The King Arthur Trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff Page B

off the hounds, and stood for a moment looking down at the dead beast; and then Arthur set his horn to his lips and sounded the long sad notes of the Marte for the death of the hart, sending the echoes flying through the shadowy forest. And as the echoes died, the hounds turned and went streaming back the way they had come, as though their huntsman was with them.
    And in that same moment, out from behind a spit of the alder-grown shore glided a small ship, and came of its own accord to the bank where the three stood, like a well-trained dog when its master whistles.
    ‘Sirs,’ said Arthur, ‘let us go aboard this ship, for it is a sorry thing to turn away from an adventure when it comes so sweetly to the hand.’
    So they stepped on board, and found the ship fine and beautiful and richly hung with silks, but seemingly with no one on board save for themselves. And as soon as they had come aboard it drew off from the bank, for all that there was no hand at the steering oar, nor any to man the sails. And as they went, the dusk deepened towards night about them; and suddenly there sprang up the flames of a hundred torches all along the vessel’s sides so that it was lit from stem to stem with a golden glow. And up from below came twelve damosels, the fairest that any of them had ever seen; and they greeted Arthur and his companions and made them joyouslywelcome and brought them such delicious food and such rare and fragrant wines that Arthur thought he had never supped so magnificently before. They were very hungry, and merry also, and when they had eaten their fill the damosels led them below, each to a chamber that had been made ready for them; and they lay down upon beds that were so soft that they seemed to float upon them as upon thick-piled clouds; and faint music whispered all about them mingled with the lap of water along the vessel’s sides. And so they fell asleep, and slept unstirring the night long.
    And in the morning King Uriens woke to find himself in his own bed in Camelot, and wondered in great amazement how he came to be there. And when he looked at his wife Morgan beside him, she lay still sleeping, but with a little smile on her face as though she knew a secret that she would not tell.
    And King Arthur awoke to find himself in a dark and dismal dungeon, and heard about him the groans and complaints of many other men.
    ‘Who are you that make such grievous complaint?’ asked Arthur when he had gathered his wits about him.
    ‘We are twenty knights who have lain here captive, some of us as much as seven years,’ one of them answered him.
    ‘For what cause?’ said Arthur.
    And another answered, ‘Sir Damas, the lord of this castle, is a cruel and unjust tyrant who refuses his younger brother Sir Ontzlake his share of the inheritance they had from their father. And often Sir Ontzlake has offered to fight his brother in single combat for the lands that are his; but Sir Damas knows himself no match for him with lance or sword, and so would have the matter fought out by champions instead. But no knight that he has asked will stand champion for him; so he has taken a hatred against all knights, and captured in these past seven years all who have come within his lands, and cast them into this foul dungeon. Many of us have died here, and we who are left are like to go the same way unless help come soon.’
    And even as he spoke there came a damosel down the dark stair, carrying a lamp, for little light of day could come into that place. And she said to Arthur, ‘Fair sir, how is it with you?’
    ‘I hardly know,’ said Arthur, ‘nor do I know how I came to be in this place.’
    ‘It matters not how you came here,’ said the damosel, ‘you shall go free of it if you will but fight as champion for my father against the champion his brother sends to meet him this day, the victor to become the lord of all these lands.’
    Arthur was silent. He had never before fought in an unjust cause; but he was young and