
The Naked Damsel

The armored men parted and the damsel stepped forth.

'Now,' said Arthur, 'what has brought you here?'

'This,' she answered, and let fall the furred mantle to the floor. Beneath that mantle the damsel stood naked, and wore nothing beside the black veil and a heavy sword belted over her slim waist. And the clasp of that belt was rich with rubies and most strangely wrought, for it was the Belt of the Strange Clasp. But the pommel of the sword was gold and silver wire upon steel, and it was the pommel that drew all men's eyes, for it seemed made by more than mortal art.

'What is this sword you wear?' asked the King. 'Maiden, to stand so naked with a sword ill beseems you.'

'The Lady Lille of Avalon,' she answered, 'has made me this scabbard and Belt of the Strange Clasp, so that the sword may not be drawn but by the best knight in the world, of the greatest heart and strength of arms, untouched by treachery, tricks or villainy. And I have come to your court, O King, to see if I may find that knight here among you...'

# The Killing Sword

A Tale of Arthur's Time

by asotir

**Eartherea Books  
** **Here and Beyond**
Table of Contents

I. The Unknown Knight

II. The Promise

III. The Naked Damsel

IV. The Lady Perilous

V. The First Trial of Arms

VI. The Lovers' Tomb

VII. The Knight of Two Swords

VIII. The Silver Lady's Lover

IX. The Battles of Terrabil

X. The Tomb of 13 Kings

XI. The Unseen Knight

XII. The Hungry Lady

XIII. Revenge

XIV. The Dolorous Stroke

XV. The Maid in the Garden

XVI. The Castle by the Lake

XVII. The Last Trial

XVIII. In Darkness

XIX. What Merlyn Did After

XX. Envoi

' _Lady, it is ever an ill time when I find you, and always a tomb I find you near.'_

This Tale  
is a True Tale  
from the time of  
Arthur King of the Britons.  
§  
I got it from William Caxton, printer, who fashioned it from the manuscript of Sir Thomas Malory, Knight. Sir Thomas in turn had the tale from a French scribe who penned the _roman_ as part of the cycle of works treating of the Saint Grail, that most mysterious thing. The monks got the tale from troubadours, minstrels & talesmen, whose lines extend back in years before any man can tell.  
§  
So a good & true Tale will not die but give instruction & amusement for as long as men shall choose to learn & tell it.

## I. The Unknown Knight

WHEN ARTHUR, Uther Pendragon's son, drew the Sword out of the Stone, only a few barons and knights would follow him. Most defied him, and bade him prove his claims upon their lands by force. And for years England and the Isles were rent by war.

Two men did more than all the rest to win those wars for Arthur and secure his father's throne. One was Merlyn the Sorcerer, and he is famed throughout the world and will never be forgotten. The other was the Northumberland knight Balyn the Wild, who by strength of arms caused the death of twelve rebel kings upon a single day.

Balyn was never a knight of the Round Table. He fought and died before Arthur wedded Gueniver, before the mighty Gawain, Arthur's sister's-son, was knighted, and before Lancelot of the Lake became a man. And Balyn's name is all but unknown now.

And yet it ought not to be so, for Balyn not only won Arthur his throne, but he also doomed the Fellowship of the Table to ruin and to death.

Here is how it happened.

## II. The Promise

THE BEGINNING of Balyn's tale lies in darkness. For it was in the darkness of the pit, condemned to death in the deep prison of the King, that Balyn looked for the first time within his own heart, and made his dreadful promise.

He had come to Camelot seeking vengeance upon his enemies. Balyn did not know that Sir Kay the Seneschal, Arthur's foster-brother, had sworn that he would put down all rebel knights without regard to justice or any laws of the land. And to this end Sir Kay the Seneschal had sent spies throughout England, and promised them rich bounties if they would only tell him the names of all rebels.

Among these spies was the poor knight Sir Brisance, who thought to himself, that if he could gain Sir Kay's bounties he might pay off his debts and keep his wife and children in better estate. And when Sir Brisance saw a stranger knight in the streets of the town, he ran to tell Sir Kay the Seneschal that he had found him a rebel. It was Balyn, but Sir Brisance did not even know his name. Sir Kay the Seneschal sent his soldiers to the hostel, and there they took Balyn and dragged him off to prison.

Meanwhile Sir Kay the Seneschal held out the money-bag to Sir Brisance. 'Tell me then,' said Sir Kay, 'what reason you had for accusing this northern knight.' And poor Sir Brisance cast about in his heart, and he recalled him how King Arthur's own cousin had been killed a few weeks back. So he said, 'This same northern knight killed the king's cousin. I don't know his name, but I know his face and I saw him walking from the deed.' And for that lie Sir Kay the Seneschal gave him a second bag of gold, and left Balyn in a cell deep under the prison yard.

But the truth was that Balyn was no rebel, and had never seen King Arthur's cousin in his life. And the knights-judges would have proven this, but Sir Kay the Seneschal had sent down the knights-judges and suspended the law-courts. 'For I will put terror into the hearts of rebels,' he said, 'and I deem it better that ten innocent men should hang, rather than that one rebel go free. Let justice wait, for now I will have order in this land.'

So Balyn joined the other men condemned upon the word of Sir Kay's spies.

He made no complaint. He knelt in the pit and rested his heavy hands upon his upright knee. He let his head hang low. There was no light within that cell, save for a little flickering gleam that stole in through the crack beneath the great door up the steps to the passageway beyond. Day or night was darkness there. In time his eyes grew large, and he could see a sort of warp and weft of gloom, and it might have been the stone walls and stone floors cut out of the granite of the earth, and it might have only been the inconstancy of his eyes.

His eyes were starved, but his ears were feasted in that place. He heard the voices of the dying, the doomed, and the damned. They cried out, the traitors and the forsworn and the unjustly accused men, the men whose enemies ranked higher in the court and could send them to this place.

He listened in stillness and did not move himself. He knelt on one knee with his big hands upon his knee.

When the food was put through the slot in the door, he ate a mouthful and left the rest, but drank deep of the water and licked the bottom of the cup.

When his need came he squatted in the lowest corner where the filth piled high. The stench of the prison was foul but a man abides many things when he must and complaints make burdens double.

He lay upon the pallet in his cloak. He must have slept for he was walled up there for six months and no man may go so long without sleep. But the sweet sleep of dreams he did not take in all his time there. He lay upon his back and looked up at the stone. His look was solemn and slow. He lay upon his back a while and then he rose and knelt upon one knee and rested his big hands upon his knee.

Many thoughts came to him. He was minded of his childhood and of his mother who had smiled and kissed him when he was a babe. That was his first memory in his life and it brought tears to his eyes now. He faced that memory with the same patience that he faced the stone walls and the food shoved through the slot and the rats and the filth in the corner.

For six months he looked back upon his life. And he wondered, slowly in his heart, What was it for? What did I achieve? What good came into the world because I lived and drew breath?

He thought, If it is granted me to leave this place, then I will do a great thing. I will do a deed of greatness or I will die in the attempt. And when that deed is done, O you Devils of the dark, dank Earth, then you may wreak upon me all the torments your dark hearts delight in. So much I swear.

And when he had taken that oath something gave way in his heart so that he was taken aback. For a moment he even wandered near the edge of fear and it came to him that he might withdraw it for he had not said the words aloud.

But I will not withdraw it. I meant it. I will do a great thing, then come what may come.

Long after he had lost hope to see the light again, the gaoler took it upon himself to speak. The Devils of the Earth had heard Balyn's promise and meant to make him keep it.

'Prisoner of the North,' the gaoler said, not knowing even Balyn's name, 'you do not cry out.'

'No.'

'You do not beg for freedom or regret your sins. You do not cry, Mercy for I am innocent.'

'No.'

'Prisoner of the North, you alone in these pits have held fast to your manhood. If there is any grace I can do for you, saving only that it does not betray my office, I will do it for you.'

'There is one thing you can do.'

'Ask.'

'In the town, at the hostel of the Red Drake, my squire will be waiting. Tell him where I am and what has befallen me. He is a tall man of fair sparse hair, and a mustache that falls to his chin.'

'I will seek him out and tell him when I am relieved of my post this day. I promise you that.'

'No promises! Do not promise anything to me. Men who are entombed in the darkness of the Earth can enforce no oaths or promises from men that are free. Do it, or do not. But promise nothing.'

'Prisoner of the North, you are a strange man. Let it be as you wish.'

The slot fell shut and the little lurid gleam of light failed. Balyn felt the blood thud in his wrists and knuckles upon his upright knee. He felt a strain across his back. It angered him. Hope already, vain and foolish, and for so little! Slowly he watched himself until it drained away.

When weariness came to him he did not seek the pallet but held himself kneeling upon the one knee. He thought to himself, Stones do not move, no more shall I.

'Prisoner of the North.' The slot was open and the little lurid gleam wandered back into the pit.

'Yes.'

'I have met your squire and told him what you asked.'

He watched the blood in his wrists and the sinews of his back, lest they betray him again. But he had beaten them.

'Prisoner of the North, did you hear?'

'I heard.'

'And will I have no word of thanks from you?'

'You did me a turn for your own blessing and not for mine. I have no thanks for you. I have gone beyond thanks.'

'Prisoner of the North, you are a strange man.'

'Be it so.'

The slot fell and the light failed again.

Balyn let his senses sink down with his heavy blood, down into his foot where he set it on the stone, down deep into the Earth. O Devils, what will you? O Devils, what game is this?

It was no game.

'Prisoner of the North, I bring you great tidings on this day!'

'Is it day then.'

'Your squire has told your tale to your people in the North, and they have sued the barons of the King, and you are to be freed.'

There came a creaking, that was torment to his ears. But the heavy oaken door shook and pulled away and the blinding glare of a small candle stabbed into the pit.

'Come forth, rejoice, for today you are free.'

'Is it so?'

And for the first time in weeks he tottered to his feet.

He walked up the passageways. Back and forth they led, up to the surface of the earth. The light that cut at him was agony but it was nothing to what awaited him outside the gate. For it was day and the Sun burned in the sky.

He stood at the edge of a square in the town. Cattle and horses grazed in the square. Men and carts passed by. He paid them no heed. He looked up at the Sun.

Men stared at him, a strong man pale from half a year's time in the grave, filthy from the pit. He did not see them.

An hour in the grave is worth a month in life.

After a time he bent his legs and knelt on one knee. He reached to the dirt of the road. He held a clot of dried mud in his fist and his big fingers tightened until the clot burst into dust and crumbled to the ground.

I have outlived the pit, therefore I will seek what great thing I may do. O Devils, I have not forgotten.

He saw for the first time that men walked in the square. They were marching up to the castle on the hill above the town. They were knights and barons and men of arms, all weaponed men going to the King.

He went with them.

## III. The Naked Damsel

IN THE GREAT HALL the knights gathered. Balyn stood in the back of the throngs. There from afar he had a glimpse of King Arthur where he stood among the six barons and kings who were his last allies.

'A messenger has come, it's said he bears bad tidings,' said a knight.

Balyn moved back until the hangings half concealed him. He felt ashamed to stand among them dirty and foul-smelling, ragged and unkempt and swordless. So he did not see the messenger and only heard his voice.

'I am the voice of Ryons!' said the messenger. 'King of North Wales and of all Ireland, and of many isles besides. He bids me tell you, Arthur who name yourself Uther the Dragon's son, that my lord King Ryons has overcome eleven kings, and every one of them does him homage, so that they gave him their beards clean flayed off, as much as there was; wherefore he now sends me for yours.

'For my lord King Ryons has purfled a mantle with kings' beards, and there lacks but one place on the mantle. Therefore he sends for your beard, or else he will enter into your lands and burn and slay, and never leave till he has both your beard and your head.'

'Well,' came a voice, and it spoke out young and clear and ringing, so that in the one word Balyn knew it was a king's voice, and Arthur's, 'you have said your message, which is the most villainous and lewdest message that ever man heard sent unto a king. You may see my beard is too young to make a purfle of it. But tell your master this: I owe him no homage, nor did any of my fathers. But before long, he shall do me homage on both his knees, or else he shall lose his head, by the faith of my body.'

This was King Arthur's answer, and when he said it the knights cheered and shook their weapons in the air. And Balyn knew that here was a king to follow.

He had a glimpse of the messenger then, a little man with a rat's face and a fool's beard, as he was hooted from that hall. Balyn stood near to the outer door and watched him flee down into the yard. But then he saw step up from there a damsel from a far country, richly wrapped in a great furred mantle, and wearing about her head a black veil as of mourning.

The jeers died in men's throats at the sight of her, as all the other knights surely knew as Balyn did, from the way she held her head and walked, that underneath that mantle the damsel was deathly fair.

'I seek King Arthur,' she said. 'Will no one take me to the King.'

'I am Arthur here before you,' said the King. 'Make way, you men, and let the damsel pass. Come to me maiden and do not fear to speak, whatever your quest may be.'

Now all the weaponed men parted and Balyn watched her walk past him, almost at arm's reach, and so down into the middle of the hall. Balyn stepped closer, so he could keep the damsel in his sight. But the King was still hidden from him behind the press of men.

'Now,' said the King's voice, 'what has brought you here?'

'This,' she answered, and let fall the furred mantle to the floor. Beneath that mantle the damsel stood naked, and wore nothing beside the black veil and a heavy sword belted over her slim waist. And she was as fair as Balyn had feared, and even beyond. But the clasp of that belt was rich with rubies and most strangely wrought, for it was the Belt of the Strange Clasp. And the pommel of the sword was gold and silver wire upon steel, and it was the pommel that drew all men's eyes, for it seemed made by more than human hand.

'What is this sword you wear?' asked the King's voice. 'Maiden, to stand so naked with a sword ill beseems you.'

'The Lady Lille of Avalon,' she answered, 'has made this scabbard and Belt of the Strange Clasp, so that the sword may not be drawn but by the best knight in the world, of the greatest heart and strength of arms, untouched by treachery or villainy. And I have come to your court, O King, to see if I may find that knight here among you. Already I have been to the court of King Ryons and all his knights tried, but not one of them could draw the sword.'

'I myself will try it for your sake,' said the King. 'Not that I say I am best here. But if I go first then I will give heart to my barons, that they may try without fear lest in failing they be shamed.'

So the men made way, and the King stepped down before the Naked Damsel. Balyn then had his first clear sight of the King, and he was a young man little out of boyhood, but with a broad fair face open and clean like the August sky. And Balyn liked the boy that was his King.

Arthur laid hold of the wonderful pommel of the sword. He pulled eagerly, but the Strange Clasp of the scabbard would not let go the sword.

'My lord, you need not pull so fiercely,' said the damsel. 'The sword will yield itself gladly to the fated hand.'

'You say well,' answered Arthur. So he gave up and stepped back from Balyn's sight.

Then the barons tried. But none of them might draw the sword. Then the knights tried, and they were the best knights in the world at that time. But none of them might do it.

Therefore the damsel made great sorrow and said, 'Alas, I hoped to find in this court knights without treachery or treason.'

'By my faith,' said Arthur, 'here are as good knights as I deem as any in the world, but their doom is not to help you, wherefore I am displeased.'

'Ah me,' said the damsel. 'My heart now is heavy, and I know not who might help me.' And she drew up the furred mantle and covered herself again and stepped out from the hall.

Balyn watched her go. It grieved him that the mantle covered now the sword, for it had won his heart. And when each baron and knight gripped and failed to draw it, Balyn had felt his heart give a leap. And yet he held himself back, unclean as he was. But when he saw the damsel passing out through the doorway, he could no longer hold his peace.

'Maiden,' he said, 'let me try.'

She looked back across her shoulder. Little could he see of her eyes beneath the veil, but he knew she looked at him and judged harshly, and the blood fired in his face.

'Do not,' she said, in a low husky voice, 'I pray you, give my heart more grief. For if you try and fail my misery will be double, and it seems doubtful enough that you as you are might outdo these noble knights.'

He stepped close to her, so that but a hand's breadth lay between them. She looked up to his face, and she saw that he was a well-made man though he wore rags and smelled of the prison gate; but with all that he looked a man without villainy or treachery in his heart.

And he said to her ears alone, 'Worthiness and great deeds hang not from clothes alone, but manhood and strength hide within the heart, and many worshipful knights are not known to everyone.'

'By God,' she breathed, 'you speak the truth. Therefore you shall try as you can.'

So the damsel shrugged free of the furred mantle and stood naked unto him, and Balyn took the sword by the pommel and scabbard.

The sword leapt into his hand, and the Sun burned on the naked blade and filled his eyes with wonder.

'Truly,' said the damsel, aloud for all to hear, 'this is a passing good knight and the best I ever found, the man of the greatest worship, without treason, treachery, or villainy. And many marvels he shall perform.'

## IV. The Lady Perilous

NOW THE KING COMMANDED that Balyn be taken where he might bathe, and his hair and beard cut, and himself dressed in raiment fit for the best knight in the court. And when all this was done he was feasted on meat and wine, and taken to a privy chamber where the Naked Damsel of the Sword was waiting.

'Now I see what before was hidden,' she said, and smiled upon him from beneath the veil. She let fall the furred mantle for the third time and said, 'You have drawn the sword, see now if you may unclasp this belt that has chained me like a bitch-hound for two months, since I took my leave from Avalon.'

Balyn went upon one knee before her, and set his hands to the Belt of the Strange Clasp. And the Clasp opened to his touch, and he drew the Belt from her waist.

'And now,' she said, 'Good knight, lift my veil.'

He stood and put back the black veil to her brow, and beheld her face. Gray were her eyes and her hair was blacker than night, and her lips were perfect. Balyn touched her cheek with his fingers.

'Will you not kiss me?' she asked.

'I will do that gladly,' he answered, and kissed her lips.

Then the damsel unpinned Balyn's tunic and let it fall before her feet. And she kissed him mouth upon mouth, upon his chin and on his chest. And Balyn kissed her lips and her breasts and her navel. And they lay on the great bed of silken sheets and long into the night they took joy of each other.

Late in the night an owl hooted, and Balyn woke from sleeping at the damsel's side. Moonlight shone in through the window upon the floor and glinted from the strange sword in the Belt of the Strange Clasp. And Balyn rose up without thinking and went to it, and held the naked sword out in the moonlight so that it filled his heart with wonder. He looked on the sword and ran its quick ready sharpness up and down his palm.

In the bed the damsel stirred and watched him.

'The sword pleases you then, good knight?'

'Truly,' he answered. 'Now I have seen it by Sun and by Moon, and I have never held a better sword. By God I will keep it by me always. And I will perform for you what great deed you will, and right your wrongs whatever they may be, that drove you to this strange fate of the sword and the clasp and your seeking of Avalon.'

'Its name is Malison and it was meant for you, by the will of the Lady Lille. And it was for this that I went seeking her, that a strong knight had wronged me, and slew my lord and paramour. But this knight of whom I speak is so worshipful and doughty that none dare fight him. Therefore in Avalon I sought the help of the Lady Lille, who laughed at my seeking, with her cruel dark lips, and told me she would give me all I longed for and more, and maybe more than that.'

'Tell me that knight's name,' said Balyn, 'and no matter who he is or however strong, I will pay him back for your wrong, or die in the attempt.'

'I can well believe you now, that you will do whatever you say you would. But knight, how are you called? For I don't even know your country.'

'I was born in Northumberland,' he answered, 'and my name is Balyn the Wild.'

Then sorrow and surprise filled her eyes. 'Ah, Balyn the Wild, is that you, indeed?' she asked. She crept back in the bed and drew up the sheets to cover her nakedness. 'Now Balyn the Wild, gentle and courteous knight,' she said, 'I pray you, give me the sword back again.'

'No,' he said, 'for this is a sword whereby a man might do great work, if only he be steadfast of purpose and not back off the thing he did.'

'I ask it for your sake and not my own.'

'Ask it for what you will. But I shall not give up this sword to you or any man alive or dead, unless he take it from my hands by force.'

'Well,' said the damsel, 'you are not wise to keep the sword from me, Balyn, for you shall slay with that sword the best friend that you have and the man that you most love in the world. And this sword shall be your destruction, unless you yield it back to me this night. The Lady Lille forewarned me it might overwhelm the knight who wields it.'

'I shall take the doom,' said Balyn, 'that God will ordain for me. But the sword you shall not have yet, by the faith of my body.'

'You shall repent it within a short time. For I would have the sword back more for your sake than for mine, and I am passing heavy for your sake, for you will not believe that the sword Malison shall be your death. And that is a great pity.'

With that the damsel dressed herself and departed, making great sorrow.

But Balyn went where the King sat with his barons talking of mustering of men and arms and plans of their battles against King Ryons and the other rebel kings. Balyn asked for leave to go.

'Nay,' said the King. 'I don't suppose you will depart so lightly from our fellowship as this! Good knight, I will not have you displeased that I have shown you unkindness in your time in Camelot. Blame me the less, for I was misinformed against you. If only I had known you were such a knight as you are, of so great worship and strength. Abide in this court among my fellowship, and I shall raise you up the ranks of my trust and love, as high as you could wish.'

'God thank your highness,' said Balyn. 'Your bounty and grace go beyond what any man might praise. But at this time I must depart, beseeching you always of your good grace.'

'Truly,' said the King, looking down, 'I am displeased you are going. And I pray you, fair knight, that you do not tarry long away from me. For when you return you will find a right warm welcome with me, and I shall make amends for whatever wrong I have done against you.'

'God thank your great lordship,' said Balyn, and went to find his horse.

But many knights in the court watched Balyn with angry eyes. They were unhappy that the Northumberland knight had won where they had failed, and could not believe that he was a better knight. When Balyn won the enchanted sword, Sir Kay the Seneschal with wrath struck Sir Brisance his poor spy and said, 'Fool that you are! First you accused that knight of rebellion, and yet he was set free, and now is shown to be better than all my brother's knights!'

'He is a rebel, my lord, and before three suns set it will be proven so,' said the spy.

So Sir Brisance left Sir Kay, afraid in his heart. 'For if Balyn is free, he may seek to pay me back, for that I accused him falsely. And if he is so great a knight, I will lose my life and my head both.'

Sir Brisance wandered the hall, seeking some way out of this trap, and he overheard the knights grumbling about Balyn's feat. Most outspoken was Sir Lanceour, that was a prideful knight, and a king's son of Ireland. 'He achieved that adventure not by might alone,' said Sir Lanceour, 'but he helped himself by witchcraft. Or else he never could have done what I myself could not.'

'Truly, Sir Lanceour, you have the right of it,' said Sir Brisance. 'You are the best knight in the court, how else could an unshorn knight best you? Only yesterday he abode in the King's prison as a rebel, and now he is called better than all of us, better even than the King. How else could he do this but by sorcery?'

So Sir Brisance drew Sir Lanceour and some other knights aside, and they spoke against Balyn and devised among them what they might do to spite him.

Balyn went unto the stables, and there he saw to his trappings and his horse, and armed him for a journey.

And meanwhile there came in to the Court a rich procession, led by a lady that was called the Lady of the Lake. She rode on horseback in a rich gown of seven colors, for in that shifting garb were all the colors of the rainbow that shines in the mists above the waters. And her fairness surpassed even the wonder of that dress.

Balyn stared at her.

The King came out himself to greet this lady, and she saluted him.

'I give you greetings, O King.'

'Ah Lady,' he said, 'you are the lady I am most glad to see, for you gave me the best gift ever a knight got, this sword at my side. It is so great a sword that it must have a name, but I don't know it.'

'The name of it,' said the Lady of the Lake, 'is Excalibur, that is as much as to say, _Cut Steel._ I am glad that you have not forgotten the sword, and hope also that your lordship does not forget the gift you promised me when I gave you that sword.'

'You say well,' answered the King. 'Ask what you will and you shall have it, if it lies in my power to grant.'

'Well,' said the Lady, 'I ask the head of that knight over there, that won the Sword of the Belt of the Strange Clasp, or else the head of the Naked Damsel, she who brought it. In truth, I wouldn't mind if I got both their heads. For he slew my brother, a good knight and a true, and that damsel was the cause of my father's death.'

The King was filled with dismay to hear this. 'Truly,' he said, 'I may not grant either of their heads and keep my own worship. Therefore ask something else, I pray you, whatever else you will.'

'I will ask for nothing else,' said the Lady.

But Balyn all this while was staring at the Lady of the Lake, and when she asked for her gift Balyn approached her, and with each step he took, the fury grew in him. 'Evil be you found!' he said. 'You ask for my head, and therefore you shall lose yours.' And with the sword he smote off her head before the King.

'Alas, for shame!' said Arthur, 'why have you done this? You have shamed me and all my Court, for this was a lady that I was beholden to, and she came here under my protection inside my own castle walls. I shall never forgive you this outrage.'

'Sire,' said Balyn, 'I regret your displeasure, but this same lady was the untruest lady alive, and by enchantment and sorcery she slew many good knights in my country. We also had war in Northumberland where I was born, and great unfriendship arose between us of the hills and her kind of the dales and water-lands. And it was by her leave that my mother was stripped and tormented and burned alive. For three years I have sought her without cease or let.'

'Whatever cause you had, or thought you had,' answered Arthur, 'you should have forborne in my presence. Therefore do not question but that you will repent of this. For such a despite I never had in my court. Get you gone as fast as you may, or else the rage will overwhelm me and there will be another head lost that lay under my protection.'

Balyn took up the head of the Lady of the Lake. And it had not bled any more than the head of a trout or a pike, and in his hands it felt as slick and slimy and cold as a fish-head.

He took horse and looked about for the Naked Damsel, but she was nowhere to be found. Therefore he rode down to his hostelry where he met his squire, and they rode out of town.

'Now,' said Balyn, 'we must part ways here. Take you this head to my friends and kin at home, and tell them how I have fulfilled what I set out to do. Let my friends know that our worst foe is dead, and that I am out of prison, and what adventure befell me at the getting of this sword.'

'Alas,' said the squire, 'I am sorry you have displeased King Arthur, and you are greatly to blame for it.'

'As for that,' said Balyn, 'I will ride in all haste to meet with King Ryons when his ship lands, and I will destroy him or else die in the attempt. And if it may fall out that I take him, then King Arthur will be my good and gracious lord again.'

'Where shall I find you again?' asked the squire.

'In King Arthur's Court,' said Balyn.

Then the squire took horse away to the north. But Balyn rode west to meet where King Ryons and twelve other kings should bring up their ships to land.

## V. The First Trial of Arms

THEN KING ARTHUR and all the Court mourned the death of the Lady of the Lake. And the King buried her richly with great honor. All his barons and knights stood about the tomb the King had made for her, and showers fell from a gray sky all that day. But on a hill apart from them, the Naked Damsel stood and looked on, and her face was a mystery beneath her black veil.

As soon as she had seen the Lady of the Lake riding to the court, the damsel had fled and hid. But when she spied that the Lady of the Lake was slain, she crept out from her hiding place and now watched with pleasure as the headless body was put in tomb.

Then Sir Lanceour approached King Arthur.

'Sire,' he said, 'give me leave to ride after Balyn and to revenge the despite that he has done to your good grace.'

The King looked over the king's son of Ireland and said, 'Go, and do your best. I am right wroth of this Balyn. I would he were paid for the shame he did to me and to my Court.'

'Sire, you shall soon count yourself well paid.' And at that Sir Brisance smiled and was pleased. So Lanceour made ready to pursue Balyn. But Merlyn saluted the King, and he pointed up the hill with his staff to the Naked Damsel and said,

'Now shall I tell you of that damsel that stands there and brought the sword into your Court. I shall tell you why she came. For she is the falsest damsel that lives.'

'Say not so,' the knights said, but Merlyn shook his head and scowled.

'You defend her, for she is fair,' he told them. 'But I tell you, be not tempted by even the fairest of damsels, and you will prosper more. I myself will have nothing to do with women, nor ever have all my long life, not until I meet that one who will steal from me all mine arts, and besot me with her body, and entomb me alive into the bowels of the earth.'

'If you know this thing, why can you not prevent it?' asked the king.

'I have that power, but also the wisdom to know that I will not use it when the fatal hour has come,' answered Merlyn. 'For there is not a man alive but he has at least one fair damsel who was born to betray him. And so the Damsel of the Sword was born for Balyn.

'She has a brother, a passing good knight of prowess, and a full true man. And this damsel loved another knight and gave to him her maidenhead openly and shamelessly. And he boasted of it before her brother's face, and so this good knight, her brother, fought with the knight who held her as his paramour, and slew him by force of his hands. When this false damsel learned about this, she went on her belly before the Lady Lille of Avalon and besought her of her help, to be avenged on her own brother.

'And so the Lady Lille took of her this sword, that had been the sword of the knight that held the damsel to paramour, and the Lady Lille made for it the pommel, the scabbard, and the Belt of Strange Clasps as you saw. And the Lady Lille fashioned all this so that no man might pull the sword out of the sheathe unless he be one of the best knights of this realm, hard and full of prowess; and with that sword he should slay her brother.

'This was why the damsel came unto this Court. I know all this as well as you stand before me now, and I would God she had not come unto you, for she never entered into fellowship of worship to do good, but only great harm. And that knight that won the sword, he shall be destroyed by that sword. And that is a great sadness, for there lives not today a knight of greater strength than he is, and he shall do unto you, my lord Arthur, great honor and kindness. And it is a pity, but he shall not live but a short while.'

So Merlyn told the King and his Court, and the Naked Damsel blushed like fire beneath her veil.

But meantime Lanceour armed him at all points, and dressed his shield on his shoulder and mounted upon horseback. And he took his spear in hand and rode at a great pace, as fast as his horse might bear him, and in a short while at a mountain pass he saw Balyn far above him.

'Abide you,' he cried in a loud voice, 'Balyn, for you shall abide whether you want to or not. And the shield you bear shall not withstand my spear.'

When Balyn heard the noise he turned his horse about fiercely and said, 'Fair knight, what do you want with me? Will you joust with me?'

'Aye,' said Lanceour, 'it's what I came for.'

'Maybe it would have been better for you to have stayed at home,' said Balyn. 'For many a man tries to put his enemy down, and yet it often ends up he is the one to go down. From what court are you sent?'

'I come from the Court of King Arthur that is King over all England and the Isles, and I have come to avenge the wrong you did this day to King Arthur and his Court.'

'Well,' said Balyn, 'I see that I will have to fight with you, and I'm sorry to have offended the King or any of his Court. But your quarrel with me is foolish, for the lady that is dead did me grave injuries, or else I would have been as loth as any knight alive to kill a lady.'

'Make ready,' said Lanceour, 'and dress you to me. For soon only one of us will be alive.'

So they rode apart and dressed their spears and shields, and then spurred their horses at each other with full speed and all the weight of their horses, their armor, and their bodies. Sir Lanceour's spear splintered against Balyn's shield, but Balyn's spear tore through Sir Lanceour's shield and was torn from his grasp. His horse bore Balyn on until turning about fiercely he drew the Sword and faced his enemy.

He saw Sir Lanceour stretched out on the ground dead. Balyn's spear had driven through Lanceour's body and the crop of his horse also. He had slain both the rider and his steed.

Balyn drew off his helm and wiped his face. But he heard hoofbeats coming hard upon him up the mountain, and he drew on helm again, wary of what other knights the King might send after him.

It proved no knight that rode up to him, but a fair lady on a palfrey. And this lady when she saw that Lanceour was slain, she leapt down and clutched at the corpse, and began to weep.

'O Balyn,' she said, 'two bodies you have killed with one heart, and two hearts in one body, and two souls.'

And she rent her hair, unpinning it, and ripped her dress from her body, so she lay naked alongside the dead knight, kissing him and clasping him to her breast, until her mouth and her hands and her pale breasts were all bloody from his wounds. And still she would not give over, but she took his sword into her embrace, and wrapped around it arms and legs as though it had been living man.

Balyn sat stricken with this sight. 'My lady,' he said, 'I am sorry for you and your loss. In truth I had no rancor against Lanceour beyond the passing anger he had put upon me.' And Balyn went down off his horse to take the sword from her, for he saw how its sharp edge cut her flesh. But at a spring the lady set the pommel to the ground and threw herself upon it, so the blade drove through her body.

Balyn reeled back. He was ashamed that so fair a damsel had destroyed herself for the love of the man he had killed.

'Alas,' said Balyn, 'how I repent of the death of this knight, if only for the love this damsel bore him. Surely there was true love between these two.'

And for sorrow he went back to his horse and turned it, so the horse stood between Balyn and the bodies. Well he knew that no lady had ever loved him so well that she would have riven herself at his loss. And for an hour even his stern face softened, and his hard heart doubted.

Was it for this that I made my great oath to you, you Devils of the deep earth? Is this how you fulfill our pact? Is this lady's blood the great deed you bring me?

From out of a great forest that lapped the skirts of the mountain a rider climbed the mountain. 'What fresh sadness and pain will this encounter bring me?' asked Balyn. But when the rider was near, then Balyn saw his arms, and knew it was his own brother Balan.

On the mountainside the brothers put off their helms and embraced and wept to see each other again, for joy and pity both.

'I didn't look to meet you here on the road,' said Balan. 'I am right glad of your deliverance out of prison. A man told me in the Castle of the Four Stones that you had won your freedom at last, and that he had seen you in the Court of King Arthur. So I rode hither into this country on the way to Camelot. But what strange adventure do I find here?'

Balyn then told his brother Balan of the Naked Damsel, of the Sword, and of the death of the Lady of the Lake. 'And King Arthur was displeased with me, so that he sent this knight after me that lies there, dead. His lady love slew herself for his loss, and her death grieves me sorely.'

'So it does me,' said Balan. 'But you must take the adventure that God ordains to you. I can think of more than one damsel that is faithless and lewd, and were better to have been spitted upon that blade instead of this true heart.'

'Well,' said Balyn, 'also I am unhappy that my lord Arthur is angry with me, for he is the most worshipful knight that reigns now on earth. And his love I will get or else I will die in the attempt. King Ryons threatens war, and I am resolved to go with all speed to prove my worship and prowess upon him. And then if I live I will seek out the Naked Damsel and help her win her vengeance against the foul knight that wronged her, God willing. And maybe this sword will lead me to help her, for it has a goodly strong witchcraft worked into it, as is plain from the sight of it.'

'I pray God you do,' said Balan. 'For it is a blessed thing for any knight to help women. I will go with you,' he said, 'and we will help each other turn and turn about, as brothers ought to do.'

## VI. The Lovers' Tomb

AS THEY TALKED there came a dwarf from Camelot on horseback. And when he found the dead bodies he made great dole and pulled out his hair. 'Which of you knights has done this deed?' he asked.

'Why do you ask it?' said Balan.

'For I would know it,' said the dwarf.

'It was I,' said Balyn, 'who slew this knight in self defense, for he came here to chase and either I must slay him or he me. And this damsel slew herself for his love, which saddens me. And for her sake I shall owe all women the better love.'

'Alas,' said the dwarf, 'you have done great damage unto yourself, for this knight here dead was one of the most valiant men that lived. And trust well, Balyn, the kin of this knight will hunt you through the world till they have slain you.'

'As for that,' said Balyn, 'it little troubles me. But I am right sad that I have displeased my lord King Arthur for the death of this knight.'

So as they talked together there came the King of Cornwall riding through that pass. King Mark was a heavy-set man with a black beard, and his eyes were sad and sunk into his head: an unhappy man in life and love. And when he saw these two bodies dead, and understood how they had died, then the king made great sorrow for the true love that was between them.

'I wish to God that a woman might love me half so much,' he said, 'and I will not depart till I have on this earth made a tomb for them.'

And there he pitched his pavilions and sent his men through all the country to find a tomb. In a church they found one fair and rich, that pleased King Mark.

Then Balyn and Balan bore the two bodies through the forest to the church, and the king let put them both in the earth under the tomb even as they were, the knight bloody in his broken armor as cold as stone, and the damsel naked upon his sword that pierced her through her belly. And the king let write the names of them both on the tomb:

HERE LIE  
LANCEOUR  
THE KING'S SON OF IRELAND  
THAT AT HIS OWN SEEKING  
WAS SLAIN  
BY THE HAND OF BALYN THE WILD  
§  
AND WITH HIM  
HIS LADY AND PARAMOUR  
COLOMBE  
THAT SLEW HERSELF  
WITH HER LOVE'S SWORD  
FOR DOLE AND SORROW.

## VII. The Knight of Two Swords

WHILE THIS WAS BEING DONE, Merlyn came upon that place, unlooked-for as his wont. And seeing all that King Mark did Merlyn said,

'Here shall take place the greatest battle between two knights that ever was or ever shall be, and they shall be as like as brothers and the truest of all lovers. And yet neither of them shall die from it, and neither slay the other.'

And upon the tomb in letters of gold, Merlyn wrote their names:

SIR LANCELOT OF THE LAKE  
&  
SIR TRISTRAM

'You are a marvelous man,' said King Mark, 'to foretell such marvels. And yet you look like a boisterous man and unlikely to know of such things. What is your name?'

'At this time,' answered Merlyn, 'I will not tell it. But at that time when Sir Tristram is taken with his sovereign lady, then you shall hear and know my name. And at that time, King Mark, you shall hear tidings that shall not please you.'

Then Merlyn turned to Balyn and said, 'You did yourself great hurt because you failed to save this lady from her own self-harm. You could have saved her if you would.'

'By the faith of my body,' said Balyn, 'I might not save her, she slew herself too suddenly.'

'That will prove a great sorrow,' said Merlyn. 'Because of the death of that lady, Balyn, you shall strike a stroke, the most dolorous that ever man struck except the stroke that slew our Lord. For you shall hurt the truest knight and the man of most worship that now lives. And through that stroke three kingdoms shall lie in poverty, misery, and wretchedness for twelve years, and the knight shall not be healed of that wound for many years.'

Then Merlyn turned from Balyn and Balan. Balyn was pale with anger and dismay at those words. 'If I knew that what you tell is true,' he said, 'I should so put my life in peril that I would slay myself, to make you a liar.'

'No man will make his fate a liar,' said Merlyn. Then he turned under the tree and was gone.

'Forget that man's words,' said Balan, 'for men love dearly to speak riddles and pretend to know what will come, but for the most part their foretelling comes to nought. We will win you back the love of the king, and then avenge the Naked Damsel, and all will be well with us. And first of all have we to do with King Ryons.'

'King Ryons,' said King Mark. 'What is this talk of yours about King Ryons?'

'Only this, that we mean to go in search of him and put him down for King Arthur's sake.'

'You will not need to search far,' the king told them. 'For I can tell you where he is, and it is nearer this place than you could guess. I have ridden hard from the west to tell my lord Arthur of the landing of this King Ryons. He has fallen upon the Castle Terrabil with all his under-kings, and puts it to the siege.'

'Then, lord, we must take our leave of you, and right soon,' said Balyn.

'First,' said the king, 'tell me your name.' But Balyn held his tongue.

'Sire,' said Balan, 'you can see he wears two swords. So he shall be known as the Knight of Two Swords.'

'Then we will have right need of you, Knight of Two Swords. For when Castle Terrabil falls, then King Ryons will lay waste to all the countryside unto Camelot, unless the king, his barons, and all true knights can stop him.'

Then King Mark took his way to Camelot, to join his army to Arthur's command. But Balyn and his brother rode on westward toward King Ryons. And as they rode together, they met a churlish man on the road.

'Where do you ride?' asked the man.

'We have no reason,' answered Balan, 'to tell such as you.'

'But what is your name?' asked Balyn, peering at the man's face.

'At this time,' the man said, 'I will not tell you that.'

'It seems unlikely that you are a true man, if you will not tell us your name.'

'As for that,' said the man, 'be it as it may. But I can tell you the reason why you ride this way. Is it not to meet King Ryons? But you will gain nothing for it without my counsel.'

'Ah,' said Balyn, 'you are Merlyn! Advise us then, and we will be ruled by your counsel.'

'Follow me then,' said Merlyn, 'and I will show you how you shall have great worship. And look that you strive as true knights, for you shall have great need of strength and courage both.'

'As for that,' said Balyn, 'never fear. We will do what we may.'

## VIII. The Silver Lady's Lover

THEN MERLYN LED THEM into a deep wood and bade them take off the bridles of their horses and put them to grass for the day. And he had the two knights lie down among the leaves to rest.

At midnight Merlyn woke them. 'Now rise and behold a rare sight,' he said.

Balyn and his brother looked through the leaves. They beheld a silver castle that shone in the starlight. Atop its highest battlement stood a lady all in silver, and her dress let the light shine through it so that it seemed woven of starlight and moonbeams.

'This lady, who is she?' asked Balyn.

'This is the Lady de Vance,' answered Merlyn, 'and King Ryons' paramour.'

Upon the battlement the weird lady let her wrappings shudder in the wind. And there came down from there the deep rich scent of her, that was such a lure that Balyn started to go to her. But Merlyn gripped his shoulder and held him back.

'Hold still,' he said, 'she does not spread that scent for you.'

The Lady de Vance lifted her arms, and from her long pale throat and lips she made sweet moan. Then they were aware of many men riding toward them.

'Make ready now,' said Merlyn. 'For King Ryons is near to hand. He has stolen away from his host with three score horses of his best knights, and one score of them ride ahead to say to the Lady de Vance that the king comes at her calling. For tonight he would lie with her.'

'Which is the king?' asked Balyn.

'Abide here where the road is narrow, and you shall meet him soon enough,' said Merlyn. And he pointed out to them the king where he rode.

Balyn and Balan rode into the king's way and before he was aware of them, they struck him down fiercely and wounded him, and laid him on the ground. But at that all the king's knights rode at them, and Balyn and his brother killed on the right hand and the left. The wood rang with their strokes, and upon her battlement Lady de Vance cried out in despair.

In the shadow of the trees Balyn fought the king's knights. He turned his horse back and made them chase him among the trees where only one or two might meet him at a time. And he lashed out at them with the Sword of the Naked Damsel.

At the end the two brothers slew more than forty rebel knights, and the remnant fled. Then in his wrath Balyn leapt down off his horse by the king and would have slain him.

'Nay, harm me no more,' said King Ryons, 'I yield me unto your grace. Kill me not, you knights of great prowess, for by my life you may win more, but by my death you shall win nothing but a corpse.'

Balan turned back his brother and said, 'Brother, he speaks the truth.' And Balyn's anger rose up out of him and left him with the smoke that rose from his armor, and he put back the sword.

So they laid the king on a horse litter and bound up his wounds. But in the meantime, eastward of that wood, Merlyn came to King Arthur. The king rested that night in his camp not far away on the road to Castle Terrabil.

'I bear you happy tidings, lord Arthur,' said Merlyn, 'your greatest enemy is now taken and a prisoner.'

'By whom?' asked the king.

'By two knights,' answered Merlyn, 'that would please your lordship. And tomorrow you shall know what knights they are.'

Upon the dawn came the Knight of Two Swords and Balan his brother, and they delivered King Ryons of North Wales to the porters at the entrance to the camp. Then they rode on west and chased the night. All that day they rode apace on the highway to Castle Terrabil.

Meantime King Arthur bade the porters treat King Ryons with courtesy and told him, 'Sir King you are welcome to my camp. But by what adventure have you come?'

'Sir,' answered King Ryons, 'It was a hard adventure that brought me here, and the death of all my hopes.'

'Who won you?' asked King Arthur.

'The Knight of Two Swords and his brother fought against my best knights, and all alone they won me. They are two marvelous knights of strength of arms.'

'I know them not,' said King Arthur, 'but I am much beholden to them.'

'Ah,' said Merlyn, 'I shall tell you now that it is Balyn the Wild who won the Sword of the Naked Damsel, and his brother Balan, a good knight. There is not a better knight of prowess and worthiness alive than Balyn, and it shall be the greatest dole of his doom that ever I knew, for he shall not long endure.'

'Alas,' said King Arthur. 'That is a great pity, for I am now much beholden to him. And yet I have ill deserved this kindness he has shown me.'

'Nay,' said Merlyn, 'he shall do much more for you, and you will know that very soon.'

So they treated of King Ryons and saw to his wounds, and guarded him under courtesy.

But Merlyn said, 'Now sire are you ready? For in two morrows King Nero, that is brother to king Ryons, will set on you ere noon with a great host. Therefore make ready for I must now depart from you.'

And before the king might answer him, Merlyn was gone away to meet King Lot.

## IX. The Battles of Terrabil

WHILE THE FOGS ABODE YET upon the land the sun was weak and red, foretelling evil to men. Then Merlyn came privily to the pavilion of King Lot of the Isle of Orkney. The king had made camp the upon the seaside on the heights over Castle Terrabil. There he lay in dream. Over the king Merlyn raised his staff and said,

'Awake, King Lot, and hear what I would say.'

'Who are you that comes into my dream?' asked the king.

'I am one that knows you well, and all of yours. And I know the shame that burns your heart, and the future days of your sons Gawain, Gaheris, Agravain, and Gareth. Would you hear what their deeds will be and what fame they will win when they are grown men and knights?'

'I will hear that gladly,' answered King Lot. 'For unless my heart lies, you are Merlyn and a fater born.'

So Merlyn bent over the king and began to weave for him the riddle of the king's sons and what they would do, and it made a mighty tale, and held the king spell-bound so that he knew not the passing of the hours, and sent away all the men who came without his pavilion.

But in the meanwhile King Arthur made ready his host in ten battles and found before him King Nero ready in the field before the castle Terrabil with a great host. Nero also had ten battles he put into the field, and over each of them he set at least one king. And Nero had many more knights and men at arms than Arthur had. Arthur himself led the van of his battles with the greatest host.

Then Arthur gave command and his knights pricked their horses fiercely and drove against the rebel knights, so that the earth shook with the crash of arms and the cries of men echoed off the clouds.

In those battles Sir Kay the Seneschal fought valiantly, and it is said he was at his mightiest in this day.

And King Arthur slew that day a full score knights and maimed two score with his sword Excalibur. But King Nero had ten kings with him, and for all the deeds King Arthur's knights might do, King Nero drew on his forces and sent more knights and men against them and yet held back men to spare. And Arthur could see no other end to battle on that day but defeat or withdrawal of his armies. Heavier and heavier grew their strokes, so that they might hardly hold their swords and shields before them.

That was the hour the Knight of Two Swords and his brother Balan entered the fray. For the first hours of battle they sat their horses under the trees upon a hill and watched how the combat went. And they saw to the breaks in their armor and their wounds that they had.

'Well brother,' said Balyn, 'you see how the battles go. What do you think is best for us to do?'

'I see nothing better than ride down and fight for Arthur,' answered Balan.

'We are well agreed,' said Balyn. And they drove their horses down the hill as fast as they could go and broke into the battles. And they two did so wondrously that the king and all the knights marveled at them, and all that beheld them said they were sent from heaven as angels to redeem them.

First the brothers rode where King Nero and his knights drove back Arthur's knights. Balyn himself overthrew the bodyguard of King Nero, and slew the king. And he raced his horse from there unto the Duke of Cambenet, and with Balan he cast down the Duke of Cambenet also.

But the poor knight Sir Brisance, Sir Kay's spy, saw how Balyn the Wild fought and he quaked with fear. He went to Sir Kay and said,

'I fear lest Balyn might know my face from when I informed on him; and he does so well in this battle that he will have the King's great love, and he may challenge me. I cannot defend against so worshipful a knight.'

'And so?' asked Sir Kay. 'What then, thou fool?'

'I wish that you would grant me your protection, my lord Seneschal, for all I did was in your name and service, and if I was mistaken about Balyn it was an honest mistake, and I can yet be of service to you and the King.'

'Be off with you, knave,' said Sir Kay. 'We have battles here to fight more important than your hide.'

And then the poor knight threw himself full into the battle, with a doom upon him and a fey look. He bethought himself, 'As much as Balyn wins of praise, I must win as much or more. Then his claim against me will take no force.' But he was struck in the head by a spear that drove through his helmet and into his ear. Then his brains came out around the spear-shaft and he died.

Now all the rebel battles were in turmoil, and some were fled already. But even yet eight kings held the rebels fast, and where the Knight of Two Swords did not hold the field, King Arthur's forces must give back. And though the middle of their battles where King Nero and his men had fought was now broken, yet the two wings of the rebel battles came ahead.

Balyn turned to the left, and pricked his horse against where King Brandegoris of Stranggore fought, and there Balyn slew King Brandegoris. And Balyn turned his horse fiercely to the right, and pricked on against where the King of the Hundred Knights fought. And the King of the Hundred Knights was a mighty man like to a giant, and he gave Balyn back as great strokes as he got. But in the end Balyn with the sword of the Naked Damsel cut out the legs of the king's horse and the horse fell atop the King of the Hundred Knights and broke his leg and his backbone.

And Balyn again heard a great cry behind him on the left flank of their battles. There King Uriens of Gore and King Idres of Cornwall fought side by side and threatened Arthur's knights with defeat.

'Come then brother, this needs two hands,' said Balyn, and they turned horse that way, and challenged King Uriens and King Idres. Balyn wounded King Uriens of Gore and threw him to the earth. Then he came to the aid of his brother and they struck their swords together at one stroke through the body of King Idres of Cornwall and laid him under.

And King Arthur said, 'These two are the best knights that ever I saw, for they give such strokes that all men wonder at them.'

But there were yet upon that field five more rebel kings, and they also saw what deeds the Knight of Two Swords did on that day. Three together joined their men, and the knights swept Balan back apart from his brother, and Balyn rode alone with none but enemy knights around him, before and behind.

'Come and fight then,' he challenged them, but the knights hung back.

Then the three kings, King Agwisance of Ireland, King Nentres of Garlot, and King Carados, broke the lines of their own men and came at Balyn all as one.

'This is shameful, for three to set on one,' said Balyn, 'but I will take the doom that God ordains me even so.' And he lashed out to the right hand and the left.

With two strokes he crushed the hauberks of King Nentres of Garlot and King Carados and then King Agwisance of Ireland was upon him in his face. And it was all Balyn might do to ward off those strokes, so full of rage was King Agwisance and so swiftly did he strike.

But so furious a storm held but a score of strokes, and then King Agwisance of Ireland felt his arm wax tired.

Balyn saw his chance and he lashed out with the sword with both hands, and the blade cut through King Agwisance of Ireland's helmet and his skull and tore away his head above the jaw-bone. And at this the knights around him faltered, and were unsure, and their horses turned from Balyn. So a way opened up for him.

Now there were none but two rebel kings left in the battles of Terrabil, but they were King Cradelment of North Wales and King Morganore, two strong knights that now fought with despair. For they feared for their lives should their battle be lost. Already they saw in their minds their graves gaping to receive them and they pulled back all their knights into a deep comb that made a fast defense, with only a strait mouth where Arthur's knights could get at them.

But Balyn pricked his horse on as fast as that horse might go, and he hurled himself against the rebel knights. Their spears gored and slaughtered his good horse, but Balyn, though his armor smoked and burst, was yet whole enough to stand his ground and pitch himself through them.

He fell and tumbled like a hedge-hog into the midst of them, and when he rose up he stood face to face with King Cradelment and King Morganore. They aghast hailed him and said, 'Be you an angel from Heaven or a devil out of Hell?'

And he answered, 'I am the Knight of Two Swords, and two swords are enough to face down two kings and send them unto either place as God shall choose for them.' And he struck at them and killed them both.

And then the rage went from him with his blood through the breaks in his armor, and he staggered on one knee. But there was not a single knight among the rebel army that dared to come within a spear's length of him.

So Balyn checked and quelled the rebel hosts. But in the meanwhile the Orkney and Lothian knights fretted from where they stood in their camp and overlooked their allies, slain by the Knight of Two Swords. And at last Gawain, who was a boy still, came to his father's pavilion and shouted through the tent-wall, 'Father, King Lot, wake you and heed my words. While we tarry here, King Nero is destroyed and slain with all his folk.'

At that his son's voice, King Lot was shaken from the spell-binding of Merlyn's words and saw the day was spent. And he smelled the blood in the air of the corpses in the fields.

'Alas,' said King Lot, 'I am ashamed. By my default there is many a worshipful man slain. For if we had been together, no host under Heaven had been able to have matched us. This fater with his prophecy has mocked me.'

'It had to be,' said Merlyn. 'For I knew well, King Lot, that had you joined in that first battle, then King Arthur had been slain, and all his people destroyed. Well I knew that one of you twain should die this day, and I wished not that either of you should be slain. But of the twain I had rather you be slain than King Arthur.'

At this King Lot's men would have set upon Merlyn, but King Lot told them, 'Let him be! We do not use arms against unweaponed men. And doubt not but that this fiend's son has some curse or treachery ready at hand. Let him go and do what he can, he has already undone twelve kings on this day.' So they let Merlyn leave.

'Now what is best to do?' asked King Lot of his knights. 'Would it be better for me to treat with Arthur or to fight? For the greater part of our people are slain with those eleven kings that the Knight of Two Swords has destroyed.'

'Sire,' said a knight, 'set on Arthur now. For they are weary and played out, and we are fresh.'

King Lot nodded and stroked his beard that was shot through with silver. 'As for me,' he said, 'I would every knight would do his part as I will do mine.'

And then his son Gawain set King Lot's foot into the stirrup and handed him his spear. And King Lot looked on his son for the last time and said,

'Doubt not, Gawain, that when you are become a man you will do great things and be the best knight born of all these islands. And you will avenge me upon the knight who will end my life. Farewell.'

He rode then, and his men advanced banners and rode against King Arthur's knights. The hosts smote together and all burst their spears with the heavy assault, and many mothers' sons went down into the dark that evening, and the sun sank bloody on a reddened field.

Even yet they fought on with torches in the dark, and their cries brought forth the wolves that eat the slain. But in the bitter weary hours of the night Arthur's knights with the help of the Knight of Two Swords and his brother Balan drove King Lot and his host back.

But yet King Lot held himself ever in the van and did marvelous deeds of arms so that all his host was borne up by his hands, for he abode all knights.

So strong and fierce was King Lot in that night-war that not even the Knight of Two Swords might overmaster him. Again and again Balyn went against King Lot and King Lot beat him back.

But there was a knight that was called the Knight With the Strange Beast, although his right name was Pellinore. And he was a man of such prowess that he fought by Balyn's side and matched him stroke for stroke. Balyn cast down King Lot's foremost men that guarded his flank, and King Pellinore smote a mighty stroke at King Lot. And though Pellinore failed of that stroke, it struck the horse's neck so that he fell to the ground with King Lot underneath. And with that Pellinore raised up his great sword and smote him a killing stroke through the helm and head unto the brows. And when they beheld that stroke, all the host of Orkney fled for the death of King Lot, and there fell many mothers' sons.

So the Knight of Two Swords that day and night slew eleven rebel kings, and on that night also King Ryons in King Arthur's camp died from the wounds that Balyn gave him the night before. But King Pellinore bore the weight of the death of King Lot, wherefore Sir Gawain revenged the death of his father ten years after he was made knight, and slew King Pellinore with his own hands.

In the battles' after-peace some men came to Sir Kay the Seneschal with the poor knight's body. 'For we had heard he served in your train, my lord.'

But Sir Kay looked down on the corpse of Sir Brisance with a weary sneering look and answered, 'Nay, I know the fool not. Let him be stacked with the rebel knights if you will. He won't offer you any grief for it.'

## X. The Tomb of 13 Kings

WHEN THE REBEL KINGS were overthrown, men saw peace come to England and the isles for the first time in all the years since King Uther's time. And they held festivals throughout the land. The remnant of knights and men who fell at those battles were buried under a great rock by Castle Terrabil. But as there were slain at that battle twelve kings besides King Lot, and they were all worshipful men of high lineage, King Arthur let them all be buried in the church of Saint Stevens in Camelot.

At the interment came King Lot's wife Morgause with her four sons Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth. Also there came King Uriens, Sir Ewain's father, and Morgan le Fay his wife who was King Arthur's sister, and she with her bright clever eyes looked often at Arthur and his sword Excalibur and the wonderful scabbard that held it. Well she divined what art lay in those things, and she lusted after them from that time on, and dreamed of what she might do if she only might lay her hands upon her brother's goods.

King Arthur set the tomb of King Lot by its own with great richness. And he let make twelve images of lead and copper and gilded them with the sign of the twelve kings. Each of them held a taper of wax that burnt day and night, and King Arthur was made in a figure standing above them with a sword drawn in his hand, and all the twelve figures had the look of men that were overcome.

All this Merlyn made by his subtle craft so that all men had marvel of it.

'When I am dead,' Merlyn told the king, 'these tapers shall burn no longer. And soon after that, the adventures of the Saint Grail shall come among you and be achieved. For Balyn shall give the Dolorous Stroke, whereof shall fall great vengeance.'

'O where is Balyn and Balan and Pellinore?' asked King Arthur.

'As for Pellinore,' said Merlyn, 'he will meet with you soon. And Balyn will not be long from you either, but the other brother you shall see no more. Already he journeys to a castle where his doom abides.'

'By my faith,' said Arthur, 'they are two marvelous knights, and Balyn surpasses in prowess any knight that ever I found. I am much beholden unto him, would God he would abide with me. Too many goodly knights and kings have now fallen. And most of all I mourn the loss of King Lot. Alas he might not endure, which was a great pity that so worthy a knight as he was should be overmatched!'

But Merlyn saw how Morgan le Fay's eyes glittered as she stared at the king's sword. 'Sire,' said he, 'look you keep well the scabbard of Excalibur, for you shall lose no blood while you wear the scabbard, though you have as many wounds upon you as may be.'

'You say well,' answered the king, 'for I got thirteen grievous wounds in the Battles of Terrabil, and each one was enough to have bled a man to his death. But I lost no more blood than if some briers scratched my arms.'

'But now,' said Merlyn, 'my lord, must I tell you of the darkest prophecy that ever I may tell, and the darkest sight I have foreseen.'

'You make me wish to turn and stop my ears,' said the king. 'But I will hear even the worst that you might tell.'

'It well befits your worship that you should say so. I will say then, that there shall fall great battle beside Salisbury plain, and Modred, your own son, shall lead the armies against you.'

'Ah Merlyn, your words strike even where my deepest wound lies, and I am sore and sick from it. Tell me no more lest you bring down night upon this fairest day. Excalibur and its scabbard have spared my body. And yet what can it matter to a man to keep his body and his life whole, when he has lost his honor?'

And he turned away from the rejoicing, and took no further part in it.

This was the onset of the sadness that would come at times over Arthur, a thing that stole from him his courage and resolve. And the day would come, after Merlyn had been betrayed himself for love and lust, and the king his wisdom lost, when Morgan le Fay would catch the king in such a humor, and she would trick him into granting her to hold Excalibur and its wondrous scabbard in trust. And she with her glittering eyes made a false semblance of the sword and its scabbard for to give back to the King, but the true Excalibur and scabbard she gave into the hands of Sir Accolon her lover, which she loved better than her husband King Uriens or King Arthur her own brother. And Sir Accolon in combat after that would almost slay King Arthur while Morgan le Fay sat by and watched.

## XI. The Unseen Knight

ALL THIS TIME BALYN lay in his tent beside the battlefield, sorely wounded from his deeds.

And it seemed to him the greatest and most worshipful knights in the land came before him. One by one they kneeled and said that never had they known of so great deeds as his on that day when twelve kings fell by his hand. And his good lord Arthur came to Balyn's bedside and said, 'Knight of Two Swords, you have saved my realm and brought peace to these lands. Therefore get well again and I will honor you before all my knights and barons.'

But all these faces appeared to Balyn like dreams, and he knew not if what he saw were true or false. Last of all he saw his brother's face. Balan his brother shook his head, sadly, and turned away.

At last Balyn woke and stood in the opening to his tent. The cool night breathed upon his limbs. Far off he saw the half moon sink into the Earth as though it drew with her his heart and soul and gladness. Then the stars for secret shame hid themselves behind the clouds and the night grew darksome as the pit. Balyn bent on one knee and took the long beard of the Earth in his two fists.

Now I have done a great thing. Your debt to me is paid but my debt to you now comes due. Therefore O you Devils of the deep dank Earth, call where you will and I will follow. Set me what task you please and I will see it done. Torment and murder me at your pleasure. And so we shall be quits.

And he made his heart ready for what was to come. For so great a deed he knew the Devils would tote up a cost that went beyond what any mortal man had paid.

'Well,' he said, 'I will shed no tears over my pain. And yet I am sorry for this, that I might not find the Naked Damsel and avenge her wrong upon the false knight who killed her love. For I will work now only to advance true love.'

Even then a blue knight rode by the camp in the dark, moaning and weeping. Balyn got his gear and rode after that knight.

Meanwhile Arthur also held aloof from feasts and cheer. He took his pavilions deep into the forest and saw few men. For Merlyn's foretelling minded Arthur of his sin, and it weighed upon him. And he grieved over the death of King Lot, and felt sick for it.

Once King Lot had been fast friends with Arthur and took his part in the war. But then Arthur lay with Lot's wife, the Queen Morgause, and got her with the child Modred. When King Lot learned of this, then he turned against Arthur and became bitter foe to him, and there lay the beginning of enmity between them. Arthur had not known at that time that Queen Morgause was his own half-sister, but he had known right well she was King Lot's wife.

And about the child of that incestuous bed, Merlyn had foretold that he should be a great causer of ill, and the end of Arthur's kingdom. And he should be born on that next May-Day. Therefore when that May was ending, Arthur had ordained that all the babes born about May-Day should be taken in a ship to sea, and he gave the captain of the ship command to drive her upon rocks in the sea and sink her and let those children die. And the outcry against this commandment had fed the rebellion against Arthur, for all these matters work together, and there is no man, not though he be a king, who can put aside his doom and leave his sins unpunished.

So it came about that a storm drove back the prison-ship onto land after the captain and his crew had left it in the boats, and there upon rocks the ship foundered and sank, and all the children died -- all but one. For by the will of doom, Modred clung to a timber and floated onto land, and he was taken in by a man there, and he lived whom Arthur meant to kill, and all the other innocents that Arthur would have spared, had he been able to choose out only his son among them all, they died, and this crime lay heavy upon Arthur's heart.

So heavy did he feel now, for Merlyn had again foretold to him how Modred would yet wreak all the harm he was meant to. And the murder of the children was for nought.

Therefore Arthur was sick at heart even at the hour of his victory. And now that the heaviness of war was lifted from him, he recalled his sin and sought inside his heart for grace. From these nights Arthur would come forth changed, and mercy and compassion would grow in his heart. After the Battles of Terrabil he would never rule harshly again, nor judge rashly, and he learned forgiveness. This was the beginning of that Arthur that we know now and honor in the remembering and love.

But those nights were heavy upon him, and he might not rest.

And he went walking alone in darkness in the wood, when he heard great noise of a horse, and saw a knight come by him making great dole, and that knight went all in blue.

'Abide fair sir,' said Arthur, 'and tell me wherefore you make this sorrow. I would lessen your burden if I might. I would lessen any man's burden if but to take me away from my own.'

'You can do nothing to help me,' said the blue knight. And so he rode on toward the castle of Melyot.

The king stood in wonder looking after him. And soon after there came Balyn.

'My lord Arthur, saw you a knight go by?'

'I saw one that made as though great pain was on him, but he would not speak to me or tell me why. Therefore Balyn as you are a true knight, I wish that you would bring that knight to me whether he will or will not, to tell me his story and give my heart somewhere to turn beyond my own dreams.'

'I will do more for your lordship than that,' said Balyn. And he rode swiftly away through the darkness. At length in a glade in the deep forest he found the blue knight with a damsel and they two lay alongside each other in starlight and halsed each other close.

'Sir knight,' said Balyn, 'now you must come with me to King Arthur to tell him of your sorrow.'

'That will I not,' said the blue knight. 'For if I do, it will put me in great peril, and may cost me my life. What you ask cannot be.'

'Sir,' answered Balyn, 'I pray you make you ready, for you must go with me, or else I must fight with you and bring you by force even though that is not what I would wish.'

'Will you ensure my safety,' said the knight, 'if I go with you?'

'Aye,' said Balyn, 'or else I will die in your defense.'

And so the blue knight dressed and made ready to go with Balyn and left his damsel's side. And Balyn thought this damsel was passing fair. She had a look in her eyes of love and sorrow for her knight, and she reminded Balyn of the lady Colombe that had died for love of Sir Lanceour.

'I will bring your paramour back to you, lady,' said Balyn, 'or he that touches him I will slay though it cost my head.'

Balyn rode with the blue knight through the forest. And as they came before King Arthur's pavilion, there came one unseen by either the knight or Balyn or the bodyguards of the king, and smote the blue knight through the body with a spear.

'Alas,' said the blue knight, 'I am murdered under your safe-conduct. The knight that murdered me is called Garlon. Therefore take my horse that is better than yours and ride to the damsel. Follow as she will lead you, and revenge my death if you may.'

'That shall I do,' said Balyn. 'And that I make as a vow unto knighthood.' And so he departed from this knight with great sorrow.

And King Arthur let bury this knight richly and let write upon his tomb how

HERE WAS SLAIN  
HERLEWS  
LE BERBEUS  
SLAIN IN TREACHERY  
BY THE KNIGHT  
GARLON.

## XII. The Hungry Lady

SO BALYN GAVE to the damsel the truncheon of the spear that Sir Herlews was slain with. She took it with dark eyes and wept upon it.

'Damsel, I am heavy that your love fell under the safety of my sword,' said Balyn. 'Therefore Sir Herlews bade me follow at your lead and get revenge.'

She thanked him. 'Now I will ready myself to ride with you,' she said. 'I knew well the doom that shadowed Sir Herlews, for Garlon rides ever unseen by some art and sets upon those who cannot know he is near. Blame not yourself too heavily, gentle knight.'

So she garbed herself all in lilac, and they rode through the forest, and the lilac damsel bore in her lap always the bloody truncheon of that spear.

The wood grew thick about them and it took them three days to come out of it again. They rode then in strange lands where Balyn had never ventured.

'I wonder,' he said, 'if this is the land where my brother went. In the dream I thought he rode to such a land.'

'We ride deep in Logres,' said the damsel with the spear.

Along the way they met a green knight out hunting, and the green knight asked Balyn why he made so great a sorrow.

'I will not tell you that,' said Balyn.

'Now,' said the green knight, 'if I were armed as you are, I would fight with you and make you tell.'

'For that there is no need,' said Balyn. 'I am not afraid to tell you.' So he told him about the treacherous death of Sir Herlews.

'Ah,' said the knight, 'is this it? That is a cause worthy of a quest, and better suited than hunting to a knight who has lived in wars. Here I ensure you by the faith of my body never to depart from you while I live. Together we will find this traitor knight and be revenged upon him.'

So they went to the hostelry and this knight Peryn de Mountebeliard armed himself, and rode forth with Balyn.

And as they came by an hermitage under a churchyard, there came the knight Garlon unseen and struck the green knight through the body with a spear. But again he let Balyn be.

'Alas,' said Peryn, 'I am slain by this traitor knight that rides unseen.'

'Ah,' said Balyn, 'it is not the first despite he has done me.' And he rode about the hermitage fiercely on his horse, crying out, 'Garlon! Garlon! Show yourself and fight me like a knight!' But only the grave-stones answered him.

There the hermit and Balyn buried the green knight under a rich stone and tomb. That night was right dark without moon or stars. And on the morn they found letters of gold written upon Peryn's tomb, how

SIR GAWAIN SHALL REVENGE  
HIS FATHERS DEATH KING LOT  
ON THE KING PELLINORE.

And when he looked upon those letters Balyn felt the cold of the morning clutch at his heart. 'Little can any man choose his doom,' he said. 'I have bargained and been paid, and my turn to pay will come.' And he knelt and bore the Sword in his hands in front of him for to pray, but the words of prayer would not come to him, wherefore he was the more cast down.

Soon after this Balyn and the lilac damsel rode upon the hills of that land until they came to a castle. And that was the first sign of men they had in four days. But they could see no men upon the castle walls. There Balyn alit and he and the damsel with the spear started to go into the castle. But as soon as Balyn came within the castle's gate the portcullis fell down behind him. And outside the gate many men fell upon the damsel and would have slain her.

When Balyn saw that, his wrath overtook him again and he was sore aggrieved that he might not help his damsel, and he beat the sword against the portcullis to no avail. Then he went up into the tower and leapt over the walls into the ditch, and came to his feet unhurt.

Then he pulled out the Sword and would have fought with those men; but they feared Balyn in his wrath and said, 'Nay, we will not fight with you, knight! For we did nothing but hold to the custom of this castle.'

'How is that,' asked Balyn, 'it is a foul use to slay fair damsels when they come seeking of your hospitality.'

'Ah sir knight, but our dear lady is sick, and has lain many years weak and weary and cannot even rise from her bed while the sun is in heaven. And through the night she does but drift about the castle walls, making moan and whispering. And she might not be healed but if she have a dish of silver filled with blood from a clean maid and a king's daughter. And therefore the custom of this castle is that no damsel shall pass this way but she shall bleed into a silver dish until it be full.'

'Well,' said Balyn, 'if she like, then she shall bleed as much as she may bleed. But I will not let her lose her life while my life lasts. One damsel in my keeping has fallen already and the like shall not come again.'

'I will gladly offer my blood to this lady,' said the lilac damsel, 'if it might heal her of this strange sickness.'

And so they went into the castle, down into the place where the lady lay. And when the even came and the candles were lighted the lady woke and sat up on her bier.

'Ah,' she whispered, 'I am hungry, I am so hungry.'

Then the men brought the silver dish and Balyn made the damsel there to bleed by her good will.

They brought to the lady the dish and held it before her, and she lifted back her veil. And the men helped her to unwind the pale veils from her body so she stood naked for it.

Then she lowered her head to the blood where it lay smoking in the dish. And she thrust out her tongue and lapped the maiden's blood from the dish. And seeming to feel a surge of strength, as if it worked to heal her, she lifted up the vessel with her thin hands and drank from it greedily, so that it dribbled down her chin onto her bare breasts. But then she trembled and shook from her toes to her shoulders and she fell back down again.

'No,' she whispered, 'this is not the one foretold to come. Ah, I am hungry still.'

Then the men wound their lady up in the veils again and let her moan and weep for pity.

And so Balyn and the damsel with the spear rested there all night, and the men of that castle gave them good cheer and feasted them. They gave them rich chambers and bade them good-night.

Balyn lay upon his bed and might not sleep. For the moonlight through the window was cold and troubling. He slept at last and thought he saw the chamber down below where the lady of the castle slept. Pale and thin she seemed and still as though she never breathed. Then all at once she opened her eyes and seemed to stare at Balyn and he woke.

Even then Balyn heard a cry come from the chamber of the lilac damsel. Wherefore he took up the Sword and ran in his shirt into her chamber.

He found her sitting in the bed and shivering. 'Damsel,' he said, 'what ails you?'

'Ah Balyn,' she said, 'this castle is an ill place to pass the night. I am as pale now as the lady, and so cold I cannot warm myself. And as I lay sleeping a dream came to me, most horrible.'

'I too have dreamed,' he said.

'In my dream,' she said, 'I saw a good knight come to this castle with his sister and was welcomed by this hungry lady. The good knight's sister willingly gave herself to be bled. And they unwrapped the veils from the hungry lady, and took away the gown the sister wore. So they were both naked on the stone.

'And the lady cut the sister's throat with a silver knife. And the blood spurted up, so the lady pressed her lips to the wound, and gently kissed and licked at it. And then her flesh grew not so pale as before. She fastened her lips tighter and began to suck, clasping the girl's body to her and drinking at the wound like a suckling babe until at last I saw her throw back her head and cry out in a loud voice, "I am well again and cured!" And the good knight's sister crumpled to the floor and lay dead.'

'This is a foul dream,' said Balyn.

'And yet the sister gave her life willingly, and she knew the lady would be made whole from her blood. And when her brother the good knight gathered her up in his arms, he kissed his sister's brow and smiled upon the lady, as though he too blessed her. But O Balyn, how the moon glares in through the window at me, and blames me that I could not help the lady. Do not go from me this night, Balyn, but lie alongside me for warmth sake. For I tell you there is not but cold for me except from your strong body.'

So Balyn lay by the damsel in her chamber in her bed. In his arms her naked body felt as cold as grave-stones. But as he looked upon her in the moon's light he found her passing fair. In the small night she woke, and fell tenderly to kissing and clasping him.

Balyn was none averse. He wrapped them both in the furred mantle that the Damsel of the Sword had left him, and he kissed her many times.

## XIII. Revenge

ON THE MORN they went their way. They rode many days and met no adventure, until they lodged with a gentleman that was rich and well at ease. And as they sat at supper Balyn heard from above grievous loud groans.

'What is this noise,' asked Balyn.

'Truly,' said his host, 'I will tell you. I was lately at a joust where I jousted with a knight that is brother unto King Pellam. Twice I knocked him down, and then he promised revenge on me through my best friend. And so he wounded my son that can not be healed till I have of that knight's blood. And after he wounded my son, he rode away invisible so that no man's eye could see where he rode or where he went. And from his shield and arms, I know he is kin to King Pellam, but beyond that, I know not his name.'

'Ah,' said Balyn, 'I know that knight. His name is Garlon, and he has slain two knights before my eyes in the same manner. And for that I would rather encounter that knight than win all the gold in this realm, for the despite he did me.'

'Well,' said his host, 'this knight Garlon is beyond defeat, for whenever he has his weapons he is invisible, and only when he is unarmed can he be seen. But I shall tell you something that should please you. King Pellam in his lustiness has made cry in all this country a great feast that he shall hold within these twenty days. And no knight may come there unless he bring with him his wife or his paramour. And that knight, your enemy and mine, you shall see that day.'

'Then I promise you,' said Balyn, 'some of his blood to heal your son with.'

So in the morning they rode all three toward Pellam that lay in the heart of that land, as deep in Logres as man could ride. It was a fortnight of journeying they had through the lush wild land, full of lakes and streams rich with trout and pike, and at the end of that fortnight they came to the castle of King Pellam the Fisher King. It was the very day of the feast, so they stabled their horses and went into the castle.

But at the castle gate the servants would not let Balyn's host go in, for he had no lady at his side.

'Let him pass, he is my man,' said Balyn, and so after some speech the host was let in to attend on Balyn.

Balyn and his damsel were well received and brought unto one chamber and unarmed. And there were brought him robes to his pleasure, that were white and light and fine. The servants then counseled Balyn to leave his sword behind when they went down to the feast. 'For our lord the King will entertain only pleasures at this feast.'

'Nay,' said Balyn, 'that I will not do. For it is the custom of my country for a knight always to keep his weapon with him, and that custom will I keep, or else I will depart as I came.'

Then the servants knew not what to do, but in the end they gave him leave to wear his sword.

And so Balyn went unto the castle hall and was seated among knights of worship and his lady before him. Many lusty couples were there feasting and drinking and making good cheer, and a great fire blazed in the hearth. But Balyn cast his eyes about, seeking his enemy.

Soon he asked a knight, 'Is there not a knight in this court whose name is Garlon?'

'Yonder he goes,' said the knight, 'that one there with the scowling face. He is King Pellam's brother and the most marvelous knight that lives, for he destroys many good knights and they cannot strike him or know where he goes, for he goes invisible.'

'Ah well,' said Balyn, 'is that the man indeed?'

Then Balyn turned it over for a time with the lilac damsel his paramour. 'If I slay him here,' he said, 'I shall not escape. And yet if I leave him now I shall never meet with him again and be able to see him. And great harm he will do if he goes on living and killing men unseen.'

'Kill him,' she said. 'O Balyn as you love me kill me that knight.'

And from where behind them he stood in attendance the rich man said, 'If that knight lives after this day, he will go out and do to others what he has done to my son.'

But meanwhile this Garlon saw that Balyn stared at him. And he was so proud that he came and smacked Balyn on the face with the back of his hand and said, 'For shame, knight, why do you gape at me so? Eat your meat and do what you came for.'

'That is well said,' said Balyn. 'This is not the first despite that you have done me, and therefore I will do what I came for.' And he rose up fiercely with his own sword and clove Garlon's head to the shoulders.

'Give me the truncheon,' said Balyn to his lady, 'with which he slew your knight.'

She gave it to him right away. And with it Balyn smote Garlon through the heart and said loudly, 'With that truncheon you slew a good knight, and it sticks in your body now!'

And then Balyn signaled his host and said, 'Now you may fetch all the blood you need to heal your son.'

## XIV. The Dolorous Stroke

ALL THE KNIGHTS AROSE from their tables to set upon Balyn when they saw him slaughter Garlon at their feast. And King Pellam himself rose and said, 'Knight, you have killed my brother, so you shall die therefore before you leave my hall.'

'Well,' said Balyn, 'then do it yourself if that's what you have in mind.'

'Yes,' said King Pellam, 'hold off you others. There shall no man have ado with him but myself for the love of my brother.'

Then King Pellam caught in his hand a great club from the firewood, for he had no weapon by the rules of his feast, and struck at Balyn. But Balyn put his sword between his head and the stroke, so that the club swept aside the blade but left Balyn's head whole. But the club caught the sword against the stones of the hearth, and therewith Balyn's blade broke asunder. And King Pellam laughed and raised the club again.

'Your other sword,' cried his lady, and Balyn clutched at the magic pommel of the Sword of the Naked Damsel. But at that time the Strange Clasps would not let go the Sword to him.

Balyn ran to find some other weapon and so he passed from chamber to chamber, and yet could find no weapon. And always King Pellam chased after him.

At last Balyn came to a chamber that was marvelously well and richly furnished. There before him stood a bed arrayed with cloth of gold, the richest a man might dream, and one lying upon it. And beside the bed stood a table of pure gold with four pillars of silver that upheld it. And upon the table stood a marvelous spear strangely wrought.

And when Balyn saw that spear, he took it in hand and turned to King Pellam, and smote him with that spear. King Pellam leapt up to avoid that stroke, but Balyn was as strong that day as any in his life, and he drove the spear through King Pellam's hips and thighs. So King Pellam fell in a faint.

But with that the castle roof and walls broke and fell to the earth. And Balyn fell down under the broken stones and mortar, so that he might not stir. In his ears he heard the cries of knights and ladies that lay dying, and beasts in the stables crushed under the stones.

'Now I know what the damned souls hear when they are caged in the Pit of Hell,' thought Balyn.

And for three days the castle lay upon Pellam and Balyn.

## XV. The Maid in the Garden

THEN MERLYN CAME and took up the stones that held Balyn underneath. And Merlyn got him a good horse, for his was dead.

'Now,' said Merlyn, 'has it fallen out as I foretold. O Balyn, why could you not hold back your anger and your sword?'

'No man can forego his doom,' answered Balyn.

'You speak well. But now I bid you ride out of this country. For I go now to free the others caught under this castle, and the knights that still live will want your head for all that you have done here.'

'I would have my damsel,' said Balyn, 'where is the damsel with the spear?'

'Look here,' said Merlyn, 'where she lies dead. And there beside her lies King Pellam.'

'Is he dead?'

'No, not yet. But he will lie many years sore wounded, and will never be whole till Galahad the Haut Prince shall heal him in the quest of the Saint Grail. For know you, Balyn,' said Merlyn, 'that now your doom is almost fulfilled, and the worst of it begins. In this place was part of the blood of our lord Jesu Christ that Joseph of Armathea brought in to this land. And there in that rich bed you saw Joseph himself. For King Pellam was nigh kin of Joseph, and that was the same spear that Longius smote our lord to the heart. And King Pellam was the most worshipful man alive in these days and great pity it is he was hurt. For through that stroke you have brought grief upon these lands.'

Balyn knew no word to that. For doom had taken his heart again and he knew now Merlyn's words were truth. Then Balyn took horse and Merlyn said, 'In this world we meet again nevermore.'

So alone Balyn rode through the rich lands that now were waste. The rivers flowed no more and the lakes were drought. And everywhere he found the dead and slain, that had died for the Dolorous Stroke. And the few that were left alive cried as he rode by, 'O Balyn you have brought great ruin on these lands.'

'For the Dolorous Stroke you gave King Pellam, Balyn, three countries are destroyed.'

'And doubt not Balyn but the vengeance will fall on your head at last.'

'Now,' said Balyn, 'the Devils pay me back for the great deeds that I did. Is it not enough, O you Devils, what you have made me do?' But he knew they were not yet done with him. Wherefore he rode on grim-faced and did not look away from the ruin he had wrought.

When Balyn was past those countries he was passing glad.

So he rode eight days more before he met with adventure.

He came then to a fair forest in a valley and saw a tower high above the trees. And there beside he saw a great horse of war lashed to a tree, and beside it sat a fair knight on the ground. He was a likely man and a well made but he made great mourning.

Balyn said 'God save you, why are you so heavy? Tell me and I will amend it if it lies within my power.'

'Sir knight,' said the other, 'you do me great grief, for I was in merry thoughts, and now you put me to more pain.'

Balyn went a little apart from him and looked to his horse, but kept the knight in view. Then he heard the knight say,

'Ah fair lady, why have you broken my heart? For you promised to meet me here by noon. And I curse you that you ever gave me this sword, for with this sword I will slay myself.'

And he drew out his sword. But Balyn rushed to him and held back his hand.

'Let go my hand,' said the knight, 'or else I shall slay you.'

'There is no need for that,' answered Balyn. 'For I shall promise you my help to get you your lady if you will tell me where she is.'

'What is your name?' said the knight.

'My name is Balyn the Wild.'

'Ah, sir, I know you well enough: you are the Knight of Two Swords, and the man of most prowess of your hands living.'

'What is your name?' said Balyn.

'My name is Garnyshe of the Mount. I was born a poor man's son, but for my prowess and hardiness a duke has made me knight and given me lands.'

'What duke was this?'

'His name is Duke Hermel, and his daughter is the maiden that I love and she me, as I believed.'

'How far is she from here?' asked Balyn.

'Only eleven miles,' said the knight.

'Now let us ride there,' said Balyn.

So they rode at a gallop till they came to a fair castle, well walled and ditched.

'I will go into the castle,' said Balyn, 'and see if she is there.'

'You will not easily mistake her,' said the knight, 'for not one other lady in all the land could have eyes like hers, that shine like violets in the sun.'

So he went in and searched from chamber to chamber and found no man nor woman alive but only empty walls. For all the castle folk were out gathering in the last of the harvest and making good cheer for a rich season. Balyn found the maiden's bed, that had a bunch of violets by the pillow, but she was not there either.

Then he looked into a fair little garden that stood within the walls of the castle yard. There was only one small gate that opened onto that garden and Balyn opened the gate and stood in it. And there he made no sound.

Under a laurel tree he saw a maiden lying upon a quilt of violet samite and a knight fast in her arms. And they two were halsing each other, and under their heads grass and herbs filled the air with sweetness. Their moaning filled the garden. And that was the most hairy and foulest knight ever Balyn had seen, and she a fair lady. Balyn watched until he saw how the maiden leaned back her head, and her eyes opened and rolled across the sky. And her eyes shone like violets in the sun.

Balyn went through all the chambers again until he came to her knight.

'Did you see her? Is she all right? She is not unwell?'

'Come and see,' said Balyn.

## XVI. The Castle by the Lake

THEN BALYN LED Garnyshe through the castle to the walled garden. They found the couple asleep and naked on the garden grass, and the fair lady's hand still clasped about the foul knight's cock, so that Balyn had great shame to see it so.

And when Garnyshe beheld her so lying, for pure sorrow his mouth and nose burst out bleeding and with his sword he smote off both their heads.

And then he made sorrow out of measure and said, 'O Balyn, much sorrow have you brought unto me. For had you not showed me that sight I should have passed my sorrow.'

'In truth,' said Balyn, 'I did it to this intent, that it should better thy courage, and that you might see and know her falsehood and to cause you to leave love of such a lady. God knows I did none other but as I would you did to me. For I have hurt one damsel for hasty killing of her lover, and so she died, and then I served another damsel and passed my bounds to right her wrong. But of that righting she fell dead. And both those ladies were true to their love. But now I show you the falseness of this lady and she is now dead from it. She alone of the three deserved what she has won, and yet you blame me for it. I would rather be in war and battle than to do with ladies.'

'Alas,' said Garnyshe, 'now is my sorrow double that I may not endure. Now have I slain the one I most loved in all my life.'

And therewith he rived himself on his own sword unto the hilts.

'O knight, why did you work such a crime upon yourself?' asked Balyn. 'This lady was false and deserved none of your love.'

Then Balyn dressed him thenceward lest folk would say he had slain them.

And within three days he came by a cross, and thereon were letters of gold written that said,

NO KNIGHT ALONE  
SHALL  
RIDE TOWARD THIS CASTLE

Then he saw an old hoary gentleman coming toward him that said, 'Balyn the Wild, you pass thy bounds to come this way. Therefore turn again and it will avail thee.'

And he vanished away.

Balyn said, 'I shudder to think what lies before me now. But I bargained and was paid. And now has come my turn to pay. Only the weakling takes but will not pay. A man takes what he wants and then he pays for it. And so by God will I.'

Even then he heard a horn blow as if for the death of a beast.

'That blast,' said Balyn, 'is blown for me. For I am the prize and yet am I not dead.' And he knew his end was very near to him.

But when he looked up he saw a hundred ladies and many knights that welcomed him with fair semblance and made him passing good cheer unto his sight and led him in to the castle that stood beyond the cross.

And there they made dancing and music and all manner of joy. They seated Balyn in the seat of honor opposite his host, and he saw how the lord of the castle was an old knight with a kingly mien, although sorrow was written in it, and his eyes fell under the shadow of his shaggy brow.

Beside the lord the lady of the castle sat with a babe in her lap sucking on her breasts. She nodded and smiled to Balyn and made much of him. And a damsel came round to Balyn's right hand and said, 'My lady gives Balyn the Wild to drink, and she honors well the Knight of Two Swords.'

'I will take that gladly,' he said, and he drank down the cup. That wine was dark as blood and foaming, and it cast his mind back to the silver dish where the lady with the spear had bled for the pale sorrowful lady of the bier.

'My lady will come to you later for good measure,' said the damsel, and she went back to the lady's seat and spoke into her ear. And the lady lifted up the babe and smiled more broadly at Balyn. And he with the wine aroar in his ears could not hear what they said at the feast, but the roaring and the music filled his ears.

The lady took her leave with her damsels and her child. The lord of the castle watched her go. He tugged on his mustache and then followed her.

They were late to go to bed in that place. Well upon the midnight the lady's damsel took Balyn to his chambers. There he found the lady waiting.

'I give you greetings, sir,' she said.

'My lady, thank you, for your feast and its merriment have cheered my heart, that was much downcast ere I came here. But it seems I ought to know you. And yet I do not know your face.'

'Your eyes must be clouded,' she said, 'not to see if you have ever known me before.'

'They are clouded,' he said. 'It is my doom clouds them.'

Then the lady said, 'Knight of Two Swords, tomorrow you must have ado and joust with a knight hereby that keeps an island. For there may no man pass this way but he must joust or he pass.'

'That is an unhappy custom,' said Balyn, 'that a knight may not pass this way but if he joust.'

'You shall not have ado but with one knight,' said the lady.

'Well,' said Balyn, 'since I have come, I am ready. But traveling men are often weary and their horses too. But though my horse be weary my heart is not weary. I would be glad to find my death there.'

'Your death need not come so quick as that,' she said. And then she gave him wine and kissed him, and held him to her breast. She put her breasts into his mouth and her milk squirted down his throat. And that milk burned his throat, so that his voice was hoarse and croaking.

And he fell to kissing her and that night he kissed her seven times, and halsed her sevenfold, until the world swam in his eyes. At the very last she bit his ear and said into it, 'You must overcome the Red Knight tomorrow on the island in the lake. You are the most worshipful knight that is on earth, and if you cannot overcome him then no one can and my wrong will never be righted!'

And he said, 'I know you now. You are the Naked Damsel who brought the sword I wear.'

'I am that one indeed,' she said. She laid him down and covered him with the coverlets. Then she took up his mantle and wrapped it about her nakedness and passed out of that chamber. Through the dark cold halls of the castle she went, down the stone steps into the feasting hall. She came and sat there in her lord's throne with her knees clasped close to her breasts. She stared into the dying embers of the fire.

Her hounds came and sniffed at the strange man's smell that was upon her fingers, and licked at them.

Late in the night a light gleamed up the steps and the lord descended. He sat by her in the lady's chair, holding up the candle and regarding her.

'Is it done yet,' he asked, 'are you done with him?'

'Yes, dear husband,' she answered. She gave him her hand and he kissed it as though it did not reek of Balyn's sweat.

'And is that the Sword he bears, that the Lady of Avalon worked for you?'

'It is the sword of my paramour the King of the Dales and Lakes. And it shall prove Balyn's doom, alas.' She reached down and stroked her lord's white beard. 'Husband,' she said, 'do not grieve that I have betrayed you so many times. For this was part of our compact as you know.'

'Every knight who has wandered to this castle has halsed you in his bed, and gone to joust upon the Island in the lake. But is this man the last of them?'

She drew him up beside her on the great throne and nestled in his arm. 'I deem indeed he will prove the last of them, for he wears the cursed Sword with the pommel Lady Lille fashioned for this end. And Balyn is the greatest knight of the courts of fourteen kings, as I proved before all the knights of King Ryons and King Arthur both. And if he cannot slay the Red Knight, that is my worst enemy that is on earth and abides now within the Tower of Adventure upon the Isle below, then no knight ever will or can. But with the cursed Sword how can so worshipful a man fail?'

'It is a hard doom to put upon a man, that you have put upon the Knight of Two Swords,' said the lord of the castle. 'And I feel pity for him, even though he lay with you this night and put that sweet sweat upon your lip.'

For this she kissed him and told him, 'But with you I know the nearest thing to peace my heart has known since my one true love was slain by the Red Knight. In all these years torment has ridden me as if I were its palfrey and my one aim and end has been that knight's destruction. Many foul deeds have I performed in seeking it, and few gave me any taste but bitter. But your love, my dear husband, has not been bitter.'

'So you say,' the lord answered her.

Soon he was sleeping as aged men do, with fits and starts. She held him and stroked the scant hairs upon his head and stared into the fire. And when first light stole in through the upper windows she beckoned to one of her women who came, and together they bundled the old man into his bed.

The damsel of the sword then took her child and gave it to suck. And her milk for the babe was soft and warm and sweet. Then she gave the child to the nurse and let herself be dressed in fine raiment. And she took down a shield that hung on the wall of her chamber and took it to one of her knights.

And that knight bore the shield down into the yard where Balyn made ready to fight the Red Knight on the Island in the lake.

'Sir,' said the knight, 'it seems your shield is not good. I will lend you a better, take it I pray you.'

And so Balyn took the shield that was unknown and left his own and so rode unto the island and put him and his horse in a great boat.

And when he rode on the water he saw something that flashed and swam alongside like a pale fish. But when he took his horse off that boat onto the shore, he found a damsel rising out of the water. She was all in white.

She kissed him and said, 'I have no great cause to love you, Balyn the Wild. For you smote off the head of my sovereign lady, the Lady of the Lake. And yet my heart grieves at the cruel fate that closes now fast about you. Why did you give up your shield? For by your shield you should have been known. It is a great pity of you as ever was of knight, for of your prowess and hardiness you have no fellow alive.'

'I am sorry,' said Balyn, 'that ever I came within this country. But I may not turn now again for shame. And what adventure shall fall to me, be it life be it death, I will take the adventure that shall come to me.'

And the white lady bade him farewell, and she went back down into the water and wriggled under the waves like an eel. But Balyn looked to his armor, and saw that he was well armed and ready. He knelt on one knee and put his hand to the ground, and took up a fistful of the clay of the island's body.

'O you Devils of the dark,' he said, 'you have given and now you take. But let this adventure be the end of my pains and punishments, I pray you, for I doubt I can endure them more.'

And he would have prayed, but there were no words for prayer in his heart. By this he was gladdened, for it meant that day would be the last. And he looked to die in combat as beseemed a goodly knight. But he did not know what pains awaited him.

So he blessed him and mounted upon his horse and rode into the island.

## XVII. The Last Trial

THEN BEFORE HIM Balyn saw come riding out of a stone tower a knight and his horse all of red trappings, and himself in the same color. And the red knight seemed twice Balyn's height, and his horse twice the stature of Balyn's horse. For that was the weird of that island.

The Red Knight hailed him and Balyn answered.

'Will you fight,' asked the Red Knight. 'For I know of no knight that comes to this Island but to fight.'

And Balyn answered him courteously and said, 'Sir, it seems that you have done a great wrong to the lady that bides in the castle. So I am here as the lady of the castle has bidden me, as her defender and avenger.'

'Your voice is hoarse, and I may hardly tell what you say,' said the Red Knight. 'But I know that lady is the foulest and lewdest lady in the land, and if you are her slave then I will gladly fight you to the death.'

And so they braced their spears and came marvelously fast together, and they smote each other's shields. But their onset was so great that it bore down horse and man, and both lay senseless on the ground.

Balyn was weary of travail, and he held still to let the other come at him and slay him if he could.

So the Red Knight was the first that rose on foot. He drew his sword and went toward Balyn. And Balyn stood to face him, and the Red Knight struck at him.

Balyn put up his shield, but the stroke crashed through his shield and helm.

Then Balyn's wrath woke in him, and he struck back with that unhappy Sword and well nigh had felled the Red Knight.

And so they fought there together till their breath failed.

Then Balyn looked up to the castle and saw the stand full of ladies. The lord of the castle walked not up there, but the lady and her gentlewomen leaned over the stones and gaped at the battle. And Balyn was minded of his old vow to her, when he had won the enchanted Sword from her, that he would do all he could to right her wrong.

So he went to battle again with the Red Knight, and they wounded each other dolefully.

And then they breathed at times, and went back into battle, and breathed again, so that all the ground where they fought was blood red.

And in the end they had smitten each other seven great wounds so that the least of them might have been the death of the mightiest giant in this world.

'Yield you,' said the Red Knight.

'While the lady of the castle watches,' answered Balyn, 'I will not yield. And yet I hope for no life after this.' But more he couldn't say, for his throat was raw from the bitter milk of the breasts of the Naked Damsel, that was the lady of the castle.

So they went to battle again and fought so marvelously that the gentlewomen on the castle walls withdrew from sight of all that blood shedding. But the lady of the castle abided, and watched each wound and cut. By then their hauberks were burst and broken open, so that they were naked on every side.

At last the Red Knight withdrew him a little and laid him down.

Then said Balyn the Wild, 'What knight are you? For before now I never found a knight that matched me.'

'My name is,' said the Red Knight, 'Balan, brother unto the good knight Balyn.'

'Alas,' said Balyn, 'that ever I should see this day. I am that same knight.' He knew at last his brother's voice and stance in battle. And therewith he fell back in a swoon.

Then Balan went on all four feet and hands and put off the helm of his brother. Even so he might not know him by the visage, it was so hewn and bloody.

'Are you my brother indeed?' he asked.

But Balyn opened his eyes and said, 'O Balan my brother, you have slain me and I you, wherefore all the wide world shall speak of us both.'

'Alas,' said Balan, 'that ever I saw this day that through mishap I might not know you. For I saw well your two swords, but because you had another shield I deemed you had been another knight.'

'Alas,' said Balyn, 'all that was put upon me by an unhappy knight in the castle. For he caused me to leave my own shield to both our destructions. And if I might live I would destroy that castle for ill customs.'

'That were well done,' said Balan. 'For I had never grace to depart from them since that I came hither. For here it happened that I slew the knight that kept this Island, and since then I might never depart; and no more should you brother, and you might have slain me as you have and escaped yourself with life.'

Then the lady of the castle with four knights and six ladies and six yeomen came unto them and there she heard how they made their moan either to other and said, 'We came both out of one tomb: that is to say one mother's belly. And so shall we lie both in one pit.'

So Balyn prayed the Naked Damsel of her gentleness that she would bury them both in that same place where the battle was done.

And she granted it with weeping. 'It should be done richly in the best manner, Knight of Two Swords. Did I not tell you Balyn,' she said, 'that this sword would prove your death and cause you to slay your best friend in the world? And yet this same man was my worst enemy. And he was as well my brother.'

## XVIII. In Darkness

WHEN BALYN WOKE he lay underground in darkness, and at first he wondered if he were not yet in the prison of his lord Arthur and he asked, 'Did I never leave this place?' But when he would rise he found he might not stir.

And the Naked Damsel sat by him and said, 'Rest you, Knight of Two Swords, for your wounds are mortal. But my gentlewomen will tend to you.'

She had beside her three damsels, and each more fair than the others. There was the damsel from the castle that had given Balyn to drink at that feast, and there was a damsel from the tower on the island, that had lain with Balan the Red Knight and with those other Red Knights that had abode in the tower before him, and there was the pale fish-eyed damsel from the lake that had warned Balyn on the island shore. And they cleansed and kissed Balyn's wounds, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

'But where is my brother Balan,' he said.

'There lies your brother and my brother as well, bound and lashed upon the stone next to yours,' said the Naked Damsel. 'But for the hatred I bear him I will let no hand tend to him or ease his pain.'

'Now will you send for a priest that we may receive our sacrament and receive the blessed body of our lord Jesu Christ.'

'Yes,' said the damsel, 'it shall be done. I will not deny him that.'

And so she sent for a priest and he gave them their rites.

After the priest left the Naked Damsel sent away her servants and her maidens and abode alone with them in darkness.

'But how did it happen,' asked Balyn, 'that I had a sister and knew nothing of it until now?'

'You have no sister, Balyn the Wild,' said the Naked Damsel. 'For he and I share a father but not a mother, and you and he share a mother but not a father. Your father as you know fell in the last wars of Uther Pendragon, and your lady mother took another lord to husband, and he begot upon her Balan, our brother. But my father and your mother quarreled, and my father departed and left your mother behind. So she raised you and Balan together alone in the Northumberland hills.

'But my father abode in another castle in the dales, and there he took a fair gentle damsel to paramour, and upon her he begot me. And I one day while riding beside the lake was accosted by a rich and likely knight, and I assented to have lain with him. So I became his paramour, and he was the chief of the dalesmen in Northumberland, King Garamor.

'But in the wars that went on between the dalesmen and those of the mountains in the hard days that followed Uther's death,' she said, 'unfriendship fell out between King Garamor and your kin. At that time there was little coming and going between my household and your own, but in time my father sent for Balan and showed me to him and told Balan how I was his sister, and therefore he was to care for me and tend to me, and soon after our father died. But Balan felt shame for me, and kept our secret even from you his brother. And I never loved Balan, whatever I may have done with him, and he never showed me a single kindness. And he waxed only colder toward me after your mother died, for I held part with the dalesmen among whom I had grown.

'One day after you were gone away seeking vengeance for your mother's death, King Garamor boasted to Balan that he had lain by me and knew the hidden face of my lap. And therefore Balan grew so angry that he took it into his heart that King Garamor had taken me by force, which was untrue, and more that King Garamor had only done this thing to put Balan and his house to shame, and mock the hill-country knights. So Balan lay in wait for King Garamor and slew him by surprise at the lake-shore, a coward's blow, as the king made ready to go back to his hall beneath the waves.'

'Ah,' said Balyn, 'my brother never struck a coward's blow in his life.'

'Maybe not,' the damsel answered him, 'but my brother did. And this I never forgot nor forgave. And I held it against him also that I was driven out of my own house and country. For the Lady of the Lake, King Garamor's daughter who came after him, blamed me for his death, and said I planned the thing together with Balan, and that I stole King Garamor's heart all the while meaning to set Balan upon him to slay him. That also was untrue.'

'Alas lady,' said Balyn, 'this tale you tell is filled with wretchedness.'

'In truth,' she answered, 'it was in wretchedness I fled Northumberland. I wandered far, until at last I reached Avalon and besought the Lady Lille for her help. And all the while I held close by my body wrapped in the bloody tunic of King Garamor his sword Malison, this very sword that lies alongside you, that you won from me before our lord Arthur and his knights. For this is a powerful sword forged, it is said, in ancient times by Wayland himself, and will never break or dull. And the Lady Lille made for it a new pommel that would guide Malison to seek out my brother's heart and head, and she made the Belt of Strange Clasps, that would defy any knight be he ever so worshipful or however great of prowess, unless he should be able to overcome Balan in joust.

'But the name of the knight doomed to draw Malison I never knew, nor did Lady Lille speak his name. It was only when I lay with you the first time that I learned your name, a name that Balan had spoken often in our father's hall, and boasted of his love for you, although you and I never had met before in life.

'And so the doom worked its will. And the sword has destroyed us all. Balan will not last this night. Then when you die only I will be left in life, Balyn, and what life there is in me is little enough. All these years I have lived only for my grief and my revenge, and now the revenge is done I have only the grief.'

To that Balyn had nought to say. But he looked at where his brother lay, and tears flowed from his eyes.

'Forgive me brother,' said Balan, 'that I did not tell you of this sister of mine before now. But I was ashamed of her and of our father both.' And Balan too wept bitter tears.

'I sent my maid to him,' said the damsel, 'and she watched him from that time when he met you in the pass upon the mountain. She watched him at the battle of kings, and she waited for her chance as I had taught her.'

'I came at her summons away from the field by Terrabil Castle,' said Balan. 'Along the way the maid brought me to the castle by the lake. There they made merry for me even as they did for you, the knights and gentlewomen, the lord and the lady of the place. And the lady came to me in the night. She wore by enchantment a different aspect to deceive me, and I never knew her.'

'By the grace of the Lady Lille of Avalon,' said the damsel, 'I have a balm that my damsels rub into my flesh upon my body and my face, that no man might know me, not my own brother, and my chief enemy on earth.'

'At her bidding,' said Balan, 'I fought the giant from the island, the Red Knight. She begged me to do it so as to take her husband's place for that was an old man and a weak. But when I won that battle I found I might not leave the lake but must abide in the tower and wear the red armor, and joust against all the knights the lady sent to kill me. And she mocked me and showed her true face to me from the castle wall. Every ninth day she sent another knight to try to kill me, but I overcame them all.'

And the Naked Damsel, Balan's sister, laughed a mocking little laugh and said, 'I knew you would conquer until Malison came to bring your death to you by your brother's hands. But I did not want your prowess spoiled for disuse when it came time for you to die. A long battle brings more pleasure to us who watch it, though alas it means more wounds and pain for you who suffer them.'

And though Balyn lay under a clean white sheet Balan lay naked. And the lady pricked Balan's tender parts with his own dagger. And then she took a bowl of salt mixed with grit and sprinkled it here and there where he bled, until Balan's body heaved against the straps for pain. The last of the salt she poured upon his tongue, putting his mouth wide with the dagger, until his tongue was so swollen his words were only moans.

At last he groaned his last pain and she stopped up his mouth with a kiss. So she sucked from his throat Balan's dying breath into her belly. When she rose up off him he was a corpse.

'For shame, that is your brother's body,' Balyn said.

'That never stopped me before from taking my pleasure from it,' she answered, 'nor will it now.'

After that the Naked Damsel left him alone.

Balyn lay alone in darkness. His heart was full of thoughts of the Devils of the deep dank Earth, that had played their torments upon him to the full, beyond any measure he had dreamt on.

'Now,' said Balyn, 'my body will go into the earth alongside my brother. And when we are buried in one tomb and the mention made over us how two brethren slew each other, there will never good knight nor good man see our tomb but they will pray for our souls.'

But Balyn died not till the midnight after.

And so were they buried both. And the Naked Damsel let make a mention upon one stone that,

HERE LYETH BALAN OF  
NORTHUMBERLAND  
SLAIN HERE AT HIS SISTER'S WILL

and on the other stone she let write,

HERE LYETH  
THE KNIGHT OF TWO SWORDS.

## XIX. What Merlyn Did After

IN THE MORNING Merlyn came, and he undid the Naked Damsel's writing from Balyn's tomb and over it let write with letters of gold that

HERE LYETH BALYN THE WILD  
THAT WAS THE KNIGHT OF TWO SWORDS  
AND HE THAT SMOTE  
THE DOLOROUS STROKE

All the castle folk abided within its walls for fear of Merlyn's wrath, that shone from his brows even across the waters. But the Naked Damsel let herself be rowed across with two of her knights. She was garbed all in the great furred mantle Balyn had borne back with him, with veils across her face as she had first come to Arthur's court. And when she came before Merlyn she stood small and meek.

Merlyn said, 'Lady, it is ever an ill time when I find you, and always a tomb I find you near.'

'This is the last,' she said, 'but one.'

'Why did you not put down Balyn by his name? For I think you knew it well enough, you had enough to do with him.'

'For this,' she said, 'that I misgave me that ever his fate sent him up into the quarrel between my brother and me. I am content that Balan has died and King Garamor is avenged, so I have no fear lest the world learn my part in his death. But Balyn was a good knight and a true, and he deserved better.'

'Did Balan deserve no better,' asked Merlyn.

'He got all that he deserved,' she said. 'My one end in all my doings was to be revenged upon my brother, and to that end I masked myself to him and even lay with him in the chamber in that castle, that is a deadly sin. But I was ashamed less of that than of the pain and dole I gave to Balyn that was none of my kin, and a worshipful good knight.'

'In truth you are a lying and cruel woman, and no gentleness can I find in you.'

Then she raised her chin and her eyes flashed from beyond the veil. 'And was King Garamor to go unavenged? Who else was there to do it? But soon enough my lord will have another tomb to make here between my brother and the lake where my paramour was King.'

'Not so soon will you be put under the earth, lady,' said Merlyn. 'I think your hope there will be as barren as your love. That child you bear is Balyn's child, and he will grow to be a strong knight, but he will bring about your end and the end of this castle by the lake.'

Then the Naked Damsel turned aside, and went back inside the castle.

And Merlyn let make on the island a bed beneath the stars and thorns, that there should never man lie therein but he went out of his wit. Yet Lancelot of the Lake endured that bed through his nobleness.

And Merlyn took the sword Malison from the tomb and took off the pommel and set on another pommel. So Merlyn bade one of the two knights handle that sword.

And he tried, and he might not handle it. Then Merlyn laughed.

'Why laugh you?' said the knight.

'This is the cause,' said Merlyn: 'there shall never man handle this sword but the best knight of the world. And that shall be Sir Lancelot and then Galahad his son. And Lancelot with this sword shall slay the man that in the world he loves best; that shall be Sir Gawain.'

All this he let write in the pommel of the sword.

Then Merlyn let make a bridge of iron and of steel into that Island, and it was but half a foot broad.

'And there shall never man pass this bridge nor have hardiness to go over but if he be a passing good man and a good knight without treachery or villainy.'

Also Merlyn let make by his subtlety that the sword Malison was set in a marble stone standing upright as great as a millstone, and the stone hoved always above the water for many years.

And Merlyn went to King Arthur and told him of the Dolorous Stroke that Balyn gave to king Pellam, and how Balyn and Balan fought together the most marvelous battle that ever was heard of, and how they were buried both in one tomb.

'Alas,' said King Arthur, 'this is the greatest pity that ever I heard tell of two knights. For in the world I knew not such two noble knights.'

And the king wept.

## XX. Envoi

NOW IN THE TIME after, Arthur came to make a court as great and noble as any that ever had been on earth. By the grace of the Saint Grail while it lay yet in England, Arthur learned mercy and compassion. And when he met Modred and knew his son, Arthur took whatever doom God should ordain for him, and he raised his son and did not again seek to have him slain. So all might have achieved a lasting good, but that Balyn had struck the Dolorous Stroke.

For after that came the bitter time, when Modred sowed dissent among Arthur's knights. Gawain took vengeance upon his father King Lot's killer King Pellinore. Lancelot stood accused by Modred and he battled Gawain, and the Table Round broke in two. And though Arthur was King he could but look on and watch it unfold, helpless to forestall it.

And that is the reason why Merlyn named Balyn's wounding of King Pellam the Dolorous Stroke. Dolorous indeed that took from us the noblest court on earth. But that same court was born from the peace Balyn won for his lord Arthur on that day when twelve kings died of his strokes. Through the Knight of Two Swords a great fate worked and began the flowering of knighthood.

So ends the tale of Balyn  
the unknown knight.  
Think well on him & on his fate.
Copyright © 2009 by asotir.

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