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

spring in his step, as though he enjoyed being alive.
"Tuts!" exclaimed Gawaine's hoarse voice in the doorway, "drinking already?" He still kept bis outland
accent in defiance of the mere English, but he had ceased to think in Gaelic. His English had improved
against his will. He was getting old.
"Well, Gawaine, well."
Agravaine, who knew that his nips before noon were disapproved of, asked politely: "Did you have a
good day?"
"It wasna bad."
"It was a splendid day," exclaimed Gareth. "We entered her on the haul vollay with Lancelot's passager,
and she was genuinely grey-minded. I never thought she would take to it without a bagman! Gawaine
had managed her perfectly. She dropped into it without a second's hesitation, as if she had never been
flying to anything but the heron, took a fine circle right round the new ricks by Castle Blanc, and got
above him just to the Ganis side of the pilgrim's way. She..."
Gawaine, who had noticed that Mordred was yawning on purpose, said, "Ye may spare yer breath."
"It was a fine flight," he concluded lamely. "As she had handled her quarry, we thought we could give
her a name."


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"What did you call her?" they asked him condescendingly.
"Since she comes from Lundy, and begins with an L, we thought it might be a good idea to call her after
Lancelot. We could call her Lancelotta, or something like that. She will be a first-class falcon."
Agravaine looked at Gareth under the lids of his eyes. He said with a slow tone: "Then you had better
call her Gwen."
Gawaine came back from the courtyard, where he had been putting the peregrine on her block.
"Leave that," he said.
"I'm sorry if I am not suggesting the truth."
"I care nought about the truth or not. All I say is, Haud yer tongue."
"Gawaine," said Mordred to the air, "is such a preux chevalier that nobody must say anything wicked, or
there will be trouble. You see, he is strongтАФand he apes the great Sir Lancelot."
The red fellow turned on him with dignity.
"I am'na muckle strong, brother, and I dinna trade upon it. I only seek to keep my people decent."
"And, of course," said Agravaine, "it is decent to sleep with the King's wife, even if the King's family
has smashed our family, and got a son by our mother, and tried to drown him."
Gaheris protested: "Arthur has always been good to us. Do stop this whining for once."
"Because he is afraid of us."
"I don't see," said Gareth, "why Arthur should be afraid, when he has Lancelot. We all know that he is
the best knight in the world, and can master anybody. Don't we, Gawaine?"
"For masel', I dinna wish to speak of it."
Suddenly Mordred was flaming at them, fired by Gawaine's lordly tone.
"Very well, and I do. I may be a weak knight at jousting, but I have the courage to stand for my family
and rights. I am not a hypocrite. Everybody in this court knows that the Queen and the Commander-in-
chief are lovers, and yet we are supposed to be pure knights, and protectors of ladies, and nobody talks
about anything except this so-called Holy Grail. Agravaine and I have decided to go to Arthur now, in
full court, and ask about the Queen and Lancelot to his face."
"Mordred," exclaimed the head of the clan, "ye will do naething of the like! It would be sinful."
"He will," said Agravaine, "and I shall go there with him."