No More Learning

"

It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of Orkney told
him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay thinking over it all, still
puzzled as to whether he should say "yes" or "no" to the ambassadors
whom Arthur had sent. As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very,
very drowsy and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept
he saw a wonderful vision in a dream.

There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that ascended
higher and higher, field after field, to a very great height and at the
top there was a lofty peak hidden in the heavy, hazy clouds; and on the
peak a phantom king stood. One moment the king was there, and the next
moment he was gone, while everything below him was in a frightful
confusion, a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle
falling back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up in
streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king stood in the
fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king spoke out through the
haze, and some one here or there beneath would point upward toward him,
but the rest all went on fighting. They cried out, "He is no king of
ours, no son of Uther's, no king of ours. " Then in a twinkling the dream
all changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth below the
peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful king remained,
crowned with his diadems, standing in the heavens.

Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. He called
for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they had come into this
presence he told them that Arthur should marry the fair Princess
Guinevere, and he sent them galloping back to Arthur's court.

That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights delivered
King Leodogran's message. He made ready at once for his sweet queen. He
picked out Lancelot, his favorite Knight of the Round Table, whom he
loved better than any other man in all the world, to ride over into the
Land of Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as
Lancelot mounted his dancing steed and rode away _Arthur watched him
from the palace gates_, thinking of the lovely lady who would ride by
his side when he returned.

[Illustration: LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.
]

Lancelot's horse trampled away among the flowers; for it was April when
he left the court of Arthur, and just one month later he came riding
back among the flowers of the May-time. Guinevere was with him on her
graceful palfrey.

Then Dubric, the head of the whole church in Britain, went out to meet
her. Happy Arthur was there too. They were married in the greatest and
noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all the
Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white clothes, gathered
about them. And all the knights were as delighted as they could be
because their king was so glad. Holy Dubric spread out his hands above
the King and the lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and
he said:

[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN. ]

"Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, and may your
queen be one with you, and may all the Knights of the Order of the Round
Table fulfill the boundless purposes of their king. "

There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords came thither
from far away Rome, which once was the mistress of all the world, but
now was slowly fading away. These Roman lords called for the tribute
from Arthur that they had always received from Britain ever since Caesar
with his Roman legions had conquered it long years before.

But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy knights and
said: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight for me in all my wars
and to worship me as their king. The old order of things has passed away
and a new order will take its place. We are fighting for our fair father
Christ, while you have been growing so feeble and so weak and so old
that you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman walls any
more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be your slaves. This is to
be our own free country which we will defend and maintain.