"How know you that to be so?"
"I have loved her long, and know her purposes well, nor shall I longer keep them secret. If by craft she could slay Arthur, she would quickly dispose of her husband, King Uriens. Then it was her intent to make me king of this realm, and to reign herself as its queen. But all this now is at an end, for death is upon me."
"It would have been great wrong in you to destroy your lord," said Arthur.
"That I never could have had the heart to do," said Accolan. "But I pray you to tell me your name, and from what court you come?"
"I am from Camelot, and men know me as King Arthur. I am he against whom you plotted such deep treason."
Then Accolan cried out in anguish,—
"My fair, sweet lord, have mercy on me, for I knew you not."
"You knew me not at this time, Accolan, but you have confessed that you plotted treason against me, and laid plans to compass my death. Yet I blame you the less that Morgan le Fay has worked on you with her false arts. I have honored and loved her most of all my kin, and have trusted her as I would my wife, and this is how she repays me. By the faith of my body, if I live I shall be deeply revenged upon her for this."
Then he called to the keepers of the field, and said,—
"Here, fair sirs, are two knights who have fought nearly to the death through ignorance of each other. For had either of us known the other you would have seen no battle to-day, and no stroke given or returned."