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

each other, and half the kings of Britain will side with Lancelot because of his reputation and it will be a
civil war?"
The chieftain of the clan lumbered over to Agravaine like a good-natured animal doing a trick, and
patted him with a huge paw.
"Tuts, man. Forget the wee blow struck this forenoon. There is a passion in every man, and, at the hinder
end of it, we are but brothers. I canna see how ye may bring yourself to act against Sir Lancelot,
knowing what he has done for us long syne. Dinna ye mind he rescued you, and Mordred to it, from Sir
Turquine? Away, ye owe him for your lives. And so do I, man, from Sir Carados in the Dolorous
Tower."
"He did it for his own honour."
Gareth turned on Mordred.
"You can say what you like about Lancelot and Guenever between ourselves, because unfortunately it is
true, but I won't have you sneering. When I first came to court as a kitchen page, he was the only person
who was decent to me. He had not the faintest idea who I was, but he used to give me tips, and cheer me
up, and stand up for me against Kay, and it was he who knighted me. Everybody knows that he has
never done a mean thing in his life."
"When I was a young knight," said Gawaine, "God forgive it, and fell into disputatious battle, I was used
to backslide into passionsтАФaye, and kill a body after he had yielded. And foreby I have killed a lassie.
But Lancelot grieves no creature weaker than himsel'."
Gaheris added: "He favours the young knights, and tries to help them win the spurs. I can't see your


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grudge against him."
Mordred shrugged his shoulders, flicking his coat sleeve, and made belief to yawn.
"As for Lancelot," he observed, "it is Agravaine who is after him. My feud is with the merry monarch."
"Lancelot," stated Agravaine, "is above his station."
"He is not," said Gareth. "He is the greatest man I know."
"I have no schoolboy's passion for him ..."
A door on the other side of the tapestry squeaked on its hinges. The handle grated.
"Peace, Agravaine," urged Gawaine softly, "hold off yer noise."
"I will not."
Arthur's hand lifted the curtain.
"Please, Mordred," whispered Gareth.
The King was in the room.
"It is only fair," said Mordred, raising his voice so that it must be heard, "that our Round Table should
have justice, after all."
Agravaine also, pretending not to have noticed anyone coming, added his loud reply: "It is time that
somebody should tell the truth."
"Mordred, be quiet!"
"And nothing but the truth!" concluded the hunchback with a sort of triumph.
Arthur, who had come pattering through the stone corridors of his palace with a mind fixed on the work
in front of him, stood waiting in the doorway without surprise. The men of the chevron and thistle,
turning to him, saw the old King in the last minute of his glory. They stood for a few heartbeats silent,
and Gareth, in a pain of recognition, saw him as he was. He did not see a hero of romance, but a plain
man who had done his bestтАФnot a leader of chivalry, but the pupil who had tried to be faithful to his
curious master, the magician, by thinking all the timeтАФnot Arthur of England, but a lonely old