Arthur Rex (34 page)

But Gareth stepped aside from the point of the blue lance, and seizing the shaft he pulled it from the other’s grasp, and with such force that the Blue Knight was thrown from the saddle as his charger galloped on, and so was his neck broken and he died.

Then Gareth went inside the pavilion and he would have quickly unfastened the lady from the couch, but she cried to him in fury, “Scullion! I shall have thine eyes put out if thou dost look upon my naked bosom!”

Therefore shielding his eyes with one hand Gareth took a long time to loosen her bonds, and the damsel denounced him for his slowness, and she held her breath so that she might not smell his kitchen-stink, and she was in no wise grateful to him for saving her from the mishandling of the Blue Knight.

And when she went without and saw that the Blue Knight lay dead she cried, “Fie, knave! Thou couldst not have done this except by treachery, for Launcelot himself would have been hard put to defeat this knight at fair combat.”

And mounting her palfrey she rode away as fast as she could go.

Now Gareth possessed the Blue Knight’s armor and weapons and horse by right of conquest, but he did not think it right for him to dress and arm himself with them, for the blue color of it all was peculiar to the man who lay dead. And moreover, Gareth had not yet overcome vanity, and he took some satisfaction in defeating a knight who was well equipped while he himself was furnished ill.

Therefore he climbed upon his wretched jade and he set out to follow the damsel, never understanding that because of his vanity he was exposing her to a greater danger. For she had gone over the next hill and into the next valley, where beside the river a knight in brown armor waited, and because Gareth’s horse was so slow this felon had time to seize the lady and tie her to a couch within his brown pavilion, and raising her skirts and petticoats he did bare her to the waist.

Now the Brown Knight was on the point of removing his armor for to molest the damsel carnally when he heard a noise without (which was the creaking of Gareth’s rusty armor as he rode down the hill), and this criminal asked the lady whether she was followed by someone who would protect her.

“Alas,” said she weeping, “only by a stinking knave from the kitchens. I am helpless against your vile ravages.”

But arriving before the brown pavilion Gareth drew his rusty sword and he smote the brown shield which hung alongside the brown lance, and he cried, “Sir Brown Knight, I challenge you!”

And at this clamor the Brown Knight came without the pavilion and he saw Gareth, who was so wretchedly furnished, and with great insolence he said, “Scullion, come and help me undress, and then I shall permit thee to watch me swyve thy lady.”

“Sir,” said Gareth, “are you too cowardly to fight me?”

Now the Brown Knight was infuriated by what he believed the impudence of a greasy knave from the kitchens, and therefore without putting on his helm he seized his lance and mounted his horse, and he charged upon Gareth.

And Gareth spurred his own beast, but the old horse would not go faster than a slow walk, and his lance was shorter than it should have been, for some of its butt had broken off long since, and when he put it into the rest and lowered it, the iron head did fall off altogether, for owing to great age the wood had shrunk.

But notwithstanding these deficiencies, when they met it was the Brown Knight and not Gareth who was unseated and thrown to the ground. Therefore, even more vexed than before, the Brown Knight rose from the earth and he drew his brown sword.

“Well,” said he, “Fortune hath granted thee her last favor! Prepare to be sliced as if thou wert a joint of mutton.”

“Sir knight,” said Gareth, lowering his sword, “I can not fight you justly unless your head is protected. Shall you put on your helmet?”

“I shall not,” said the Brown Knight with the greatest contempt, “for I have nothing to protect myself from.” And he advanced on Gareth bareheaded.

Therefore Gareth proceeded to unlace his own helmet, for to remove it, but while he was so occupied the Brown Knight (defying all courtesy) would have smote him sorely had not the laces being old and dry soon burst, freeing the helm, and Gareth pulled it off with his dexter hand whilst raising the sword in the other and cutting off the head of the Brown Knight.

Now this severed head did leave the neck with such force that it flew within the door of the pavilion and rolled below the couch where the lady was tied fast. And she screamed when she saw it.

But when Gareth came within to free her she did not commend him for slaying her captor, far from it! Rather she commanded him to avert his eyes while he unbound her, and when she was at liberty she put her gown in order concealing her silken thighs, and then she said, “For the second time thou hast slain a knight by deceit. I would not be protected by ignoble means! Methinks the Round Table, if it is represented by thee, must be the basest companionship in the world.”

And once again she mounted her white palfrey and she quickly rode away. But now realizing that if he continued on his old horse he might not reach her in time to preserve her honor on the next occasion, Gareth exchanged his steed with the fine brown charger that had belonged to the late Brown Knight, and he donned the brown armor and he took up the brown weapons, and just as the lady reached the bottom of the next valley and had been taken by the knight who guarded the ford there, who wore black armor, Gareth galloped over the crest of the hill.

“Now, lady,” said the Black Knight to her, “I can not understand how you got this far and eluded my brothers the knights blue and brown, unless you did so by some treacherous means. But be assured that I shall take you into my black pavilion, strip you naked, and then I shall dighte you soundly.”

And the lady wept piteously.

But when Gareth wearing the brown armor came down the hill the Black Knight said happily, “Ah, there is one of my brothers now! Well, we shall share your sweet flesh.”

And the damsel replied, “Sir knight, ’tis not your brother but rather a wretched kitchen-knave from Camelot, who hath murdered both the Blue Knight and the Brown by treachery, and now, contrary to all laws of courtesy, hath stolen this armor and horse and these weapons.” And she said, “Though I find you wicked in the extreme, I should prefer being mishandled by an evil knight to being saved by a base fellow.”

And this lady, whose name was Lynette, can not be blamed altogether for having a low opinion of Gareth, because she had not seen him yet in a fight. And Gareth himself was not blameless, for owing to vanity he would not defend himself against her accusations, and Lynette was but one of the many human beings who distracted by a received idea must be patiently enlightened as to the truth.

Now Gareth was careful to come close to the Black Knight and with his visor opened to reveal that he was not the original wearer thereof.

And the Black Knight called him a caitiff and a wretch to murder his brothers by deceit, and he promised to kill him and to flay off his entire skin and nail it to a tree as an example of what happened to knaves who hoped to rise in the world against all human and divine laws and feloniously to represent themselves as their betters.

“Sir knight,” said Gareth, “I commiserate with you on the loss of your brothers, for I have several of mine own and I love them dearly. Yet should one of them be killed in a just fight I should not call his foe a criminal! Know you that I have fought fairly and that I have won this armor by right of conquest. And now I challenge you to a fight, for I believe your intent is illegally to ravish this damsel.”

But Lynette then cried, “Can it be that thou dost not understand that I do not desire thy protection, and that I find it greatly obnoxious? It is far more shameful to be saved by a scullion than to be ravished by a person of one’s own class.”

“Lady,” said the Black Knight, “I very much like your sentiments, and know you that I should never misuse you were it not that I am obliged to do so to all maidens who seek to cross this river, for ’tis the law of our eldest brother, the Red Knight of the Red Laws, that no virgin shall long remain intact in his demesnes, for this would be a great insolence towards our virile family.”

“Then here we are at odds,” said Lynette, “for these lands properly belong to me and were wrongfully seized by your brother, and he holds my sister in captivity. And I confess that I would have him killed could I find a proper champion, the which this greasy scullion be not.”

And Gareth, wishing to fight the Black Knight according to the rules of chivalry and fearing that the other would not agree to this (and the result would be again the ugly thing it had been with his brothers), asked this knight to dismount and to draw apart with him and speak privately, and when they did this Gareth said, “Know you I am Gareth, fourth son of King Lot of the Orkneys, nephew to Arthur of Britain, and brother to sirs Gawaine, Agravaine, and Gaheris.”

“My lord,” said the Black Knight, “then you are a prince?”

“Indeed,” said Gareth, “and I am in disguise. But I have never been false, which is to say, I did truly work as a scullion for a twelvemonth. And having served amongst them I can tell you that I have no great love for lackeys, who are for the most part lazy and dishonest and with little feeling but self-pity. And though perhaps this character is due to their low position in the world, perhaps it is not, for methinks that there must always be some hierarchy amongst mortals and that a man might serve well whatever the situation into which he hath been born by chance. Yet my greatest condemnation must be reserved for those of higher stations who do evil.”

Now the Black Knight heard little of the wisdom which Gareth though a very young man had gained since leaving the court of the remote Orkneys, for this knight was confused by the sudden change from scullion, too mean to fight, to prince, too far above him who was but the second son of a baron.

Therefore bowing low he said to Gareth, “Your Highness, shall you forgive me for not recognizing by your very seat on the horse (which quite properly you took by conquest from my brother) that you are the very model of all that is royal? I fear I am utterly disgraced!”

Now Gareth groaned in dismay, for he despaired that he could ever get this obsequious knight to fight him. But then he conceived a plan, and throwing back his head he laughed derisively and he said, “O gullible fool! I am but a mendacious knave!” And he tripped him up, so that the Black Knight fell down upon the ground. And Gareth said to him, “I shall mount now and take up the brown lance and unless you defend yourself I shall stick you where you sit.”

And this ruse was successful, for the Black Knight rose in a fury and he mounted his steed, and they charged upon each other. Now the Black Knight’s black lance did break upon Gareth’s brown shield, but Gareth’s brown lance hurled the Black Knight from his saddle.

And then Gareth dismounted, and they fought with swords for only so long as it took Gareth to chop the Black Knight’s blade off at the handle, and then he put the brown sword at his throat and he asked him to yield.

“That I do gladly,” said the Black Knight, “for no one but a prince hath such prowess at arms, and I know you are right royal whatever your guise!” And he swore fealty to Gareth.

Now watching this the damsel Lynette was amazed, for it confounded all her prejudices, and she had not heard the Black Knight address Gareth by his proper title, so that she still assumed he was but a scullion. And yet she had clearly seen him defeat a formidable knight in the fairest of contests. And therefore several truths did here conflict, and in her confusion she swooned.

Now the Black Knight was as gentle and gracious as he had been brutal before, and he carried her within the pavilion and he bathed her temples with Cologne-water. And when she came to her senses she asked him whether she had seen him defeated by a kitchen-knave.

Now in commanding him to care for Lynette, Gareth had made the Black Knight promise not to reveal his true identity, and therefore this knight now said, “My lady, the man in the brown armor did overwhelm me in a fair test.”

And Lynette said in disgust, “For shame, sir knight! Begone! I now find thee more offensive than he.”

And the Black Knight replied, “Lady, I accept your scorn as deserved, but you would do better not to disdain that man.”

And he then went without, where Gareth said to him, “Go to Camelot and offer thy fealty to King Arthur, and be henceforth a knight of good repute, abstaining from all wickedness.”

So the Black Knight did as he was commanded, and for the rest of his life he intended to serve virtue alone.

Now Lynette came out of the pavilion, where Gareth did await her, and she was not quite so proud as before.

“Look here,” said she, “perhaps I have judged thee too harshly. Thou hast some prowess at arms, though I do not know how thou couldst have got it in the kitchens. Never can I approve of thine exceeding thy station, but thou hast surely saved me from an evil fate. So much shall I grant thee. And now it is for thine own good that I say, return to Camelot while thou dost still live! For however thou wert able to vanquish the blue, brown, and black knights, the Red Knight of the Red Lawns is invincible. And though I can not say I am overfond of thee, I do not wish to see thee killed needlessly.”

But Gareth saluted her from his seat on the brown horse, saying, “Lady, lead and I shall follow.”

“Beaumains,” said she, “why dost thou persist in this mad venture? Must I apologize for abusing thee? Then I do so freely. Thou art a brave man. Is that not enough? Then add to it this: dressed in that fine armor and mounted on a good horse thou wouldst seem to the manner born.” And here she stamped her little foot in its satin slipper. “Now what lady could ever say more in condescension?”

“Lady,” said Gareth, “you have been as generous to me as I could wish. And I am grateful to you for your kind concern, but nothing in the world could stop me from fighting the Red Knight of the Red Lawns, for that is my quest, and but one knight shall emerge from that encounter, only God knows which.”