Then Sir Ector lifted up his voice and cried unto Arthur, “A boon! a boon!” And Arthur said, “Alas! how is this? Dost thou, my father, ask a boon of me who may have all in the world that is mine to give? Ask what thou wilt and it is thine!” Then Sir Ector said, “I do beseech this of thee: that when thou art King thy brother Kay may be Seneschal of all this realm.” And Arthur said, “It shall be as thou dost ask.” And he said, “As for thee, it shall be still better with thee, for thou shalt be my father unto the end!” Whereupon so saying, he took Sir Ector’s head into his hands and he kissed Sir Ector upon the forehead and upon the cheeks, and so sealed his plighted word.
But all this while Sir Kay had stood like unto one struck by thunder, and he wist not whether to be uplifted unto the skies or to be cast down into the depths, that his young brother should thus have been passed by him and exalted unto that extraordinary altitude of fortune. Wherefore he stood like to one bereft of life and motion.
And let it here be said that Arthur fulfilled all that he had thus promised to his father—for, in after times, he made Sir Kay his Seneschal, and Sir Ector was to him a father until the day of his death, which same befell five years from that time.
Thus I have told you how the royalty of Arthur was first discovered. And now, if you will listen, ye shall hear how it was confirmed before all the world.
Chapter Third.
How Several Kings and High Dukes Assayed to Draw the Sword Out of the Anvil and How They Failed. Likewise How Arthur Made the Assay and Succeeded Therein.