Stories of King Arthur's Knights Told to the Children by Mary MacGregor

Excerpt

GERAINT AND ENID

Queen Guinevere lay idly in bed dreaming beautiful dreams. The sunny morning hours were slipping away, but she was so happy in dreamland, that she did not remember that her little maid had called her long ago.

But the Queen’s dreams came to an end at last, and all at once she remembered that this was the morning she had promised to go to the hunt with King Arthur.

Even in the hunting-field, the King was not quite happy if his beautiful Queen Guinevere were not there. This morning he had waited for her in vain, for in dreamland the Queen had forgotten all about the hunt.

‘If I dress quickly, I shall not be very late,’ thought the Queen, as she heard the far-off sound of the hunting-horn. And she was so quick that in a very short time she and her little waiting-maid were out, and riding up to a grassy knoll. But the huntsmen were already far away. ‘We will wait here to see them ride homewards,’ said the Queen, and they drew up their horses to watch and listen.

They had not waited long, when they heard the sound of horse’s hoofs, and turning round, the Queen saw Prince Geraint, one of Arthur’s knights. He was unarmed, except that his sword hung at his side. He wore a suit of silk, with a purple sash round his waist, and at each end of the sash was a golden apple, which sparkled in the sunlight.

‘You are late for the hunt, Prince Geraint,’ said the Queen.

‘Like you, I have come, not to join the hunt, but to see it pass,’ said the Prince, bowing low to the beautiful Queen. And he asked to be allowed to wait with her and the little maid.

As they waited, three people, a lady, a knight and a dwarf, came out of the forest, and rode slowly past. The knight had his helmet off, and the Queen saw that he looked young and bold.

‘I cannot remember if he is one of Arthur’s knights. I must know his name,’ she said. And she sent her little maid to find out who the strange knight was.

But when the little maid asked the dwarf his master’s name, the dwarf answered rudely that he would not tell her.

‘Then I will ask your master himself,’ said the maid. But as she stepped towards the knight, the dwarf struck her with his whip, and the little maid, half-angry and half-frightened, hurried back to the Queen, and told her how the dwarf had treated her.

Prince Geraint was angry when he heard how rude the dwarf had been to the Queen’s little messenger, and said that he would go and find out the knight’s name.

But the dwarf, by his master’s orders, treated the Prince as rudely as he had treated the little maid. When Geraint felt the dwarf’s whip strike his cheek, and saw the blood dropping on to his purple sash, he felt for the sword at his side. Then he remembered that while he was tall and strong, the dwarf was small and weak, and he scorned to touch him.

Going back to the Queen, Geraint told her that he had not been able to find out the knight’s name either, ‘but with your leave, I will follow him to his home, and compel him to ask your pardon,’ said the Prince. And the Queen allowed him to follow the knight.

‘When you come back, you will perhaps bring a bride with you,’ said the Queen. ‘If she be a great lady, or if she be only a beggar-maid, I will dress her in beautiful robes, and she shall stand among the fairest ladies of my court.’

‘In three days I shall come back, if I am not slain in battle with the knight,’ said Geraint. And he rode away, a little sorry not to hear the merry sound of the hunter’s horn, and a little vexed that he had undertaken this strange adventure.

Through valleys and over hills Geraint followed the lady, the knight and the dwarf, till at last, in the evening, he saw them go through the narrow streets of a little town, and reach a white fortress. Into this fortress the lady, the knight and the dwarf disappeared....