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

The other turned his back and went to the window.
"Dinna disturb yerself. The coil will come to right."
"What is right?" cried the old man, looking after him with a face of misery, "What is wrong? If Lancelot
does come to rescue her, he may kill those innocent fellows of the guard, which I have set to burn her.
They have trusted me and I have put them there to keep him off, because it is justice. If he saves her,
they will be killed. If they are not killed, she will be burned. But burned to death, Gawaine, in horrible,
burning flamesтАФand she is my much-loved Gwen."
"Dinna think about it, uncle. It willna happen."
But the King was breaking down.
"Why doesn't he come at once, then? Why does he wait so long?"
Gawaine said steadily: "He has to wait until she is in the open, in the square, for otherwise it would
mean to storm the castle."
"I tried to warn them, Gawaine. I tried to warn them a few days before they were caught. But it was
difficult to say the things in plain English, without hurting people's feelings. And I was a fool, too. I
didn't want to be conscious of it. I hoped that if only I was not quite conscious of everything, it would
come straight in the end. Do you think it was my fault? Do you think I could have saved them, if I had
done something else?"
"Ye did the best ye could."

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"When I was a young man I did something which was not just, and from it has sprung the misery of my
life. Do you think you can stop the consequences of a bad action, by doing good ones afterwards? I
don't. I have been trying to stopper it down with good actions, ever since, but it goes on in widening
circles. It will not be stoppered. Do you think this is a consequence too?"
"I dinna ken."
"How horrible it is to wait like this!" he cried. "It must be worse for Gwen. Why can't they bring her out
at once, to have done with it?"
"They will do so soon."
"And it is not her fault. Is it mine? Ought I to have refused to accept Mordred's evidence and over-ridden
the whole affair? Ought I to have acquitted her? I could have set my new law aside. Ought I to have
done that?"
"Ye might have done."
"I could have acted as I wished."
"Aye."
"But what would have happened to justice then? What would have been the consequence?
Consequences, justice, bad deeds, babies drowned! I could see them about me, all last night."
Gawaine spoke quietly, in a changed voice.
"Ye must forget sic things. Ye maun summon up your powers to what is difficult. Will ye do that?" The
King held the arms of his throne.
"Yes."
"1 fear ye must come to the window. They are for bringing her out."
The old man made no movement, except that his fingers tightened on the wood. He sat staring in front of
him. Then he pulled himself to his feet, taking his weight on the wrists, and went to his duty. Unless he
was present at the execution, it would not be a legal one. "She is in a white shift."
They stood together quietly, watching like people who must not feel. There was a numbness in their
crisis, which forced language into conversational levels. "Aye."
"What are they doing?"