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

his enemies, a ideal king must be willing to execute his friends."
"And his wife?" asked Guenever.
"And his wife," he said gravely.
Lancelot moved uncomfortably on the settle, remarking with an attempt at humour: "I hope you won't be
cutting off the Queen's head very soon?"
The King still held his hand, still looked upon him.
"If Guenever or you, Lancelot, were proved to be guilty of a wrong to my kingdom, I should have to cut
off both your heads,"
"Goodness me," she exclaimed. "I hope nobody is going to prove that!"
"I hope so too."
"And Mordred?" asked Lancelot, after a time.
"Mordred is an unhappy young man, and I am afraid he might try any means of giving me an upset. If,
for instance, he could see a way of getting at me through you, dear, or through Gwen, I am sure he
would try it Do you see what I mean?"

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"I see."
"So if there should ever come a moment when either of you might, well... might give him a sort of
handle... you will be careful of me, won't you? I am in your hands, dears."
"But it seems so senseless..."
"You have been kind to him," said Lancelot, "since he came here. Why should he want to harm..." The
King folded his hands in his lap, seemed under his lowered lids to be looking on the flames.
"You forget," he said gently, "that I never managed to give Gwen a son. When I am dead, Mordred may
be the King of England."
"If he tries any treason," said Lancelot, clenching his fists, "I will kill him myself."
Immediately the blue-veined hand was on his arm.
"That is the one thing you must never do, Lance. Whatever Mordred does, and even if he makes an
attempt on my life, you must promise to remember that he is a sort of heir apparent to the blood. I have
been a wicked man..."
"Arthur," exclaimed the Queen, "you are not to say so. It is so ridiculous that it makes me feel ashamed."
"You would not call me a wicked man?" he asked in surprise.
"Of course not."
"But I should have thought, after the story of those babies..."
"Nobody," cried Lancelot fiercely, "would dream of such a thought."
The King stood up in the firelight, looking puzzled and pleased. He considered it ridiculous to suppose
that he was not wicked, but he was grateful for their love.
"Well," he said, "in any case I don't propose to be wicked any longer. It is a king's business to prevent
bloodshed if he can, not to provoke it."
He looked at them once more, under his eyebrows.
"So now, my dears," he ended cheerfully, "I shall run along to the Court of Pleas, and arrange some of
our famous justice. You stay here with Gwen, Lance, and cheer her up after that wretched storyтАФthere's
a good fellow."
5
When Arthur had said that he was going to arrange some of his famous justice, he did not mean that he
was actually going to sit. Kings did sit personally in the Middle Ages, even as late as the so-called Henry
IV, who was supposed to have sat both in the Exchequer and the King's Bench. But tonight it was too