rich and strong in the stormy times of Vortigern and Uther Pendragon were still many, and ever they held themselves against King Arthur and his rule. There were also enchanters, and some of them used their supernatural powers for evil, who were fearful of his power and jealous of his greatness, entered into an alliance against him, and they led a great host into his lands, and burned, and slew, and plundered on every side. When King Arthur heard this news he was wrathful. He appointed King Pellinore to bring the main body of his army as soon as might be; and he himself, with Queen Guenever and such knights and men-at-arms as were at that time in the court, set out to meet the five kings, who were lying with their host in a wide forest near the river Humber. But it chanced that as King Arthur, with the queen, Sir Kay, Sir Gawaine, and Sir Griflet, was riding out by the river side, they met the five kings, that were also riding out without any following; and those four fell upon the five kings with such might that they killed them all. When the followers of the kings found them dead, they lost heart and courage, and would have fled; but Arthur and his little army came upon them, and slew so many that scarcely any escaped back to their own lands. So the war was ended before King Pellinore and the main host could come near the place. To show his thankfulness to God for this great victory, Arthur founded a rich abbey on the spot where the battle had been. Then he returned with his knights to Camelot, and again abode there in peace.
For some years the realm was at peace; but then it befell that Merlin came under the spell of Viviane, as it has been told in the first chapter of this book. When it was noised abroad that King Arthur had lost his best counsellor, five kings of the north and in the island of Britain at that time were gathered the strongest and bravest knights of Christendom. To such of the Knights of the Round Table and others of his court as were of poor estate the king gave lands, that they might the better perform all that to which they were pledged by the oaths they took when they were made knights. Castles and fair towns arose in the land; and knights were ever riding about, seeking adventures, of which there was no lack, for evil men who had gotten rich and strong in the stormy times of Vortigern and Uther Pen-dragon were still many, and ever they held themselves against King Arthur and his rule. There were also enchanters, and some of them used their supernatural powers for evil.
Of the king’s sisters by the mother’s side, the daughters of Queen Igraine, Arthur chiefly loved Morgan le Fay, who was the wife of Urience, King of Gore. She had learned necromancy from Merlin, and was scarcely less skilled in magic arts than he. But she hated King Arthur, and was ever watching to find an opportunity to destroy him. While Merlin was with him, she could do him no ill; but afterwards, because Arthur loved her and trusted her, he placed his sword Excalibur and the scabbard in her keeping, and then Morgan thought the time had come when she might accomplish his ruin. She loved not her husband, King Urience, who was a good knight and loyal to King Arthur, but she chiefly esteemed a knight named Sir Accolon of Gaul.
It befell that King Arthur, with many of his knights, one day rode out from Camelot to hunt in the forest. They followed a great hart; and King Arthur, King Urience, and Sir Accolon, being the best mounted, rode away from the others, and chased the hart so mightily that their horses fell dead under them. Then they did not know what to do, for they were a great way from Camelot, in the midst of the thick wood.
“Let us go on foot,” said King Urience, “till we come to some lodging.”