who shall never fail you as long as our lives last.”
Then Sir Baldwin of Britain laughed and said to the king, “I swear on the noble vernicle to bring with me ten thousand able-bodied men who shall never fail as long as their lives last.”
“Now I thank you,” said the king, “with all my true heart. I suppose that when all is said and done, the Romans would have been better off not to send such a proud message.”
When a week had passed, the senators asked the king for an answer. “Very well,” said the king. “Tell your emperor that I shall, in all haste, make myself ready with my eager knights, and convene my Round Table by the river of Rome. I will bring with me the best people from fifteen realms, and with them I will ride through the mountains on the mainland and tear down the walls of Milan, and from there ride into Rome with my most noble knights.
“Now that you have your answer, hurry from here; I will give you seven days to get from here to the port at Sandwich. Hurry, I advise you, and do not spare your horses. Go by Watling Street and not by any other route. Wherever night falls upon you, stop, whether it is in open country or in a town. I do not care. It is not prudent to ride at night. And if you are even a spear length short of reaching your destination on the water at the end of seven days, there is no gold under God that can pay for your ransom.”
“Sir,” said the senators, “these are harsh conditions. We beseech you for safe conduct.”
“Do not worry about that,” said the king. “Your conduct is assured.”
Thus they went from Carlyle toward Sandwich, those men who had only seven days to leave the land, and Sir Cador escorted them on their way. The senators did not spare their horses, but bought new hackneys in each town. As the sun was setting on the seventh day they came into Sandwich, and had never been so happy.
On that same night they took to the water and crossed the Channel to Flanders, and after that over the great mountain called Goddard, and then through Lombardy and Tuscany, and soon after came to the Emperor Lucius.
There they showed him the letters from King Arthur, and said he was the most frightening man on whom they had ever looked. When the Emperor Lucius had read the letters and understood their meaning, he acted as a man who has lost his mind.
“I believed that Arthur would have obeyed you and humbled himself before you, as would be fitting for any Christian king to do before a senator sent from my person.”
“Sir,” said the senators, “leave off such talk. We thank God that we have escaped alive! We would not return to give him a message for all of your lands. Therefore, sir, trust our message: you shall find him your bitter enemy. You may seek him if you wish, but he is coming into this land and will be here within half a year, for he thinks that he himself should be emperor.
“He says you have ruled this empire wrongly, for all his ancestors—except for his father, Uther Pendragon—were emperors of Rome. Of all the sovereigns we have ever seen, he is the most royal king alive on the earth. On New Year’s Day we saw nine kings at his Round Table, and the fairest fellowship of knights alive today is with him; as far as wisdom and fair speech and royalty and riches go—they fail in none of these things. Therefore sir, by our counsel raise an army of your loyal people, send kings and dukes to look after your borders, and see that the mountains of Germany are mightily protected.”
“By Easter,” said the emperor, “I intend to pass Germany and move into France, and there bereave him of his lands. I shall bring with me many giants of Genoa—one of them is worth a hundred knights. The perilous passage will surely be kept by my good knights.”
Then the emperor sent forth wise old knights as messengers to a country called Ambracia, and one called Arrage; he sent to Alexandria, to India, and to Armenia, by which the river Euphrates runs; also to Asia, Africa, and greater Europe; to Ertayne and Elamye, and to the Outer Isles; and to Arabia, to Egypt, to Damascus, to Damietta, and to noble dukes and earls. He sent messengers also to the kings of Cappodoccia, Tarsus, Turkey, Pontus, Pamphylia, and into the lands of Prester John, as well as to the sultan of Syria.
From Nero to Nazareth, Garise to Galilee, came Saracens who had become Roman subjects. They came sailing in galleons. The king of Cyprus also came, along with well-armed Greeks, as did the king of Macedon. From Calabria and Catalonia came both kings and dukes, and the King of Portugal came with many thousand Spaniards. Then all these kings, dukes, and admirals assembled; there were sixteen kings all together, and they thus came into Rome with a great multitude of people.
When the emperor learned of their coming he made ready all of his noble Romans and men of war between himself and Flanders. He had with him fifty giants, born of fiends, and he ordered these to stay close to him, and break the front of Arthur’s wave of knights. They were so huge that there was no horse that could bear them. Thus, the emperor and all his horrible allies headed through Germany in order to destroy the lands that Arthur had won through the fighting of his noble knights.
So Lucius came to Cologne and besieged a castle there; he conquered it within a short time, and manned it with Saracens. Within a short time, Lucius desired the many fair countries that Arthur had won in his war with the mighty King Claudas. So Lucius spread his army out so that they covered sixty miles, and commanded them to set out and meet him in Normandy, in the country of Constantine, “and wait for me at Barfleur, for I shall thoroughly destroy the domain of Brittany.”
17 Arthur’s Dream and the Fight with the Giant
Now we leave Sir Lucius and speak of King Arthur. On the eighth day after the feast of Saint Hillary, he commanded that all the people who were under his rule should be assembled to hold a parliament within the walls of York. There they decided to commandeer all the ships of the land, and to be ready at Sandwich in fifteen days.
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“Now sirs,” said Arthur, “I intend to pass through many perils and rule the empire that my ancestors before me claimed. Therefore, I pray you, counsel me so that I may do this the best way and with the most worship.”
The kings and knights gathered themselves together in council and decided to name two leaders to provide advice and reassurance. These were Baldwin of Britain, an ancient and honorable knight, and Sir Cador of Cornwall (he was known as Sir Constantine then) who was king after Arthur’s days. There in the presence of all the lords the king gave the rule of the land to these two lords and to Queen Guenevere. At this time also, Sir Tristram remained with King Mark of Cornwall for the love of La Beale Isode, and this made Sir Lancelot very angry.
Then Queen Guenevere made great sorrow because the king and all his lords were departing; she fell into a swoon, and her ladies bore her to her chamber. The king put himself in God’s hands and left the queen in the hands of Sir Constantine and Sir Baldwin, along with all of England to rule as they thought best.
When the king was on horseback, he said in the hearing of all the lords, “If I should die on this journey, I hereby make you, Sir Constantine, my true heir, for you are my next of kin, excepting your father, Sir Cador; therefore, if I should die, it is my wish that you be crowned king.”
Then he and his knights headed to Sandwich, where he found many valiant knights; most of the Round Table was on the banks, ready to sail whenever the king wished. As hastily as possible, they loaded their horses and armor and war equipment on board; there were many tents and pavilions, all trussed up.
So from the banks went many kinds of ships—carracks, ships with forecastles, cogs, galleys, very noble pinnaces, along with some small boats—all of them rowed by many
