No More Learning

Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. "The crown is only the
shadow of the king," she said, "and this crown is the shadow of that
shadow. But let him have it if it will help him out of his violences. "

"It's no shadow to me, my queen," cried Balan, "no shadow to me, king.
It's a light for me. "

So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and whenever he
looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and patient.

But one morning as he heard Lancelot and the queen talking together on
the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere's bower, all his
old passions seemed to come back and filled him and he darted madly away
on his horse, not stopping until he had passed the fount where he had
sat with his brother Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond.
There the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a branch of a
tree.

[Illustration: BALIN WAS GIVEN THE CROWN TO WEAR ON HIS SHIELD. ]

"Give me your axe, Churl," cried Balin, and with one sharp cut he struck
it down.

"Lord! " cried the woodman, "you could kill the devil of this woods if
any one can. Just yesterday I saw a flash of him. Some people say that
our Sir Garlon has learned black magic too and can ride armed unseen.
Just look into the demon's cave.
"

But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off through the glades
with a drooping head. He did not notice that on his right a great cavern
chasm yawned out of the darkness. Once he heard the mosses beneath him
thud and tremble and then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and
ran along the ground. The light of somebody's armor flashed by him and
vanished into the woods.

Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that he
stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from his horse.
He sprang to his feet and darted off again not knowing where he was
going until the massy battlements of King Pellam's castle appeared.

"Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield? " Pellam's men asked him
as soon as they saw him.

"The fairest and best of ladies living gave it to me," Balin replied, as
he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the banquet hall.

"Why do you wear the royal crown? " Sir Garlon asked him as they sat at
table.

"The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest, best and
purest gave it to me to wear," said Balin.

But Sir Garlon only hissed at him and made fun of what he said, and
Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with a sacred picture to
hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the gentle queen about whom he
was talking soothed his temper. The next morning, however, in the court
Sir Garlon mocked him again and Balin's face grew black with anger. He
tore out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, "Ha! I'll
make a ghost of you!