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

"The chaste and beautiful Countess of Cornwall," resumed Gawaine, "spurned the advances of King
Uther Pendragon, and she told our Grandfather about it. She said: 'I suppose we were sent for that I
should be dishonoured. Wherefore, husband, I counsel you that we depart from hence suddenly, that we
may ride all night to our own castle.' So they went out of the King's rath in the middle nightтАФ"
"At dead of night," Gareth corrected.
"тАФwhen all the people of the house had gone on sleep, and there they saddled their prancing, fire-eyed,
swift-footed, symmetrical, large-lipped, small-headed, vehement steeds, by the light of a dark lantern,
and they rode away into Cornwall, as fast as they could go."
"It was a terrible ride," said Gaheris.
"They killed the horses underneath them," said Agravaine.
"So they did not, then," said Gareth. "Our Grandfather and Granny would not have ridden any horses to
kill them."
"Did they?" asked Gaheris.
"No, they did not," said Gawaine, after considering. "But they nearly did so."
He went on with the story.
"When King Uther Pendragon learned what had happened in the morning, he was wonderly wroth."
"Wood wroth," suggested Gareth.
"Wonderly wroth," said Gawaine. "King Uther Pendragon was wonderly wroth. He said, 'I will have that
Earl of Cornwall's head in a pie-dish, by my halidome!' So he sent our Grandfather a letter which bid
him to stuff him and garnish him, for within forty days he would fetch him out of the strongest castle
that he had!"
"There were two castles at him," said Agravaine haughtily. "They were the Castle Tintagil and the
Castle Terrabil.
"So the Earl of Cornwall put our Granny in Tintagil, and he himself went into Terrabil, and King Uther
Pendragon came to lay them siege."
"And there," cried Gareth, unable to contain himself, "the king pight many pavilions, and there was great
war made on both parties, and much people slain!"
"A thousand?" suggested Gaheris. "Two thousand at least," said Agravaine. "We of the Gael would not
have slain less than two thousand. In truth, it was a million probably."
"So when our Grandfather and Granny were winning the sieges, and it looked as if King Uther would be

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utterly defeated, there came along a wicked magician called MerlynтАФ"
"A nigromancer," said Gareth.
"And this nigromancer, would you believe it, by means of his infernal arts, succeeded in putting the
treacherous Uther Pendragon inside our Granny's Castle. Granda immediately made a sortie out of
Terrabil, but he was slain in the battleтАФ"
"Treacherously."
"And the poor Countess of CornwallтАФ"
"The chaste and beautiful IgraineтАФ"
"Our GrannyтАФ"
"тАФwas captured prisoner by the blackhearted, southron, faithless King of the Dragon, and then, in spite
of it that she had three beautiful daughters already whateverтАФ"
"The lovely Cornwall Sisters." "Aunt Elaine." "Aunt Morgan." "And Mammy."
"And if she had these lovely daughters, she was forced into marrying the King of EnglandтАФthe man
who had slain her husband!"