The King Arthur Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

and he knew that whatever he had to do in this new life, he could do it.
    ‘Speak to them,’ said Merlin, beside him.
    And Arthur spoke, lifting up his voice clear for all the knights and nobles in the great church, and the people thronging beyond the open door, and for all the people of Britain. ‘I am your King! I will keep faith with you. Do you keep faith with me! When this feast of Pentecost is over let us gather our forces, and together we will drive back the Sea Wolves and the men of the North who ravage these lands! We will free the realm of the strife and the fire and the sword that have torn it apart in theyears since my father’s death. You and I together, let us make this a good land, where men do not rule only because they are strong, but where men are strong for the Right, none the less! Give me your love and your faithkeeping, oh people of Britain, and I will give you mine through all the days of my life!’
    And there was no more shouting and acclamation; only a deep silence in the great church. But it was a good silence; and the tall man with the golden eyes smiled, as one that is well content.

3
The Sword from the Lake
    FROM THE DAY of his crowning, Merlin was always beside the new High King, as he had been with his father Utha before him. And with Merlin to advise and council him, Arthur Pendragon gathered his war hosts and thrust back the Saxons and the Picts and the men from over the Irish Sea. And he led his men also across the Narrow Seas to Less Britain to aid King Ban and King Bors of Benwick, who had sheltered Ambrosius and Utha after their father was slain, when they in their turn were beset by enemies on their borders.
    And when all this was done, and it seemed as though there might be peace for a while, he made his capital at Camelot. And some people say the place where Camelot once stood is now the city of Winchester, and some that Cadbury Hill is what remains of it today; but no man knows for sure where the towers of Camelot once rose,just as no man knows for sure the last sleeping-place of Arthur the King.
    But wherever his capital might be, neither Arthur nor his knights were left long to be at peace in it. For the dust of the fighting was scarcely sunk and the wounds were scarcely healed, when eleven lesser kings from the outland and mountain places along the fringes of Britain gathered each their war hosts and came against the new High King. King Lot of Orkney and King Nantres of Garlot, King Anguish of Ireland and King Idris of Far Cornwall and King Uriens of Gore and six more beside, they gathered to the great forest that furred all the mid-lands of Britain, and there laid siege to the great Castle of Bedegraine which was one of Arthur’s chiefmost strongholds, meaning to make it their headquarters against him.
    Then, by the advice of Merlin, Arthur sent word into Less Britain, to King Bors and King Ban of Benwick; and they in their turn came with their fighting men; and together they raised the siege of Bedegraine, and overthrew the eleven kings and drove them back into their own mountains and away over the Irish Seas, all save those who sued for peace and swore their fealty to the High King.
    But no sooner was that done with, and Bors and Ban were away to their own lands once more, than word came from King Leodegraunce of Camelaird who wasof Arthur’s following, that Rience of North Wales made war upon him and pressed him sore. And again Arthur gathered his war hosts and marched to the aid of his vassal.
    Six days they were on the march, and when he heard that they were coming, Rience laughed, and swirled about him his great war-cloak that was fur-bordered with the beards of kings and princelings that he had overcome; and he made ready to meet them upon the skirts of Snowdon and make an end of them.
    But when they came together, it was the war host of Rience the tyrant which broke and scattered; and Arthur rode victorious into Camelaird town.
    And when, in a few days, his men being