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

collecting the powers of duty and dignity, then spoke from the shade of his hand.
"How do you propose to take them?" The bulky man was all politeness. "If you would consent, uncle, to
go away for the night, we should get together an armed band and capture Lancelot in the Queen's room.
You would have to be away or he wouldn't go."
"I don't think I could very well set a trap for my own wife, Agravaine. I think it would be just to say that
the onus of proof lies with you. Yes, I think that is just. Clearly I have the right to refuse to becomeтАФ
well, a sort of accomplice. It is not part of my duty to go away on purpose, in order to help you. No, I
should be able to refuse to do that with a clear heart."
"But you can't refuse to go away ever. You can't spend the rest of your life chained to the Queen, on
purpose to keep Lancelot away. What about the hunting party you were supposed to join next week? If
you don't go on that, you will be altering your plans deliberately, so as to thwart justice."
"Nobody succeeds in thwarting justice, Agravaine." "So you will go on the hunting party, Uncle Arthur,
and we have permission to break into the Queen's room, if Lancelot is there?" The elation in his voice
was so indecent that even Mordred was disgusted. The King stood, pulling his gown round him, as if for
warmth.
"We will go."
"And you will not tell them beforehand?" The man's voice tripped over itself with excitement. "You
won't warn them after we have made the accusation? It would not be fair?"
"Fair?" he asked.
He looked at them from an immense distance, Seeming to weigh truth, justice, evil and the affairs of
men.
"You have our permission."
His eyes came back from the distance, fixing them personally with a falcon's gleam.
"But if I may speak for a moment, Mordred and Agravaine, as a private person, the only hope I now
have left is that Lancelot will kill you both and all the witnessesтАФa feat which, I am proud to say, has
never been beyond my Lancelot's power. And I may add this also, as a minister of Justice, that if you fail
for one moment in establishing this monstrous accusation, I shall pursue you both remorselessly, with all
the rigor of the laws which you yourselves have set in motion."


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Lancelot knew that the King had gone to hunt in the New Forest, so he was sure that the Queen would
send for him. It was dark in his bedroom, except for the one light in front of the holy picture, and he was
pacing the floor in a dressing-gown. Except for the gay dressing-gown, and a sort of turban wound round
his head, he was ready for bed: that is, he was naked.
It was a sombre room, without luxuries. The walls were bare and there was no canopy over the small
hard couch. The windows were unglazed. They had some sort of oiled, opaque linen stretched over
them. Great commanders often have these plain, campaigning bedroomsтАФthey say that the Duke of
Wellington used to sleep on a camp bed at Walmer CastleтАФwith nothing in them except perhaps a chair,
or an old trunk. Lancelot's room had one coffin-like, metal-bound chest. Apart from that, and from the
bed, there was nothing to be seenтАФexcept his huge sword which stood against the wall, its straps
hanging about it.