No More Learning

If only she could be his queen he thought they two together could rule
on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and could exert a
mighty power over all his people to make them good and wise and happy.
Each day increased his love until he could not bear even to think for a
moment of living without her. So from the very field of battle, while
the swords were flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons
and great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched three
messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard.

These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, the very
first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. They went to Leodogran
and said that if Arthur had been of any service to him in his recent
troubles with the heathen and the wild beasts, he should give the
Princess Guinevere to be Arthur's wife as a mark of his good will.

[Illustration: ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN. ]

Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what to do any
better than when the heathen and the beasts had come upon him. For while
he thought Arthur a very bold soldier and a very fine man, and, although
he felt very grateful indeed to him for all the great things he had
done, still he was not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For,
as Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the wife of
none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not know precisely who
this King Arthur was; but he did know that the barons of Arthur's court
had burst out into this uproar against him because they said he was not
their true king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before
him. Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others
avowed that Sir Anton was his father.

As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter himself, he
sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who always had good
counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he asked the chamberlain whether
he had heard anything certainly as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlain
told him that there were just two men in all the world who knew the
truth with respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both
these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was Merlin the
wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in magic, who had written
a book of his renowned pupil's wonders, which probably related
everything regarding the secret of Arthur's birth.

"If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than you have just
now in my present trouble," the king answered the chamberlain, "I would
have died long ago from the wild beasts and the heathen.
Send me in
Ulfius and Brastias and Bedivere again. "

So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came into Leodogran
who spoke to them this way: "I have often seen a big cuckoo chased by
little birds and understood why such tiny birds plagued him so, but why
are the nobles in your country rebelling against their king and saying
that he is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves think
he is the child of King Uther. "

[Illustration: SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT. ]

Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but Bedivere, the first
of all Arthur's knights, became very bold when anyone slandered his
sovereign and he replied: "_Sir King, there are all sorts of stories
about that_; some of the nobles hate him just because he is good and
they are wicked; they cry out that he is no man because his ways are
gentler than their rough manners, while others again think he must be
an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts as I know
them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago; they both loved
Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and had no sons, but three
daughters, one of them the Queen of Orkney who has clung to Arthur like
a sister. The two rivals, Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other
and Gerlois was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsome
Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently.
In a few months Uther died, and on that very night of his death Arthur
was born. And as soon as he was born they carried him out by a secret
back gateway to Merlin the magician, to be brought up far away from the
court so that no one would hear about him until he was grown up ready to
sit upon Uther's, his father, throne.

"For those were wild lords in those years just like these of today,
always struggling for the rule, and they would have shattered the
helpless little prince to pieces had they known about him. So Merlin
took the baby and gave him over to old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's,
and Sir Anton's wife tended Arthur with her own little ones so that
nobody knew who he was or where he had come from. But while the prince
was growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and barons were
fighting all the time among themselves and nobody ruled. But during this
present year Arthur's time for ascending the throne had come, so Merlin
brought him from out of his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and
cried out to all the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, your
king! ' Of course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried
back immediately: 'Away with him!