The Death of King Arthur (6 page)

‘Oh no, dear lady. I have earned the right to keep it. I will fight anyone who tries to take it from me.'

‘Well,' she said, ‘this is not wise of you. I tell you this. With this sword you will slay your best friend. With its blade you will cut down the man whom you most love in the world. This sword will bring your ruin.'

‘I will take the chance. I will abide by God's will. But I shall not surrender it to any man.'

‘You will repent of this very shortly,' she replied. ‘I am sorrowful for your sake, not for mine. It is a great pity that you will not be persuaded.' With that she left the court, weeping, while Balin called for his horse and armour.

‘Why are you leaving us?' Arthur asked him. ‘I suppose that you are displeased with me for showing you some unkindness before. But lay no blame at my door. I was not told the truth about you. I did not know that you are a knight of valour and virtue. So stay with us. If you remain at court, I will advance you through the ranks of the knights.'

‘God thank you, sire, for your goodwill towards me. I cannot praise you highly enough. But I must go on alone.'

‘I am sorry to lose you,' the king replied. ‘But do not be absent for too long. Come back in good time. We will all be here to welcome you. And I will be able to remedy the mistakes I have made against you.'

‘Thank you again,' Sir Balin said. ‘And God save you.' So he prepared to ride away from the court. He had hardly put on his stirrups when some knights started to whisper that he had seized the sword by witchcraft.

But then there came to the court the lady known as the Lady of the Lake. She rode on a horse richly caparisoned, and her robes were of the finest silk. She saluted the king, and then spoke to him. ‘I claim,' she said, ‘the gift that you promised me when I gave you the sword.'

‘I was not told the name of the sword.'

‘It is called Excalibur. That is to say, it is Cutter of Steel.'

‘A good name for a noble weapon. Please ask me what you wish for it, and I will keep my promise if I can.'

‘Well,' the lady said, ‘I want the head of the knight who won the sword today. If I cannot have it, then I demand the head of the lady who wore that sword. I would in fact prefer to have both of their heads. He killed my brother, a true and good knight, and she was the cause of my father's death.'

‘Alas, fair lady,' the king replied, ‘I cannot grant these requests. It would bring great shame upon me. Ask me for another gift, which I will gladly grant you.'

‘I want nothing else.'

At that moment Sir Balin rode up, ready to depart, and saw the Lady of the Lake. He blamed this woman for the death of his mother three years before, and for all that time he had sought her. Now he learned that she had asked for his own death. So he acted. ‘This is an evil hour for you,' he said. ‘You wanted my head, but instead you will lose yours!' And with his sword he struck off her head.

Arthur cried out. ‘What have you done? You have shamed me and my court by killing a guest. I owed much to her, and she came here under my pledge of safe conduct. I can never forgive your crime.'

‘Sire,' Sir Balin replied, ‘I am sure that I deserve your displeasure. But consider this. This lady was the most wicked woman in the world. By enchantment and sorcery she has destroyed many good knights. And she caused my mother to be burned alive by reason of her false witness.'

‘Whatever cause you had,' the king replied, ‘you should have held back in my presence. Do not doubt my word. You have committed the greatest crime against courtesy, and therefore you must renounce my court for ever. Leave now with all possible speed.'

Sir Balin took up the severed head of the lady, and rode off to his lodging. There he met his squire, and together they rode away from Winchester. ‘You must take this head,' he told the squire, ‘and bear it to my friends in Northumberland. Tell them that I have destroyed my worst enemy. Tell them, also, that I have been allowed to leave prison. And please relate to them the adventure that brought me this sword.'

‘Ah, sir,' the squire replied to him, ‘you are greatly to blame for displeasing the king.'

‘As for that,' Balin said, ‘I have a plan. I will strive with all speed to meet King Rience and challenge him to combat. If I die, I die with honour. If I kill him, then Arthur will once more be my friend.'

‘Where shall I see you again, sir?'

‘At the court of King Arthur. At Camelot. Where else?' So he and his squire left each other on the road.

Meanwhile Arthur had mourned the death of the Lady of the Lake, and had buried her body in splendid state. She lay in a white tomb on a hillside, and upon the sides of her sepulchre were carved images of flowing water. Then there came to the court a young knight, Sir Launceot, who was the son of the King of Ireland. He was an envious and overweening man who resented the fact that Sir Balin had won the sword. So he came up to Arthur, and asked permission to challenge and kill him for the shame he had inflicted on them all.

‘I wish you well,' the king told him. ‘He has done me a great wrong.' So Sir Launceot prepared himself for the fight.

Merlin came back to the court at this time, and was told about the lady and the enchanted sword. He also heard about the death of the Lady of the Lake. ‘I will tell you something,' he said. ‘The lady who brought the sword to court is false and unfaithful. She has a brother who, by the strange chance of battle, captured and killed her very own lover. She was enraged by this, and so she went to the Lady of the Lake for revenge. The Lady of the Lake gave her that sword, and told her that the knight who took it from its sheath was destined to kill her brother before himself being destroyed. That was the reason she came here. I wish to God that she had not come, because in the company of good people she always tries to do harm. The knight that gained the sword will die from it.'

Meanwhile Sir Launceot had armed himself and ridden after his foe at a furious speed. He had travelled into the mountainous region, where the stone is weathered into strange shapes of men and beasts, and there he caught sight of Sir Balin ahead of him. ‘Stay, knight!' he called out. ‘You must make a stand here, whether you like it or not. Your shield will not help you now! I have come here to cut you down!'

‘It would have been better for you to have remained at home,' Sir Balin replied. ‘It often happens that a man who means harm is himself badly hurt. From what court do you come?'

‘From the court of King Arthur. I am here to avenge the crime you committed by killing the Lady of the Lake. It was against all the rules and customs of courtesy.'

‘I see, then, that I must fight you. But know this, knight. That lady did great damage to myself and my family. Do you think that I would slay a female for no cause?'

Sir Launceot was very proud. ‘Prepare yourself. Couch your spear. Only one of us will survive.'

Then they put their spears in their supports, by the saddles, and rode against each other at great speed. Sir Launceot broke Sir Balin's shield, but Balin put his own spear through Launceot's shield and sundered his chain mail. Launceot, fatally wounded, was thrown from his horse by the force of the blow. Sir Balin turned and took out his sword, but then he saw that his opponent was dead. At that moment he heard the sound of another horse, galloping towards him, and he looked around. A young woman was riding in his direction and, when she saw Launceot lying on the ground, she let out a loud wail. ‘Ah, Balin,' she cried, ‘you have slain two bodies with one heart, two hearts with one body. You have sacrificed two souls.' She made such grievous sounds of sorrow that he wished to comfort her; she took out a sword, and Balin tried to seize it from her. But she held it tightly and then with a sigh turned it upon herself. She died at once.

When Sir Balin saw her dead, he despised himself and his deeds that had brought doom to a valiant knight and a fair lady. ‘I repent for breaking the bond of true love between them,' he said. But he could not stay in that place. He could not bear to see the two bodies lying upon the ground. In his sorrow he stirred his horse and rode on for miles and miles until at last he came to a fair forest; under the boughs of the trees it seemed that time itself was suspended. No wind stirred the leaves, and there was no sound of life. And then who should ride towards him but his own brother, Balan.

When they met they took off their helmets, wept, and kissed one another copiously. ‘Brother,' Balan said, ‘I had no notion of meeting you so soon. When I left I presumed that you were still a prisoner, but I met a knight on the way who told me that you had been seen at the court of King Arthur. That is why I rode into this realm.'

Sir Balin then told him of his adventures at court, of his freeing the sword and of the fate of the Lady of the Lake. ‘The king,' he said, ‘is angry with me. And the wrath of the king can mean death. That is why he sent a knight to kill me. Now he lies sprawled upon the ground with his young lover. I am truly sorry for that.'

‘It is right to be rueful when mortals are slain. But be of good cheer. You must face whatever God has prepared for you.'

‘That is why I am riding to Castle Terrible, besieged by King Rience. If I do battle against Arthur's most bitter enemy, I will prove my prowess in his cause.'

‘I will ride with you,' Balan replied. ‘Brother, we are well met!'

As they were talking here, under the ancient trees, a dwarf from the castle of Camelot came riding up on a donkey. In truth it was Merlin, the magician. ‘Ah, Balin,' he said to him, ‘you have done yourself great harm. You should have saved that lady from self-slaughter. It was in your power to help her.'

‘That is not so,' Balin replied. ‘She took up the sword so suddenly that I could do nothing.'

‘Repentance is ripe for you. Because of her death you will deliver the most dolorous stroke since that which Christ Our Saviour suffered. You will strike down the truest knight in the world, and for twelve years three kingdoms will endure endless poverty and pain.'

He turned away, but Sir Balin took him by the shoulder. ‘Say it is not so. If I believed that you spoke the truth, I would kill myself here to make you a liar.'

But Merlin vanished from sight. Balin and his brother then made their way through the forest, but when they moved they made no sound. All was still and silent. After a while Merlin once more appeared before them, but in disguise. ‘Where are you going, young men?' he asked them.

‘Why should we tell you?' Balan replied.

‘And what is your name?' Balin asked him.

‘At this time, I cannot tell you.'

‘That is an evil sign. A good man will always give his name.'

‘That may be. But I know where you are riding. You are ready to challenge King Rience. You will not succeed until you receive my counsel.'

‘Ah,' Balin said, ‘you are Merlin. Speak. We will be ruled by your advice.'

‘Then follow me.' The magician led them into a glade beside the track, where they rested their horses and waited. Then just before midnight Merlin roused them. ‘Come,' he said. ‘Make ready. King Rience is riding this way. He has come with sixty of his knights to visit the Lady de Vaunce. He wishes to sleep with her. So you may surprise him.'

‘Which one is the king?' Balan whispered to him.

‘There. Coming towards you.'

So they rushed down upon him, and knocked him from his horse. Then they put to the sword most of his retinue, to right and left, while the rest of them fled into the forest. King Rience lay wounded on the ground, and the two warriors would have killed him if he had not surrendered. ‘Stay your hand, brave knights!' he called to them. ‘You will win nothing by my death, but by my life you may win much.' So they took up the king and laid him on a litter.

Merlin vanished, and then reappeared beside Arthur at Camelot. ‘Your enemy has been taken,' he told him. ‘King Rience is captured.'

‘By whom?'

‘By two knights, who would dearly love to serve you. You will know their names soon.'

On the next day Balin and Balan rode into court with King Rience as their captive. They left him in the charge of constables before riding back to their lodging. On hearing of the arrival of Rience, Arthur came up to his adversary. ‘Sir king,' he said, ‘you are welcome. How did you come this way?'

‘By hard necessity. I was beaten in combat.'

‘By whom?'

Merlin answered for him. ‘By Balin, known as the Knight of the Two Swords, and by his brother, Balan. He is a knight of great virtue but, alas, he will not live long. But this is not yet a time for mourning. He will still do you more service very soon. Look abroad, sire. King Nero, the brother of Rience, is fast approaching with eleven kings in his retinue. Tomorrow morning they and their armies will advance against you. Prepare yourself.'

So Arthur mustered his troops. Although he was outnumbered by Nero's men, he was not outmatched by them. The king himself killed twenty enemy knights, and wounded forty more. He killed six of the kings. Balin and Balan were at the forefront of the fighting, slashing furiously on all sides; they killed six kings between them, including King Nero. Those who saw them believed that they were either angels come down from heaven, or devils sent from hell. No one admired them more than Arthur.

So Arthur caused to be made statues of copper, overlaid with gold, in the image of the twelve kings who had fallen in the field. Each one of them held a taper in his hands that burned night and day. A statue of Arthur himself was set up in gold, with a sword drawn in his hand, and the twelve kings were given gestures of submission. Merlin completed this wondrous work, as a sign of Arthur's success.