l have Arthur unto
our king." And so anon was the coronation made.

And Merlin said to King Arthur, "Fight not with the sword that you had
by miracle till you see that you go to the worst, then draw it out and
do your best." And the sword, Excalibur, was so bright that it gave
light like thirty torches.

_II.--The Marriage of Arthur_

In the beginning of King Arthur, after that he was chosen king by
adventure and by grace, for the most part the barons knew not that he
was Utherpendragon's son but as Merlin made it openly known. And many
kings and lords made great war against him for that cause, but King
Arthur full well overcame them all; for the most part of the days of his
life he was much ruled by the counsel of Merlin. So it befell on a time
that he said unto Merlin, "My barons will let me have no rest, but needs
they will have that I take a wife, and I will none take but by thy
advice."

"It is well done," said Merlin, "for a man of your bounty and nobleness
should not be without a wife. Now, is there any fair lady that ye love
better than another?"

"Yea," said Arthur; "I love Guinever, the king's daughter, of the land
of Cameliard. This damsel is the gentlest and fairest lady I ever could
find."

"Sir," said Merlin, "she is one of the fairest that live, and as a man's
heart is set he will be loth to return."

But Merlin warned the king privily that Guinever was not wholesome for
him to take to wife, for he warned him that Launcelot should love her,
and she him again. And Merlin went forth to King Leodegraunce, of
Cameliard, and told him of the desire of the king that he would have to
his wife Guinever, his daughter. "That is to me," said King
Leodegraunce, "the best tidings that ever I heard; and I shall send him
a gift that shall please him, for I shall give him the Table Round, the
which Utherpendragon gave me; and when it is full complete there is a
place for a hundred and fifty knights; and a hundred good knights I have
myself, but I lack fifty, for so many have been slain in my days."

And so King Leodegraunce delivered his daughter, Guinever, to Merlin,
and the Table Round, with the hundred knights, and they rode freshly and
with great royalty, what by water and what by land.

And when Arthur heard of the coming of Guinever and the hundred knights
of the Round Table he made great joy; and in all haste did ordain for
the marriage and coronation in the most honourable wise that could be
devise