3 Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 How King Arthur Beat King Leodegrance's Enemies, and Revealed His Own Royalty The next morning, King Leodegrance watched helplessly as the Duke of North Umber arrived with his six promised knights and several heralds and esquires. A crowd gathered to watch the great battle. But it could hardly be a great battle,

Leodegrance thought, when he had no knights to match up against the Duke of North Umber's men. He used to have knights in his court long ago, but since King Arthur had taken control, peace had settled upon the land and the knights had gone where they were needed. Watching her father, the Lady Guinevere urged him not to give up hope. Somehow, she just had a feeling… In the next moment, all watched as the mysterious White Knight came riding back into town. Behind him, incredibly, were the four famous knights—the Sirs Gawaine, Ewaine, Geraint and Pellias—that everyone already knew and recognized. "We are saved," Guinevere whispered. As if hearing her, King Arthur and the four knights all raised their handkerchiefs in a salute as they passed beneath her tower. "I did this mysterious White Knight the

honor of fighting him before without knowing his name or station," the Duke of North Umber said nervously. "However, this is a more serious battle. If he wants to fight me, he will identify himself!" "He is not only good enough to fight you," Sir Gawaine promised, "but trust me, it is he who does you the honor." The Duke of North Umber tried again. "Well," he said, "you are only five, no match for our seven. Yes, that's the reason I will not fight you!" "Please trust me," Gawaine said, "when I tell you that we five are an equal match for your seven." The Duke of Umber turned bright red with embarrassment. The fight began. And very quickly, the fight ended. Just as Gawaine had promised, King Arthur's five were more than an equal match for the Duke of North Umber's seven. Mordaunt was defeated and

died in what would become one of the most famous battles in the history of King Arthur's court. The people of Cameliard cheered and celebrated their great victory. They wanted to fuss over the White Knight, but he had disappeared once more, leaving only the four knights for them to congratulate. The next morning, however, it appeared that they had all celebrated too soon. Far from surrendering, King Ryence was making more demands. Through a herald he had sent a message, King Ryence not only commanded King Leodegrance to surrender his lands, but he also demanded that Leodegrance deliver the White Knight who had killed Duke Mordaunt. King Leodegrance spoke with great pride. "Tell your king that I will not deliver to him so much as one blade of grass from my land. And I would not deliver the White Knight to

him, even if I did know who he was!" The herald sighed. Obviously King Ryence had anticipated this response, for the next part of the message was that Ryence would soon be coming with a great army to take the things he wanted by force. King Leodegrance called for Guinevere. "The great White Champion has now saved us twice," he began. "People say this knight is your own particular champion and that he wore your necklace during battle. Is that true?" Guinevere blushed and nodded. "Pray tell, then, daughter. Where can we find him? We need his help again! And you are getting to the age where you need a husband, someone to defend our kingdom from its enemies!" "Father," Guinevere said, "I will lead you to the only man connected to all of this that I know." And with that, she led her father

straight to the gardener-boy. "What is this, daughter?" King Leodegrance asked, as King Arthur's four great knights also gathered around. "Are you mocking me? Is this some kind of joke?" Guinevere asked the gardener-boy to remove his cap. Arthur did so and King Leodegrance immediately recognized him and called him by name. Guinevere, who hadn't before realized that the golden knight she had seen was King Arthur, kneeled down, horrified. Oh, to think of the ways she had spoken back to him and challenged him! Arthur, however, made her stand back up. He told her that he loved her and asked if she loved him too. (She did). He kissed her. (She kissed him back.) King Ryence brought the war he had promised, but was no match for King Arthur and his men. Very soon thereafter, Arthur and Guinevere made plans to be married.