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

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The King stopped in the middle of the sentence, and looked at him.
"Well," he said. "It was not fun, then. I had not thought." "The tally was more than seven hundred. They
were all kerns, of course. None of the knights were injured, except the one who broke his leg falling off
the horse."
When he saw that Arthur was not going to answer, the old fellow went on in a bitter voice.
"I was forgetting," he added, "that you had some really nasty bruises."
Arthur glared at his finger-nails. "I hate you when you are a prig." Merlyn was charmed.
"That's the spirit," he said, putting his arm through the King's and smiling cheerfully. "That's more like
it. Stand up for yourself, that's the ticket. Asking advice is the fatal thing. Besides, I won't be here to
advise you, fairly soon."
"What is this you keep talking about, about not being here, and the tumulus and so on?"
"It is nothing. I am due to fall in love with a girl called Nimue in a short time, and then she learns my
spells and locks me up in a cave for several centuries. It is one of those things which are going to
happen."
"But, Merlyn, how horrible! To be stuck in a cave for centuries like a toad in a hole! We must do
something about it."
"Nonsense," said the magician. "What was I talking about?"
"About this maiden...."
"I was talking about advice, and how you must never take it. Well, I am going to give you some now. I
advise you to think about battles, and about your realm of Gramarye, and about the sort of things a king
has to do. Will you do that?"
"I will. Of course I will. But about this girl who learns your spells...."
"You see, it is a question of the people, as well as of the kings. When you said about the battle being a
lovely one, you were thinking like your father. I want you to think like yourself, so that you will be a
credit to all this education I have been giving youтАФafterwards, when I am only an old man locked up in
a hole."
"Merlyn!"
"There, there! I was playing for sympathy. Never mind. I said it for effect. As a matter of fact, it will be
charming to have a rest for a few hundred years, and, as for Nimue, I am looking backward to her a good
deal. No, no, the important thing is this thinking-for-yourself business and the matter of battles. Have


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you ever thought seriously about the state of your country, for instance, or are you going to go on all
your life being like Uther Pendragon? After all, you are the King of the place."
"I have not thought very much."
"No. Then let me do some thinking for you. Suppose we think about your Gaelic friend, Sir Bruce Sans
Piti├й'
"That fellow!"
"Exactly. And why do you say it like that?"
"He is a swine. He goes murdering maidensтАФand, as soon as a real knight turns up to rescue them, he
gallops off for all he is worth. He breeds special fast horses so that nobody can catch him, and he stabs
people in the back. He's a marauder. I would kill him at once if I could catch him."