It so happened, therefore, that on the day when our story opens, King Vortigern had gathered his court about him in his capital city of London, there to hold a high festival, and in feasting and carousing to forget the disgrace of their surrender and the ills of the country.
Suddenly, up to the castle gate, through the great portal, along the wide corridors, and into the very banquet-hall itself, never stopping to dismount, rode a breathless messenger.
“To arms! Sir King, to arms!” he cried, waiting for no ceremony. “Pendragon and Uther have this day set sail from the coast of France with a mighty army, and they have sworn by a great oath to take your life as you took the life of their brother Constans!”
Then the King remembered, and his face went ashen grey. He turned to one after another of the men who should have been his mighty warriors, and, reading in their flabby cheeks and lustreless eyes the story of their slothful living, knew that his cause was well-nigh lost before the fighting began.
“Summon my messengers!” he was able to say at last, and when these were brought before him:
“Ride! into every corner of my kingdom, ride! And call together the most skillful artificers, craftsmen and mechanics, for I have a great work for them to do.”
Within a week the messengers on their fleet horses had scoured the land, so that there stood before the King a hundred of the best workmen that Britain could produce.
“Now hear my command,” said he. “On the plain that lies furthest west in my kingdom build me a tower whose walls shall be so firm as to withstand all assault of catapult and battering-ram; and have it ready for my retreat within a hundred days, or your lives, to the last man, shall be forfeited.”
The workmen left the presence of the King with fear in their hearts; but to such good purpose did they labor that within a few days there began to be visible upon the plain the jagged outlines of the walls that were to enclose that mighty tower. Then the weary workmen, for the first time feeling assured that they could accomplish their task within the hundred days, lay down for the night and were soon fast asleep.
With the first pale glimmer of dawn, however, they arose ready to return to their labors with renewed energy. But what a sight met their eyes! The tower lay in ruins! The walls had fallen during the night!