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

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quot;I dinna ken."
"Praying, I suppose."

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"Aye. Yon is the bishop in front."
They examined the praying.
"How straege they look."
"They are just ordinary."
"Do you think I could sit down," he asked, like a child, "now that I have shown myself?"
"Ye maun stay."
"I don't think I can."
"Ye must." .
"But Gawaine, if she were to glance up?"
"If ye dinna stay, it willna be right at law."
Outside, in the foreshortened market-place under the window, they seemed to be singing a hymn. It was
impossible to distinguish the words or melody. They could see the processional clerics busy about the
decencies of death, and the twinkling knights standing motionless, and the people's heads, like baskets of
coco-nuts, round the outside of the square. It was not easy to see the Queen. She was too much obscured,
in the eddies of the ceremonial, being led in this and that direction, being converged upon by small
coveys of officials or of confessors, being introduced to the executioner, being persuaded to kneel down
and pray, being exhorted to stand up and make a speech, being aspersed, being given candles to hold,
being forgiven and being asked to forgive, being carried patiently onward, being ushered out of life with
circumstance and dignity. There was nothing dingy, at any rate, about a legal murder in the Age of
Darkness.
The King asked: "Can you see any rescue coming?"
"Nay."
"It seems a long time."
Outside the window, the chanting ceased, making a distressing silence.
"How much longer?"
"Some minutes yet."
"They will let her pray?"
"Aye, they will let her."
The old man suddenly asked: "Do you think we ought to pray?"


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"If ye wish it."
"Ought we to kneel down?"
"I doubt it matters."
"What shall we say?"
"I dinna ken."
"Shall I say the Our Father? It is all I can remember."
"That will do fine."