3 books to know King Arthur. Thomas Malory

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of Gorlois and Ygerne am I;'

      'And therefore Arthur's sister?' asked the King.

      She answered, 'These be secret things,' and signed

      To those two sons to pass, and let them be.

      And Gawain went, and breaking into song

      Sprang out, and followed by his flying hair

      Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw:

      But Modred laid his ear beside the doors,

      And there half-heard; the same that afterward

      Struck for the throne, and striking found his doom.

      And then the Queen made answer, 'What know I?

      For dark my mother was in eyes and hair,

      And dark in hair and eyes am I; and dark

      Was Gorlois, yea and dark was Uther too,

      Wellnigh to blackness; but this King is fair

      Beyond the race of Britons and of men.

      Moreover, always in my mind I hear

      A cry from out the dawning of my life,

      A mother weeping, and I hear her say,

      "O that ye had some brother, pretty one,

      To guard thee on the rough ways of the world."'

      'Ay,' said the King, 'and hear ye such a cry?

      But when did Arthur chance upon thee first?'

      'O King!' she cried, 'and I will tell thee true:

      He found me first when yet a little maid:

      Beaten I had been for a little fault

      Whereof I was not guilty; and out I ran

      And flung myself down on a bank of heath,

      And hated this fair world and all therein,

      And wept, and wished that I were dead; and he—

      I know not whether of himself he came,

      Or brought by Merlin, who, they say, can walk

      Unseen at pleasure—he was at my side,

      And spake sweet words, and comforted my heart,

      And dried my tears, being a child with me.

      And many a time he came, and evermore

      As I grew greater grew with me; and sad

      At times he seemed, and sad with him was I,

      Stern too at times, and then I loved him not,

      But sweet again, and then I loved him well.

      And now of late I see him less and less,

      But those first days had golden hours for me,

      For then I surely thought he would be king.

      'But let me tell thee now another tale:

      For Bleys, our Merlin's master, as they say,

      Died but of late, and sent his cry to me,

      To hear him speak before he left his life.

      Shrunk like a fairy changeling lay the mage;

      And when I entered told me that himself

      And Merlin ever served about the King,

      Uther, before he died; and on the night

      When Uther in Tintagil past away

      Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two

      Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,

      Then from the castle gateway by the chasm

      Descending through the dismal night—a night

      In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost—

      Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps

      It seemed in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof

      A dragon winged, and all from stern to stern

      Bright with a shining people on the decks,

      And gone as soon as seen. And then the two

      Dropt to the cove, and watched the great sea fall,

      Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,

      Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep

      And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged

      Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:

      And down the wave and in the flame was borne

      A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,

      Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King!

      Here is an heir for Uther!" And the fringe

      Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand,

      Lashed at the wizard as he spake the word,

      And all at once all round him rose in fire,

      So that the child and he were clothed in fire.

      And presently thereafter followed calm,

      Free sky and stars: "And this the same child," he said,

      "Is he who reigns; nor could I part in peace

      Till this were told." And saying this the seer

      Went through the strait and dreadful pass of death,

      Not ever to be questioned any more

      Save on the further side; but when I met

      Merlin, and asked him if these things were truth—

      The shining dragon and the naked child

      Descending in the glory of the seas—

      He laughed as is his wont, and answered me

      In СКАЧАТЬ