"T. H. White - The Once and Future King" - читать интересную книгу автора (White T.H)

Orkney. They had been involved in a Quest, which had kept them away from the latest news. Nobody in
Orkney was likely to tell them.


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"Don't look just now," said King Pellinore, "but there are some people. Do you think they are all right?"


6
In Carlion everything was at sixes and sevens in preparation for the second campaign. Merlyn had made
suggestions about the way to win it, but, as these involved an ambush with secret aid from abroad, they
had had to be kept dark. Lot's slowly approaching army was so much more numerous than the King's
forces that it had been necessary to resort to stratagems. The way in which the battle was to be fought
was a secret only known to four people. The common citizens, who were in ignorance of the higher
policy, had a great deal to do. There were pikes to be ground to a fine edge, so that the grindstones in the
town were roaring day and nightтАФthere were thousands of arrows to be dressed, so that there were
lights in the fletchers' houses at all hoursтАФand the unfortunate geese on the commons were continually
being chased by excited yeomen who wanted feathers. The royal peacocks were as bare as an old broom
тАФmost of the crack shots liked to have what Chaucer calls pecock arwes, because they were more classy
тАФand the smell of boiling glue rose to high heaven. The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
hammered away with musical clinks, working double shirts at it, and the blacksmiths shod the chargers,
and the nuns never stopped knitting comforters for the soldiers or making the kind of bandages which
were called tents. King Lot had already named a rendezvous for the battle, at Bedegraine.
The King of England painfully climbed the two hundred and eight steps which led to Merlyn's tower
room, and knocked on the door. The magician was inside, with Archimedes sitting on the back of his
chair, busily trying to find the square root of minus one. He had forgotten how to do it.
"Merlyn," said the King, panting, "I want to talk to you."
He closed his book with a bang, leaped to his feet, seized his wand of lignum vitae, and rushed at Arthur
as if he were trying to shoo away a stray chicken.
"Go away!" he shouted. "What are you doing here? What do you mean by it? Aren't you the King of
England? Go away and send for me! Get out of my room! I never heard of such a thing! Go away at
once and send for me!"
"But I am here."
"No, you're not," retorted the old man resourcefully. And he pushed the King out of the door, slamming
it in his face.
"Well!" said Arthur, and he went off sadly down the two hundred and eight stairs.
An hour later, Merlyn presented himself in the Royal Chamber, in answer to a summons which had been

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delivered by a page.
"That's better," he said, and sat down comfortably on a carpet chest
"Stand up," said Arthur, and he clapped his hands for a page to take away the seat.
Merlyn stood up, boiling with indignation. The whites of his knuckles blanched as he clenched them.
"About our conversation on the subject of chivalry," began the King in an airy tone....