Then the knight asked the state of things at court but said nothing about the queen. Galehaut spoke of the courteous welcome he had received, especially from Gawain, and, as for Guenevere, “no woman who ever lived could be her equal.”
Hearing Galehaut utter such words about the queen, the knight bowed his head and was lost in thought. Galehaut, surprised to see tears in his eyes, began to speak of other things. At last the knight said, “I think you should go keep the king and Sir Gawain company. If anyone speaks of me, remember what they say so you can tell me about it tomorrow.”
“Of course I will,” said Galehaut, embracing his friend and commending him to God. He told the two kings that the knight was dearer to him “than the very heart in my breast,” and to take care of him accordingly. Galehaut slept that night in Arthur’s pavilion; Yvain and other knights were there too, and Gawain was brought in on a stretcher. The queen and her ladies retired to her chamber, together with the Lady of Malehaut, always alert for what she might learn.
The Black Knight, in Galehaut’s camp with the two kings, was treated with such deference that he felt quite embarrassed. They spent the night close to him, as Galehaut had done, without his knowing it. At first the young man slept quietly, but soon he began to toss and turn, groaning so loudly that he woke his two companions. Over and over again they heard him murmur, “Alas! What can I do?”
Although the two kings rose very early the next morning, Galehaut had already arrived, curious to know how things were with his friend. They told him about the sounds of distress they had heard, and Galehaut, remembering a similar occasion, went straight to the bed chamber. The knight, hearing his footsteps, dried his eyes and lay very still so that he seemed to be asleep. When he arose, a little later, he tried to be cheerful. His eyes were still red, however, and his voice so hoarse he could hardly speak.
Galehaut asked, “My dear friend, please tell me what makes you so sad. No matter how terrible it is, let me try to help you.” At that the knight began to weep again, as if all that he loved in the world lay dead at his feet. Galehaut took him in his arms, cradling his head and comforting him as best he could, imploring him to speak about his grief, “and if anyone has wronged you, whoever it may be, you will surely be avenged.”
“No one has wronged me in any way.”
“Are you unhappy to have let me make you my lord and my companion?”
“You have done much more for me than I could ever deserve –” he paused, “but there is a terrible fear in my heart that I may die because of your kindness.”
Greatly troubled, Galehaut tried his best to give his friend confidence, swearing that he would never do anything to harm or distress him and would search the world to obtain for him whatever he might desire.
When Galehaut was at court again, he went with the king and queen to visit Gawain, who could no longer contain his curiosity. “I hope you will not mind if I ask you something. May we know who arranged the peace between you and my king?”
“Was he wearing black armor?” interrupted the queen. “We saw him leave the field in your company, and he wore your armor yesterday.”
“That is true. But I can tell you no more about him than you already know. Have you ever seen a man more valiant than he?”
“Never,” said the king, “not even the Red Knight, whose valor made me so greatly desire to know him.”
“Then what would you give to have him with you always?”
“I would give him half of all I possess. Except my queen, of course!”
Then Galehaut asked Gawain what he would give, if he had his health again, to have the Black Knight as his companion. Gawain hesitated, wondering if his wounds would ever heal, and then replied that he would willingly be transformed into a beautiful young woman, if he could have the Black Knight’s love his whole life long.
“And you, my lady?” Galehaut asked the queen.
“Now that Gawain has offered all that a lady can give, a lady can do no more!”
With that, they all laughed, but Galehaut, when they demanded that he too answer the question, said that for the love of that knight, “I would let my very honor turn to shame.”
“God knows,” said Gawain, “that you have offered more than any of us.” He realized that Galehaut had actually done what he said: at the very moment when he had won the war, he had given his triumph away. He pointed this out to the queen, and Galehaut was more esteemed than ever. There was much talk of the Black Knight, and then the queen asked Galehaut to escort her to her quarters.
On the way she spoke to him in confidence, saying that she was very fond of him and adding, “I know that the Black Knight is in your power. If you value my love at all, make it possible for me to see him. I would be forever in your debt.”
“My lady, I have no power over him, and I haven’t seen him myself since the peace was arranged.”
“But surely you know where he is!”
“I think he has gone to my home. And of course I will do my best to find him for you.”
“In that case, it can’t be long before he is here, and I thank you with all my heart. Let your messengers ride night and day!”
Galehaut returned to the king, who suggested that since their armies had been dispersed, leaving only their own households, the two camps should be brought closer to each other. “My lord, I will have all our tents set up at the river’s edge, with my own set across from yours. A boat will be made ready to go from one side to the other. I’ll attend to that right away.”
The Black Knight laughed to hear what the king and Gawain had said they would do to have his company, and he heartily approved the king’s idea of bringing the two camps closer to each other. As soon as Galehaut touched on the queen’s desire to see him, however, his smile vanished. He made no reply, and his eyes filled with tears. Galehaut said, “Don’t be distressed, but say what you want me to do. I’d rather have half the world angry with me than you alone – if I care about anyone else at all, it’s only because of you.”
“From now on, I will do whatever you advise.”
“I don’t think,” Galehaut suggested, “that seeing the queen could be harmful to anyone.”
“For me it will be joy and suffering.”
Then Galehaut understood what was in the knight’s heart, and pressed him so hard that Lancelot agreed the time had come – “only no one else must know. Tell my lady that you have sent for me.”
Galehaut called his seneschal and ordered him to have the entire camp brought to the river’s edge, directly across from the king’s encampment. Then, with a few attendants, he went to court, where the queen came in haste to meet him. In answer to her question he said, “My lady, I have done your bidding, and now I stand to lose what I love more than anything else in the world.”
“Should my service ever cost you anything, I will give it back twice over. But what could you possibly lose?”
“The very man you are asking for.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I could never make good such a loss, but, God willing, you will not lose him through my fault.” Impatient with this turn in the conversation, she simply went on. “When will he come?”
“I told my messengers to make all speed.”
“Then it could be tomorrow.”
“Not even if he started out right now – though I too wish he were here already!”
While they were talking, Galehaut’s many-colored tents were moved close to the river, where people kept coming to look at them. They marveled at the splendor of the ornate pavilions and, fluttering along the water’s edge, the pennons and ensigns of the Lord of the Distant Isles and his allies.
Galehaut went back to be with his friend, and told him how the queen was impatient to see him, which filled the knight’s heart with joy and apprehension. They spoke for a long time, and then Galehaut returned to court, where Guenevere asked if he had any news for her. “Not yet,” he replied.
“My friend, I think you are putting off what you coul
d hasten.”
“My desire to see him is surely as strong as yours.”
“That’s exactly what I fear. Sometimes people refuse things just because they like them so much themselves. But there is nothing for you to be concerned about – you will never lose what you have because of me.”
“I thank you for that, my lady – soon you’ll be able to help me far more than I can help you.”
That night the king insisted that Galehaut sleep in his pavilion, but early the next morning he returned to his friend and told him what the queen had said. The knight was beginning to feel more confident; there was color in his cheeks, and his eyes no longer showed signs of weeping. Happy to see him looking much more like himself, Galehaut asked how he should reply to the queen. “I am sure she will expect to see you tomorrow, and I hope you will agree.”
“I wish that day had already come and gone!”
Galehaut saw his friend was agitated and vacillating, eager to respond to the queen’s summons but worried at the same time. Saying nothing further, Galehaut went to the king’s tent where the queen, as before, asked if he had any news. “My lady, it is still too soon, but we should hear something by tomorrow.”
“I think it is in your power to make it sooner rather than later. Pray do me the kindness you would hope to receive from me were the situation reversed.”
Galehaut laughed, and Blaye, who had overheard every word and thought she knew what they were speaking about, was determined to find out more.
The next morning Galehaut told his companion that truly he could delay no longer. The knight replied, “But I beg you to make sure I can come and go unseen.”
“Have no fear.” Galehaut left the tent and called his seneschal. “If I send for you, bring the Black Knight with you, and let no one be aware of what you are doing.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
BOOK FIVE: LANCELOT
GALEHAUT WENT TO THE KING’S pavilion and gave the queen some welcome news: “The flower of all knighthood is here at last!”
“How can I see him? No one must know about this except the three of us.”
“He said the same thing – he doesn’t want to be seen by anyone from the king’s household.”
“I don’t know who the Black Knight is, and I’m all the more impatient.”
“It won’t be long, my lady.” He gazed outside, considering the landscape. “We’ll go for a walk in the meadow over there, as discreetly as we can, and just before nightfall he will be there.”
“If only God would make it turn dark right now!” They both laughed at that, and the queen gave Galehaut a cheerful embrace. The Lady of Malehaut, seeing this, thought that something must be about to happen and looked carefully at every knight who came along. Guenevere spent the day in conversation and pastimes to make the hours go more quickly. After supper she took Galehaut by the hand and, accompanied by Blaye and two others, began her stroll through the meadow. Galehaut sent a squire to his seneschal with a message to meet him there in a certain secluded place.
They came to a grove of apple trees, and Galehaut sat down with the queen, somewhat apart from the others. The evening sky was darkening, but there were no clouds and the moon was full. Meanwhile the seneschal had crossed the river. He and the knight were both such handsome men that when they came into view, and Galehaut told the queen that this was “the best knight in the world,” she wondered which one he meant. Dressed in simple tunics, neither seemed to her likely to possess the valor of the Black Knight. Galehaut assured her that he was one of the two. Blaye, however, had immediately recognized her former guest, and she hid her face as he passed. The queen, then, was the object of his love, the lady he had been so reluctant to name! Blaye found consolation for her lost hopes in the knowledge that she could never rival Guenevere. There was a certain comfort, too, in simply finding an answer to her question.
Then the two men were in the presence of the queen. The seneschal bowed to her and the other ladies, but the knight was trembling so hard that he could scarcely move. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground as if deeply embarrassed; he was very pale. The queen realized that he must be the one. Galehaut told the seneschal to go keep the other ladies company. Then the queen took the knight by the hand, and had him sit beside her. She smiled at him graciously and said, “My lord, we have had such a great desire to see you, and now, thanks to God and to Galehaut here, we have the joy of doing so. And yet I do not know whether you really are the knight I have been asking for, and I hope you will be pleased to tell me yourself.”
He murmured, without raising his eyes, that he didn’t know. The queen was surprised, and began to suspect what was troubling him. Thinking the knight might be less tongue-tied if no one else were there, Galehaut went to join the seneschal, declaring that it was not proper for several ladies to be accompanied by only one knight. Soon they were all involved in conversation.
The queen spoke to the knight: “Good sir, why have you been so unwilling to let us know who you are? What possible reason could there be? At least you can tell me this: was it you who won the battle the day before yesterday?”
“No, my lady.”
“What! Weren’t you the knight in black armor? Wasn’t it to you that Gawain sent three horses?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Then on the last day, weren’t you wearing Galehaut’s armor?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“And weren’t you the winner on the first and second days?”
“No – that was someone else.”
Not to take credit for his victories seemed admirable to the queen. “Who was it that made you a knight?”
“You did, my lady.”
“I did?”
“Do you remember the boy who came to King Arthur’s court on a Friday and became a knight that Sunday, which was the Feast of Saint John?”
“I remember very well. The Lady of the Lake presented him to the king, dressed all in white. Was that you?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Then why do you say that I made you a knight?”
“Because it is true. The one who makes a man a knight is the person who gives him his sword, and mine did not come from the king. It came from you.”
“When was that?”
“Do you not remember a knight who once brought two maidens to see you? He told you that they had been rescued from great peril by a man in white armor who considered himself your knight. Since he had not received a sword from the king, he asked that you send him one. And you did. It is the sword I have used ever since.”
“Are you the White Knight who achieved the Adventure of Dolorous Guard and undid all the enchantments of the castle? Was it you who fought off a whole army to have Gawain and his companions released from prison?”
“I knew that they needed help.”
“The Lady of the Lake brought you to Camelot to be knighted, but I still don’t know who you are. Please tell me.”
There was a long silence. “I am Lancelot,” he answered, “the son of Ban of Benoic.”
The queen drew a sharp breath as she recalled Arthur’s failure to help the father under siege. And now King Ban’s son was sitting beside her! But she said only, “Many have done knightly deeds, but yours are so astonishing that I can only wonder what inspires you.”
“My lady, whatever I have done was only for you.”
“For me?”
“I love you more than myself, more than anyone or anything in the world.”
“But I have spoken to you just twice before, when you first arrived at court and when you were leaving.”
“That was when I came to you in my armor, and told you that wherever I went in the world I would be your knight. And you accepted my service, and I took leave of you, and you said ‘Farewell, dear friend.’ Those words have never left my heart. They have made me a worthy knight, if I really am one. They have saved me from every evil and every danger. They comforted me whenever I was sad. They fed me when I was hungry. They
make me rich in my great poverty.”
“Then God be praised that I spoke them! I am glad you understood me as you did, and gained so much by that.” She paused a moment, then said with a delicate reluctance, “But in truth I have said as much to many knights, without meaning anything special.”
The knight could hardly grasp the sense behind these words, but he felt their impact in the very core of his being. All the blood rushed from his head, and he would have fallen had the queen not caught him by the shoulder. Frightened, she called to Galehaut who came running and asked what had happened. “You might have killed him!” he exclaimed. The knight was barely conscious.
“Did you know that he was the victor at Dolorous Guard? That he was the one who rescued Gawain from prison? That he was also the Red Knight and the Black Knight? And all his noble deeds, if I can believe him, were just for the love of me! Because I called him ‘dear friend,’ he thought that I loved him!”
The novelty of the situation and the naïveté of the knight brought ripples of excited pleasure into the queen’s voice. Galehaut was far less buoyant in his response.
“Ah, my lady, you can believe him! Just as he is more valiant than other men, his heart is truer. When you wanted help, I did what I could for you, and now I am asking you to take pity on him! I know, beyond a doubt, that he loves you more than anything else in the world, and no man has ever done more for a lady. Remember that the peace I made with the king was entirely due to this knight.”
At this, a hint of gravity appeared in the queen’s words too. “Had he done no more than that, I would be forever in his debt, and I owe you much as well. I am certainly inclined to listen to him favorably – but he hasn’t asked me for anything!”
“He wouldn’t dare! At his age, there can be no love without fear, so he did not have the courage to make the slightest request. It was only from the sorrow he couldn’t conceal that I came to know how much he loves you. That’s why I am speaking for him,” and he added, “although you shouldn’t need me to tell you that to win the love of this man is to have won the finest treasure the world can offer.”
Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles Page 7