The king said weakly, "I can't. I promised to fight as long as I had life. I would rather die with honor than live in shame. If you kill an unarmed man you will never live down the shame."
"It is not your affair to worry about my shame," said Accolon. "You are a dead man." And he pressed home his attack, careless of defense.
Arthur took the only possible opening. He pressed close and thrust his shield against Accolon's sword arm and swung at his exposed helmet with the broken pommel of his sword with such force that Accolon reeled back three steps and stood swaying dizzily.
Nyneve had watched the combat hoping for the decision of God against the treason of Morgan le Fay, but when she saw Arthur's last despairing stroke with the broken sword and Accolon recover his strength and advance on the weak and disarmed king, she knew that he was lost without her help. Then she searched her memory for Merlin's teaching and she forged a spell and flung it with her eyes at the advancing traitor. Sir Accolon raised Excalibur, measured his distance, and aimed a deadly finishing stroke, but as the blade touched the shield, the hand that held it lost its grip and the fingers went lax. The sword fell to the ground and Accolon watched with helpless horror as Arthur picked it up. The pommel felt good in his hand and he knew it was the true Excalibur and he said, "My dear sword, you have been too long out of my hand and you have wounded me. Now, be my friend again, Excalibur." He looked at Accolon and saw the scabbard, and leaped forward and tore it free and flung it as far as he could over the heads of the circled people.
"Now, Sir Knight," he said to Accolon, "You have had your turn and I my wounds. Now we change places and you shall have what you have given me." He rushed on Accolon, shield forward to raise his guard, but Accolon fell to the ground rigid with paralyzing fear. Arthur dashed off his helm and struck him on the head with the flat of Excalibur so that blood started from his nose and ears. "Now I will kill you," said Arthur.
"That is your right," said Sir Accolon. "I see now that God is on your side and your cause is right. But as you promised to fight to the end, so did I, and I cannot beg for mercy. Do what you will."
Arthur looked at the unvisored face, distorted and dirtied with dust and blood, and he said, "I know your face. Who are you?"
"Sir Knight, I am of the royal court of King Arthur. My name is Accolon of Gaul."
Then Arthur thought of the enchantment of the ship and the treachery whereby Excalibur came into his enemy's hand, and he asked softly, "Tell me, Sir Knight, who gave you this sword?"
"The sword is my misfortune. It has brought death to me," said Accolon.
"Whatever it has brought, where did you get it?"
Sir Accolon sighed, for the power of his promised mistress had failed and disappeared. "I see no reason now to conceal anything," he said hopelessly. "The king's sister hates him with a death hate because he has the crown and because he is loved and honored above her. She loves me and I love her to the point of treason. She has betrayed Sir Uryens, her husband, and been my paramour. She promised me that if I would kill Arthur with her help, she would rid herself of her husband and make me king, and she would be my queen, and we would reign in England and live in happiness." He fell silent, remembering, and then he said, "It is all over now. My plans have invited my death."
Arthur spoke through his closed visor. "If you had won this fight, do you know you would have been king? But how could you have contained the sin of treason against your anointed king?"
"I don't know, Sir Knight," said Accolon. "My mind and soul have been under a spell so that even treason seemed a nothing. But that is gone now like a dream. Tell me who you are, before I die."
"I am your king," said Arthur.
Then Accolon cried out in sorrow and in pain. "My lord, I did not know. I thought I fought a champion. I have been tricked as you have. Can you grant mercy to a man who has been cheated and beguiled even to plotting your death?"
The king thought long and then he said, "I can grant mercy because I believe you did not know me. I have honored Morgan le Fay, my sister, given in to her, and loved her better than my other kin. And I have trusted her more even than my wife, even though I knew her jealousy and lust of flesh and hunger for power, and even though I knew she practiced the black arts. If she could do this to me, I can believe and forgive what she has done to you. But I will not have mercy on her. My vengeance on my evil sister will be the talk of Christendom. Now rise, Sir Accolon. I have granted mercy." Then Arthur helped him to his feet and he called to the people clustered about the field, "Come closer." And when they had gathered around him he said, "We have fought and wounded each other sorely, but if we had known each other there would have been no combat."
Accolon cried out, "This is the best and bravest knight in the world, but he is more than that. He is our lord and sovereign, King Arthur. By mischance I have fought against my king. He can grant mercy, but I cannot forgive myself, for there is no sin or crime worse than treason against the king."
Then all the people kneeled down and begged for mercy.
"Mercy you shall have," said Arthur. "You did not know. Only remember from this what strange and fatal adventures and accidents may come to errant knights. Now I am weak and wounded and I must rest, but first here is my judgment of the test of right by combat.
"Sir Damas, as your champion I have fought and won. But because you are proud and cowardly and full of villainy, hear my decision. You will give this whole manor to your brother, Sir Outlake, with all its equipment of farms and houses. He in payment will send you a palfrey every year, for you are better fit to ride a lady's hackney than a war horse. I charge you on pain of death never to distress or injure knights errant who ride through your lands. As for the twenty knights in prison, you will return their armor and any other things you have taken from them. And if any of them comes to my court to complain of you, you shall die. That is my judgment."
Then Arthur, weak from loss of blood, turned to Sir Outlake. "Because you are a good knight, brave and true and courteous, I charge you to come to my court to be my knight, and I shall so favor you that you will live in comfort and in honor."
"Thank you, my lord," said Sir Outlake. "I am at your command. Only be sure, sir, that if I had not been wounded I would have fought my own combat."
"I wish it had been so," said Arthur, "for then I would not have been so hurt, and hurt by treachery and enchantment by one near to me."
Sir Outlake said, "I can't imagine anyone plotting against you, my lord."
"I will deal with that person," said the king. "Now, how far am I from Camelot?"
"Two days' journey," said Outlake. "Too far to travel with your wounds. Three miles from here there is an abbey with nuns to care for you, and learned men to heal your wounds."
"I will go there to rest," said the king, and he called farewell to the people and helped Sir Accolon to his horse, and mounted and rode slowly away.
At the abbey their wounds were cleansed and cared for with the best-known salves and unguents, but within four days Sir Accolon died of the terrible last wound on his unshielded head.
Then Arthur ordered his body to be taken to Camelot by six knights and delivered to Morgan le Fay. He said, "Tell my dear sister I send him to her as a present in payment for her kindness to me."
Meanwhile, Morgan believed her plan had been carried out and the king killed with his own sword. The time had come, she thought, to rid herself of her husband, Sir Uryens. In the night she waited until he was asleep and then called a maiden who attended her. "Fetch me my lord's sword," she said. "There will never be a better time to kill him."
The maid cried out in terror, "If you kill your husband, you will never escape."
"That is not your worry," Morgan said. "Go quickly and bring the sword."
Then in fear the damsel crept to the bed of Sir Ewain, Morgan's son, and she awakened him. "Get up," she whispered. "Your mother is going to kill your father in his sleep. She has sent me for a sword."
Ewain started awake an
d rubbed his eyes, and then he said quietly, "Obey her orders. Get the sword. I will take care of it," and he slipped from his bed and armed himself and crept along dark corridors and hid himself in his father's room.
The damsel brought the sword with shaking hands, and Morgan le Fay took it from her and boldly she stood over her sleeping husband, coldly judging the proper place to drive in the blade. When she raised the sword to strike, Sir Ewain leaped from his hiding place and caught her wrist and held her, struggling. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "It is said that Merlin was sired by a fiend. You must be an earthly fiend. If you were not my mother, I would kill you."
But Morgan trapped was doubly dangerous. She stared wildly about as though awakened suddenly. "What is this?" she cried. "Where am I? What is this sword?--Oh, my son, protect me! Some evil spirit has entered while I slept. Have mercy on me, my son. Do not tell of this. Protect my honor. It is your honor, too."
Sir Ewain said reluctantly, "I will forgive you if you promise to give up your magic crafts."
"I promise," said Morgan. "I will swear it. You are my good son, my dear son." Then Ewain, half-believing, released her and took the sword away.
In the morning one of her secret people brought news to Morgan le Fay that her plan had failed. Sir Accolon was dead and Arthur, alive, had Excalibur again. Inwardly she raged against her brother and mourned the death of Accolon, but her face was cold and composed and she showed no anger or fear or shed any open tears for her lover. She well knew that if she stayed for the king's return her life was forfeit, for there could be no clemency for her unmentionable crime against her brother and her king.
Morgan went sweetly to Queen Guinevere and asked permission to leave the court.
"Can you not wait until your brother, the king, comes home?" asked Guinevere.
"I wish I might, but I cannot," said Morgan. "Bad news has come of revolt on my estates and I must go."
"In that case you may go," said the queen.
Then in the dark, before morning, Morgan le Fay assembled forty trusted followers and she rode out and gave no rest to horse or man for a day and a night. And early on the second morning she came to the abbey where she knew King Arthur lay.
She entered boldly and demanded to see her brother, and a nun replied, "He is sleeping now at last. For three nights his wounds have given him little rest."
"Do not awaken him," said Morgan. "I will go quietly to see my brother's dear face." And she dismounted and went inside with such authority that no one dared stop the sister of the king.
She found his room and saw by a small rush light that the king lay on his bed asleep, but his hand gripped the handle of Excalibur and its naked blade lay beside him on the bed. Morgan did not dare to take the sword for fear he might awaken, for he slept restlessly. But on a chest nearby she saw the scabbard and slipped it under her cloak and went out thanking the nuns, and she mounted and rode away with speed.
When the king awakened, he missed his scabbard. "Who has taken it?" he demanded angrily. "Who has been here?"
"Only your sister Morgan le Fay, and she has gone."
"You have not guarded me," he cried. "She has taken my scabbard."
"Sir," said the nuns, "we could not disobey your sister."
Then Arthur struggled from his bed and ordered the best horse to be found, and he asked Sir Outlake to arm and come with him, and the two galloped after Morgan.
At a wayside cross they asked a cowherd if he had seen a lady pass.
"Aye, that I did," he said. "A little time ago she went riding by and forty horsemen with her. They rode toward yonder forest."
Then Arthur and Sir Outlake gave chase, and in a short time they sighted her and whipped up their horses.
Morgan saw them coming and she drove her horse through the forest and out on an open plain beyond it, and when she saw the pursuers gaining on her, she spurred her horse into a little lake. "Whatever happens to me, he shall not have this sheath to protect him," she said, and she threw the scabbard as far out as she could in the water. It was heavy with gold and cut jewels and sank quickly out of sight.
Then she rejoined her men and galloped on into a valley where there were rings of great standing stones. And Morgan cast enchantment so that her men and she became tall stones like the others. When Arthur entered the valley and saw the stones, he said, "She has drawn the vengeance of God on her. My vengeance is not needed." He looked about on the ground for his scabbard and could not find it, for it was in the lake. And after a time he rode slowly back toward the abbey.
As soon as he had gone, Morgan le Fay resumed her form and freed her men from the skins of stone. "Now you are free," she said, "but did you see the king's face?"
"We did, and it was icy rage. If we had not been turned to stone we would have run away."
"I believe you would," said she.
They took up their march again, and on their way they met a knight leading a prisoner bound and blindfolded.
"What are you doing with that knight?" Morgan asked.
"I am going to drown him. I found him with my wife. And I will drown her too."
Morgan asked the prisoner, "Is this true what he says?"
"No, madame, it is not true."
"Where do you come from? What is your name?" she asked.
"I am of King Arthur's court," he said. "My name is Manessen. I am Sir Accolon's cousin."
Morgan le Fay said, "I loved Sir Accolon. In his memory I shall deliver you to do to this man what he would have done to you."
Her men unbound him and tied the other with the same cords. Sir Manessen put on the armor and weapons of his captor and took him to a deep spring and threw him in. Then he returned to Morgan. "I will return to Arthur's court. Have you any message for him?"
She smiled bitterly. "I have," she said. "Tell my dear brother that I rescued you not for love of him but for love of Accolon. And tell him I have no fear of him, for I can turn myself and my followers into stones. Lastly, tell him I can do much more than that and I will prove it to him when the time comes."
She went to her lands in the country of Gore, and she strengthened her castles and towns, and armed and provisioned them, because in spite of her brave message she lived in fear of King Arthur.
GAWAIN, EWAIN, AND MARHALT
KING ARTHUR BROUGHT GLOOM AND anger back to Camelot, for there is no defense against treachery, and only rage and suspicion follow to measure the depth of the wound.
The knights of the court caught the king's anger and enlarged it. Treachery against the king's person is treason, since every subject feels the blow. Morgan le Fay should be burned, they said. That she was the king's half-sister made her crime more horrible. When Sir Manessen brought Morgan's message of defiance, the fellowship growled and looked to Arthur to order them to their arms--but the king said bitterly, "You see now what it is to have a dear and loving sister. I will take my own way with this and I promise you that the whole world will speak of my revenge." And by this the knights knew that their king was confused and had made no plan.
Like many cruel and evil women, Morgan le Fay knew men's weaknesses and discounted their strengths. And she knew also that most improbable actions may be successful so long as they are undertaken boldly and without hesitation, for men believe beyond proof to the contrary that blood is thicker than water and that a beautiful woman cannot be evil. Thus, Morgan played a deadly game with Arthur's honesty and innocence. She prepared a present for her brother, a cloak of such beauty that she knew his eyes would sparkle. Flowers and curling leaves patterned in jewels covered the cloak with preciousness and flashing color, and Morgan le Fay sent this gift to Arthur by one of her damsels and she rehearsed her in her message.
The girl stood before the king, and she shuddered at his cold anger.
"Sir," said the damsel, "your sister now knows her terrible crime and that she cannot be forgiven. She is resigned to her fate, but she wishes you to know that it was not her act but the work of an evil spirit which tra
pped and controlled her." She saw the king's eyes waver with uncertainty and pressed on. "Your sister Morgan sends this present, my lord, a gift befitting your fame for justice and wisdom and mercy. She begs you to wear her gift when you sit in judgment on her and perhaps remember not the foul spirit which controlled her but the beloved sister you have warmed with your kindness."
The damsel unrolled the shining cloak and spread it before the king and she watched his face, hardly daring to breathe. She saw the quick light of pleasure at the beauty come into his eyes.
"Well--there are evil spirits," he said. "Everyone knows there are."
"Your sister made this cloak with her own white fingers, my lord. She stitched every jewel to it and would not allow any help."
Arthur looked at the cloak. "She was always clever," he said. "I remember once when she was a girl--" He stretched his hand toward the shining beauty.
Then a shrill voice cried out, "My lord, do not touch it." And Nyneve of the Lake came forward and said, "Sir, I saved you against treachery before."
The king's eyes went back to the shining cloak. But Nyneve said, "Sir, even if I am wrong it will do no harm to test it. Let Morgan's messenger wear it first."
Arthur turned to the trembling damsel. "No harm in that if it is harmless," he said. "Put it on!"
"I must not," the damsel said. "It would not be seemly to wear the king's cloak. My mistress would be angry."
"I will forgive the fault. Put it on!"
Then, as the girl shrank back, Nyneve took the cloak by its edge with her fingertips and cast it over the damsel's shoulders, and her skin reddened and then turned black and she fell to the floor in convulsions while the corrosive ate through her flesh and shriveled her.
Arthur looked at the twitching horror robed in jewels and he was filled with the wonder and pain of treachery. "My sister made this death for me with her own hands," he said. "My own sister." Then he glanced suspiciously at everyone around him and he called to Sir Uryens, Morgan's husband, to come to him privately.