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

Mordred, glaring at his father with blazing eyes, announced without preamble: "We came to tell you
what every person in this court has always known. Queen Guenever is Sir Lancelot's mistress openly."
The old man leaned down to straighten his mantle. He twitched it over his feet to keep them warm,
raised himself again, and looked them in the face.
"Are you ready to prove this accusation?"
"We are."
"You know," he asked them gently, "that it has been made before?"
"It would be extraordinary if it had not."
"The last time that rumors of this kind were circulated, they were produced by a person called Sir
Meliagrance. As the matter was not susceptible of proof in any other way, it was put to the decision of
personal combat. Sir Meliagrance appeached the Queen of treason, and offered to fight for his opinion.
Fortunately Sir Lancelot was kind enough to stand for Her Majesty. You remember the results."
"We remember well."
"When, finally, the combat took place, Sir Meliagrance lay flat on his back and insisted on yielding to
Sir Lancelot. It was impossible to make him get up in any way, until Lancelot offered to take off his
helm, and the left side of his armour, and to have one hand tied behind his back. Sir Meliagrance
accepted the offer, and was duly chopped."
"We know all this," exclaimed the youngest brother, impatiently. "Personal combat has no meaning. It is
an unfair justice anyway. It is the thugs who win."
Arthur sighed and folded his hands. He continued in the quiet voice, which he had not raised.
"You are still very young, Mordred. You have yet to learn that nearly all the ways of giving justice are
unfair. If you can suggest another way of settling moot points, except by personal combat, I will be glad
to try it."
"Because Lancelot is stronger than others, and always stands for the Queen, it does not mean that the
Queen is always in the right."


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"I am sure it doesn't. But then, you see, moot points have to be settled somehow, once they get thrust
upon us. If an assertion cannot be proved, then it must be settled some other way, and nearly all of these
ways are unfair to somebody. It is not as if you would have to fight the Queen's champion in your own
person, Mordred. You could plead infirmity and hire the strongest man you knew to fight for you, and
the Queen would, of course, get the strongest man she knew to fight for her. It would be much the same
thing if you each hired the best arguer you knew, to argue about it. In the last resort it is usually the
richest person who wins, whether he hires the most expensive arguer or the most expensive fighter, so it
is no good pretending that this is simply a matter of brute force.
"No, Agravaine," he went on, as the latter made a movement to speak, "don't interrupt me at the
moment. I want to make it clear about these decisions by personal combat. So far as I can see, it is a
matter of riches: of riches and pure luck, and, of course, there is the will of God. When the riches are
equal, we might say that the luckier side wins, as if by tossing a coin. Now, are you two sure, if you did
appeach Queen Guenever of treason, that your side would be the luckier one?"
Agravaine entered the conversation with his imitation of diffidence. He had been drinking carefully, and
his hand no longer shook.
"If you will excuse me, uncle, what I was going to say was this. We hoped to settle the matter without a
personal combat at all."
Arthur looked up at once.
"You know quite well," he said, "that trial by ordeal has been abolished, and, as for doing it by