Then Sir Hector and Kay pulled at the hilt with all their strength, but failed to move the weapon.
"Now you shall try," they said to Arthur.
Thereupon the youth seized the hilt, and with a light effort the magic sword came out naked in his hand.
"You are our king!" cried Sir Hector, kneeling on the earth, and Kay beside him.
"My dear father and brother," cried Arthur in surprise and distress, "why kneel you to me? Rise, I pray; it pains me deeply to see you thus."
STATUE OF KING ARTHUR AT INNSBRUCK.
"I am not your father nor of your kindred," rejoined the baron. "I must now reveal the secret I long have kept. You were brought to me in infancy, and I and my wife have fostered you as our own. But you are no son of mine. Who you truly are I cannot say; that only Merlin the magician knows. But well I feel assured you are of nobler blood than I can boast."