“Ah, my dear father and brother,” said Arthur, “why do you call me king, and kneel to me?”
“You are not my son,” replied Sir Ector, “but of better blood than ever mine was.” And he told Arthur how Merlin had placed him in his charge; and entreated, in reward for the care with which he had been nourished, that when he became king he would make Sir Kay his seneschal, a request which Arthur readily granted. Then they went to the archbishop, and told him how the sword had been achieved, and by whom. On Twelfth Day, another solemn service was held, and afterwards, in the presence of all the kings and barons, Arthur again drew out the sword from the anvil, though no one else could move it.
But the great lords were not at all inclined to recognize as their king a mere youth, who had hitherto passed as the second son of a knight of no great estate. So they put off the decision of the matter till Candlemas; but a pavilion was set up over the sword and stone, and five knights watched over it by day and five by night. At Candlemas the barons assembled again, and again Arthur only could draw out the sword. Still there were many of the chief men of the realm that were loath to take him as their king, and another delay was agreed upon till Easter. At Easter all went as it had gone before; and now the lords agreed to delay the matter till Pentecost. But Merlin and the archbishop saw that Arthur’s right would not be admitted without bloodshed, and they gathered as many as they could of the best knights of the realm, and such as had been faithful followers of King Uther, and kept them always about Arthur.
The rest of the wonders that Merlin wrought to give the kingdom to Arthur, and to make his reign glorious, may be more properly told in the history of the king himself. But for a long time Merlin the Wizard was Arthur’s chief adviser; and while the king was guided by his counsels and aided by his magic art, all went well with him. When Arthur had been some years on the throne, however, the great enchanter disappeared for ever from mortal ken, through a calamity which he himself had long ago foreseen. He had become deeply enamoured of the lovely Yiviane, who dwelt in the forest of Breceliande in Brittany, and is usually, in the ancient chronicles, called the Lady of the Lake. Yiviane did not return his love, but she feared his supernatural powers, and therefore sought for means of ridding herself of him without exciting his wrath. She pretended to be as much devoted to him as he was to her, and induced him by her wiles and caresses to reveal to her an enchantment by which a man, of whatsoever might or magic skill, could be enclosed and imprisoned without a tower, without walls, without chains, so securely that of his own skill he could never be released. It was only with great reluctance that Merlin intrusted the secret to her, for well he knew that it would be used against himself. But, as the old proverb has it, “love levels all,” and it made the wisdom of the great seer power-less against the arts and the beauty of Viviane. It fell out that some little time afterwards Merlin and the lady were wandering in the forest of Breceliande, and they came to a white-thorn bush, laden with bloom. Underneath this bush they sat down together, and in a while Merlin laid his head in Viviane’s lap and fell asleep. Then she rose deftly, without waking him, and made a ring round Merlin and the bush, and began the enchantment which he himself had taught her; and when she had ended, there was, as it were, a cloud about the place, so that Merlin was hidden from sight. But to him, when he awoke, it seemed that he was shut up in the strongest tower in the world, and laid upon a fair bed. Then he knew that the enchantment had been wrought upon him, and that there was no escape, for only Viviane could undo the spell. She visited him ofttimes, but would never release him, and after many years she died. But Merlin still remains a prisoner in the depths of the forest. To him the long years and ages have been but as days. He lies in a magic sleep. But the day will come when the strong enchantment that bound him will be broken, and he will come forth to behold the changes that have been wrought by more potent arts than his, and all the wonders of this later time.
CHAPTER II. HOW ARTHUR GOT HIS CROWN, HIS QUEEN, AND THE ROUND TABLE.
THE Feast of Pentecost came, and there was again a great gathering of kings, nobles, and knights at London to decide who should be King of Britain. Once more a great many competitors came forward and strove to draw out the magic sword; but pull and twist as they might, it remained immovable in the grasp of all save Arthur, who drew it forth again and again in the sight of lords and commons. Most people were by this time weary of the long interregnum, and of the terrible evils it had brought upon the land. When, therefore, Arthur once more came forth the only successful competitor from the miraculous test, the assembly broke out into loud cries that he and none other should be king. Thereupon, without further ado, he was first knighted by the most distinguished knight present, and then solemnly crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Forthwith he proceeded to appoint his great officers of the household, making Sir Kay his seneschal, according to his promise, Sir Lucas his butler, Sir Baldwin his constable, Sir Ulfius—a wise counsellor, as well as a brave warrior—his chamberlain, and Sir Brastias warden of the northern frontier. For some time King Arthur was busied in redressing wrongs that had been committed and in restoring order in the country round about London; but after a while he set out for Wales, and appointed a great feast to be held at the city of Caerleon, whereat the vassal kings and barons who had not yet given in their allegiance might acknowledge him as their overlord. At the time agreed upon, King Lot, King Urience, King Nanters, and several others of those who had been among the most powerful competitors for the crown, arrived in the neighbourhood of Caerleon, each bringing a strong following of knights and men-at-arms, and they all encamped outside the city. Arthur was glad to hear of their coming, supposing that they meant to tender their fealty. He therefore sent out heralds to greet them, with costly presents. But the kings had come with no amicable purpose. They disdainfully informed the messengers that they would receive no gifts from a beardless boy of base parentage, that they would not acknowledge such a boy as their king, and that they had come to bestow gifts on him in the shape of hard blows betwixt the neck and shoulders.
On receiving this answer to his friendly advance, Arthur forthwith took measures of defence, gathered his knights about him, laid in a stock of provisions and munitions, and caused the city gates to be closed. The confederate kings thereupon advanced and laid siege to the city. A few days after this civil war had begun, Merlin made his appearance in the camp of the kings, and some of them, being old acquaintance of his, greeted him heartily, and asked him how it was that an unknown youth like Arthur had been placed on the throne of Britain. Merlin told them plainly that it was because Arthur was the son of King Uther Pendragon, and related all the circumstances connected with his birth. His story made little impression; but though the confederates, being themselves famed knights, and having a much larger army than Arthur, were confident of victory, they proposed an interview with him, and sent him by Merlin a safe-conduct to and from their camp. Acting on Merlin’s advice, the king came out to meet them; but as a very lofty tone was taken on both sides, the meeting was productive of nothing but threats and defiances, except, indeed, that three hundred of the best knights in the rebel camp were so impressed by Arthur’s bearing and language that they came over to him in a body. Immediate preparations for battle were made on both sides, and early the next morning Arthur and his followers suddenly attacked the confederates in their camp. The surprise, as well as the great valour of the king and his knights, gave them a considerable advantage; but the numerical superiority of the enemy was so great that at last they were decidedly gaining ground, when Arthur drew the magic sword he had taken from the anvil. It flashed with a radiance equal, as the chronicle says, to that of thirty torches, and the slaughter which the king accomplished with it was so great that the enemy beat a precipitate retreat, leaving numbers of dead upon the field.
But this brilliant success, however satisfactory in itself, was only the beginning of the war. The confederate kings returned to their own countries, induced several neighbouring princes to join their alliance, and forthwith took measures to raise a great army. Arthur and his knights, on their part, held anxious council as to what it would be most expedient to do, and they were assisted by the wisdom and magic craft of Merlin. The prophet warned them that unless they obtained help they could not contend against the rebels, who counted among them some of the best knights then alive; and he suggested that two trusty knights should be sent over sea to King Ban of Benwick and King Bors of Gannes, who had been feudatories of King Uther Pendragon, and were among the most famous warriors of the time. They were, said Merlin, engaged in a desperate war with King Claudas of Gaul; but he proposed that they should be invited to give their help to King Arthur, on the understanding that when firmly established on the British throne he should in return espouse their quarrel against Claudas.