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

"All the time the war goes on." she said, "and footmen who are not knights get killed, but nobody
notices that."
"All the time,"
She observed, without turning: "I think I will go back, dear, and chance it. Even if I am burned, that
would be better than having the Trouble,"
He followed her to the window.
"Jenny, I would go with you, if it were any use. We could go together, and let them cut our heads off, if
there was any hope of stopping the war by that. But everybody has gone mad. Even if we did give
ourselves up, Bors and Ector and the rest would carry on the feudтАФif we were killed. There are a
hundred extra feuds on foot, for those we killed in the market-place and on the stairs, and for things
through half a century of Arthur's past. Soon I will not be able to hold them, even as it is. Hebes le
Renoumes, Villiers the Valiant, Urre of Hungary: they would begin revenging us, and everything would
be worse. Urre is horribly grateful."
"Civilization seems to have become insane," she said.
"Yes, and it seems that we have made it so. Bors, Lionel and Gawaine wounded, and everybody raving
for blood. I have to sally out with my knights and rush about pretending to strike, and perhaps Arthur
will be urged against me, or Gawaine will come, and then I have to cover myself with the shield, and
defend myself, and I mustn't hit back. The men notice it, and say that by not exerting myself I am
prolonging the war, which makes it worse for them."
"What they say is true."
"Of course it is true. But the alternative is to kill Arthur and Gawaine, and how can I do that? If only
Arthur would take you back, and go away, it would be better than this."
She might have flared up at such a tactless suggestion, twenty years before. It was a measure of their
autumn that now she was amused.
"Jenny, it is a terrible thing to say, but it is true."


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Incipit%20Liber%20Quartus.html (69 of 114)14-10-2007 15:44:46
 file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Incipit%20Liber%20Quartus.html


"Of course it's true."
"We seem to be treating you like a dummy."
"We are all dummies."
He leaned his head against the cold stone of the embrasure, until she took his hand.
"Don't think about it. Just stay in the castle, and be patient. Perhaps God will look after us."
"You said that once before."
"Yes, the week before they caught us."
"Even if God won't," he remarked bitterly, we could apply to the Pope."
" The Pope!"
He looked up.
"What do you mean?"
"Why, Lance, the thing you said...If the Pope was to send bulls to both sides, saying he would
excommunicate us if we didn't come to terms? If we appealed for a papal ruling? Bors and the others
would have to accept it. Surely..."
He looked at her closely, as she chose the words.
"He could appoint the Bishop of Rochester to administer the terms of peace...."
"But what terms?"
She had caught her idea, however, and was on fire with it.
"Lance, we two would have to accept them, whatever they might be. Even if they were to mean... even if