PART II.—AT CAMELOT.
“Arthur’s antient seat
Which made the Britons’ name through all the world so great,
Like Camelot what place was ever yet renown’d,
Where, as at Caerleon oft, he kept the Table round?
Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,
From whence all knightly deeds and brave achievements sprung.”
Drayton’s Polyolbion, Song III.
ARTHUR had arrived at man’s estate, and his people would fain that he should take a wife, so that, if, like his uncle, Aurelius Ambrosius, he were taken from them, he might, unlike him, leave an heir of his own blood. Among the petty kings of the West was Leodogran, King of Cameliard, a county represented at this day by Camelot or Cadbury-fort, and a cluster of other places in the east of Somerset, whose names are derived from the same root: North and South Cadbury, Queen’s Camel, West Camel, and Castle Cary. Leodogran’s kingdom had been beset by the invaders, and overrun with wild beasts: Arthur had come to his help and rescued his dominions. So it came to pass that when his people spake to him of marriage, Guinivere, the fair daughter of Leodogran, came to his mind, and he asked her of her father. The King of Cameliard was well pleased, and with his daughter’s hand he promised him his greatest treasure, the Table round, and made him his heir.
But Guinivere, in her pride of youth and beauty, had little noted her father’s deliverer, and scarce glanced at the young knight, who paid her none of the homage she thought her due, and who was ever engrossed in earnest consultations with her father on the state of the kingdom, on knights and wars, on castles and sieges; and so it came to pass that when Launcelot, Arthur’s best and most trusted knight, was sent by him to fetch her home, she, never doubting but that the King would have come himself, thought Launcelot was Arthur, and when she saw him her heart leapt to his. But when she came to see her pure and stainless lord, he seemed cold and passionless beside Launcelot; and he, who had no thought of guile and loved when he trusted, and trusted when he loved, gave them unconsciously opportunities of meeting, and Guinivere’s heart passed more and more from Arthur, and attached itself more and more passionately to Launcelot. For Arthur was taken up with affairs of state, and with his beautiful dream of the Knights of the Round Table. In this order none was higher than other; and here, in his Palace of Camelot, built by Merlin’s magic power in a single night, he would assemble a hundred and fifty knights of noble birth, pure and stainless like himself, and the Knights bound themselves by solemn oaths to keep the rules of the order. They were as follows:—
1. That every knight should be well armed and furnished to undertake any enterprise wherein he was employed by sea or by land, on horseback, or on foot.
2. That he should be ever prest (ready) to assail all tyrants or oppressors of the people.
3. That he should protect widows and maids, restore children to their just rights, repossess such persons as without just cause were exiled, and with all his force maintain the Christian faith.
4. That he should be a champion for the public weal, and as a lion repulse the enemies of his country.
5. That he should advance the reputation of honour and suppress all vice, relieve the afflicted by adverse fortune, give aid to Holy Church, and protect pilgrims.
6. That he should bury soldiers that wanted sepulture, deliver prisoners, ransom captives, and cure men hurt in the services of their country.