Stories of King Arthur's Knights, Told to the Children Part 9

Then the Red Knight gladly restored all he had stolen. And after he had been forgiven by the Lady Lyonors, he journeyed to the court, and told Arthur all that Sir Gareth had done.

And Lynette came and took off Gareth's armour and bathed his wounds, and he rested in his tent for ten days.

'I will go to the castle and ask Lyonors to come home with me and be my wife,' thought Gareth, as soon as his wounds were healed. But when he came to the castle, he found the drawbridge pulled up, and many armed men were there, who would not let him enter.

'But Lyonors, I must see Lyonors,' thought Gareth. 'Surely she will wish to see me,' and he looked wistfully up to the window, and there beautiful as ever, was his Lady Lyonors.

'I cannot love you altogether,' said Lyonors, 'till you have been King Arthur's knight for another year, and helped to clear the land from his enemies.'

Though he was a good knight, Gareth's heart was heavy as he listened. 'If I do not see Lyonors for a year,' he thought, 'the months will pa.s.s more slowly and seem more empty than those long months I spent in the King's kitchen.' But as Gareth was a right loyal knight, he bowed to his lady's will. He had freed the castle from the Red Knight, and now it was open to every one, only he himself was banished. And he went away sadly but faithfully to find new adventures.

And when Gareth slept in the forests or on the wild mountain-sides, he often dreamed of the day that would come when his year's wanderings were over, when Lyonors would be his wife, and together they would go back to King Arthur's court, and he would at last be known to every one as Sir Gareth and a prince.

He dreamed, too, of the happier day, when he would take the beautiful Lyonors to his mother, and show her the mountain home he loved so well.

SIR GALAHAD AND THE SACRED CUP

'My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure,'

sang Galahad gladly. He was only a boy, but he had just been made a knight by Sir Lancelot, and the old abbey, where he had lived all his life, rang with the echo of his song.

Sir Lancelot heard the boy's clear voice singing in triumph. As he stopped to listen, he caught the words,

'My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure,'

and the great knight wished he were a boy again, and could sing that song too.

Twelve nuns lived in the quiet abbey, and they had taught Galahad lovingly and carefully, ever since he had come to them as a beautiful little child. And the boy had dwelt happily with them there in the still old abbey, and he would be sorry to leave them, but he was a knight now. He would fight for the King he reverenced so greatly, and for the country he loved so well.

Yet when Sir Lancelot left the abbey the next day, Galahad did not go with him. He would stay in his old home a little longer, he thought. He would not grieve the nuns by a hurried farewell.

Sir Lancelot left the abbey alone, but as he rode along he met two knights, and together they reached Camelot, where the King was holding a great festival.

King Arthur welcomed Sir Lancelot and the two knights. 'Now all the seats at our table will be filled,' he said gladly. For it pleased the King when the circle of his knights was unbroken.

Then all the King's household went to service at the minster, and when they came back to the palace they saw a strange sight.

In the dining-hall the Round Table at which the King and his knights always sat seemed strangely bright.

The King looked more closely, and saw that at one place on this Round Table were large gold letters. And he read, 'This is the seat of Sir Galahad, the Pure-hearted.' But only Sir Lancelot knew that Sir Galahad was the boy-knight he had left behind him in the quiet old abbey.

'We will cover the letters till the Knight of the Pure Heart comes,' said Sir Lancelot; and he took silk and laid it over the glittering letters.

Then as they sat down to table they were disturbed by Sir Kay, the steward of the King's kitchen.

'You do not sit down to eat at this festival,' Sir Kay reminded the King, 'till you have seen or heard some great adventure.' And the King told his steward that the writing in gold had made him forget his usual custom.

As they waited a squire came hastily into the hall. 'I have a strange tale to tell,' he said. 'As I walked along the bank of the river I saw a great stone, and it floated on the top of the water, and into the stone there has been thrust a sword.'

Then the King and all his knights went down to the river, and they saw the stone, and it was like red marble. And the sword that had been thrust into the stone was strong and fair. The handle of it was studded with precious stones, and among the stones there were letters of gold.

The King stepped forward, and bending over the sword read these words: 'No one shall take me away but he to whom I belong. I will hang only by the side of the best knight in the world.'

The King turned to Sir Lancelot. 'The sword is yours, for surely there lives no truer knight.'

But Sir Lancelot answered gravely, 'The sword is not mine. It will never hang by my side, for I dare not try to take it.'

The King was sorry that his great knight's courage failed, but he turned to Sir Gawaine and asked him to try to take the sword.

And at first Sir Gawaine hesitated. But when he looked again at the precious stones that sparkled on the handle, he hesitated no longer. But he no sooner touched the sword than it wounded him, so that he could not use his arm for many days.

Then the King turned to Sir Percivale. And because Arthur wished it, Sir Percivale tried to take the sword; but he could not move it. And after that no other knight dared to touch the fair sword; so they turned and went back to the palace.

In the dining-hall the King and his knights sat down once more at the Round Table, and each knight knew his own chair. And all the seats were filled except the chair opposite the writing in gold.

It had been a day full of surprise, but now the most wonderful thing of all happened. For as they sat down, suddenly all the doors of the palace shut with a loud noise, but no one had touched the doors. And all the windows were softly closed, but no one saw the hands that closed them.

Then one of the doors opened, and there came in a very old man dressed all in white, and no one knew whence he came.

By his side was a young man in red armour. He had neither sword nor shield, but hanging by his side was an empty sheath.

There was a great silence in the hall as the old man said slowly and solemnly, 'I bring you the young knight Sir Galahad, who is descended from a king. He shall do many great deeds, and he shall see the Holy Grail.'

'He shall see the Holy Grail,' the knights repeated, with awe on their faces.

For far back, in the days of their boyhood, they had heard the story of the Holy Grail. It was the Sacred Cup out of which their Lord had drunk before He died.

And they had been told how sometimes it was seen carried by angels, and how at other times in a gleam of light. But in whatever way it appeared, it was seen only by those who were pure in heart.

And as the old man's words, 'He shall see the Holy Grail,' fell on their ears, the knights thought of the story they had heard so long ago, and they were sorry, for they had never seen the Sacred Cup, and they knew that it was unseen only by those who had done wrong.

But the old man was telling the boy-knight to follow him. He led him to the empty chair, and lifted the silk that covered the golden letters. 'This is the seat of Sir Galahad, the Pure-hearted,' he read aloud. And the young knight sat in the empty seat that belonged to him.

Then the old man left the palace, and twenty n.o.ble squires met him, and took him back to his own country.

When dinner was ended, the King went over to the chair where his boy-knight sat, and welcomed him to the circle of the Round Table.

Afterwards he took Sir Galahad's hand, and led him out of the palace to show him the strange red stone that floated on the river.

When Sir Galahad heard how the knights could not draw the sword out of the stone, he knew that this adventure was his.

'I will try to take the sword,' said the boy-knight, 'and place it in my sheath, for it is empty,' and he pointed to his side. Then he laid his hand on the wonderful sword, and easily drew it out of the stone, and placed it in his sheath.

'G.o.d has sent you the sword, now He will send you a shield as well,' said King Arthur.

Then the King proclaimed that the next day there would be a tournament in the meadows of Camelot. For before his knights went out to new adventures, he would see Sir Galahad proved.