The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck Read Free Book Online Page A

it required the young lord and a large force to rescue him.
    Then King Ban and his following broke from their concealment; the shield of Ban was striped with green and gold. When King Lot saw this shield he said, “Now our danger is doubled. I see yonder the most valiant and renowned knight in the world, King Ban of Benwick. Two such brothers as the Kings Ban and Bors do not live. We must retreat or be killed, and unless we retreat wisely and defend ourselves we will be killed anyway.”
    Ban and Bors, with their ten thousand fresh men, came on so fiercely that the northern reserves had to be thrown back into the fight although they were not rested. And King Lot wept with pity to see so many good knights go down in death.
    Now King Arthur and his allies, Ban and Bors, fought shoulder to shoulder and killed and slashed on and on, and many fighting men in weariness and hopeless dread left the field and fled to save their lives.
    Of the northern force King Lot and Morganoure and he of a Hundred Knights kept their men together and fought on bravely and well. The young lord saw the execution King Ban did and he tried to take him out of action. He couched his spear and rode at Ban and stuck him on the helm and stunned him. But King Ban shook his head and the battle rage took him and he spurred after his opponent, who, seeing him come, put up his shield and met the charge. King Ban’s great sword cut through the shield and through the coat of mail and through the steel trappings of the horse and lodged in the horse’s spine, so that in falling the sword was dragged from King Ban’s hand.
    The young lord stepped free from his fallen horse and with his sword he stabbed King Ban’s horse in the belly. Then Ban leaped for his lost sword and struck the young lord on the helm so mightily that he fell to the ground, and the weary slaughter of good knights and footmen went on and on.
    Into the press King Arthur came and found King Ban on foot among dead men and dead horses, fighting like a wounded lion, so that into the circle his sword would reach no man entered without a wound.
    King Arthur was fearful to see. His shield was covered with blood so that his device could not be recognized and his sword was caked and dripping with blood and brains. Arthur saw a knight nearby well mounted on a good horse, and he ran at him and drove his sword through helmet and teeth and brain, and Arthur led his good horse to King Ban and said, “Dear brother, here is a horse for you. I am sorry for your wounds.”
    â€œThey are soon arranged,” said Ban. “I trust in God that my hurts are not as great as some I have given.”
    â€œThat I know,” said Arthur. “I saw your deeds from a distance, but I could not come to your aid at the time.”
    The slaughter went on until at last King Arthur called a halt, and with difficulty the three kings forced their men to disengage with the enemy and to withdraw into the forest and then across a little river, where the men fell down and slept in the grass, for they had had no rest for two days and a night.
    And on the bloody battlefield the eleven northern lords and their men gathered together in sadness and misery. They had not lost, but neither had they won.
    King Arthur marveled at the toughness of the northern knights and he too was angry because he also had neither lost nor won.
    But the French kings advised him in courtesy, saying, “You must not blame them. They have done only what good men ought to do.” And King Ban said, “By my faith, they are the bravest knights and the best fighting men of great worth.” Ban continued, “If they were your men, no king in the world could boast of such a following.”
    Arthur said, “Even so, do not expect me to love them. It is their intention to destroy me.”
    â€œThis we know well, for we have seen it,” said the kings. “They are your mortal enemies and they have proved it. But