ot
one of them could do it. They pulled and tugged and pulled and tugged,
but it was all in vain. They neither broke nor budged it, and the
Archbishop of Canterbury said it was evident that none of those present
could claim to be the rightful King. He added that he believed that the
right one would yet be discovered, and suggested that ten of the best
knights of the land should be made a guard of honor to watch over the
sword until New-Year's day, when any one who wished might come and in
the presence of all make the effort to pull it from the anvil. This was
agreed to, and it was decided to have a great tournament upon the coming
New-Year's day, after which the trial should be made. This kept the
knights and their followers in London, for it was important that all
should be present at the trial, success in which meant so much, not only
to the successful man, but to the whole kingdom as well."

"Didn't Merlin try to pull it out?" asked Mollie. "If he put it in, I
should think he could have pulled it out, and then he could have been
King himself."

"Possibly; but I imagine he didn't want to be King, for one thing, and,
for another, he had been too good a friend to Arthur, and to Uther, his
father, to wish to betray them. The Chronicles do not say whether he
tried it or not, but if he did, he failed; and so the week between
Christmas and New-Year's went by without any one's having moved the
sword; and the lords made their preparations for the tournament, and
many of them, I have no doubt, spent a great deal of their time getting
their muscle up in the hope of winning the crown.

"On the New-Year's day all again assembled in the church, and, after the
service, proceeded to the field where the tournament was to take place.
Sir Ector, followed by his son, Sir Kaye, who had himself been made a
knight, and Arthur, rode with them, when it was discovered that Sir Kaye
had left his sword behind him at his father's lodging. Summoning Arthur,
he requested him to return to the house and get it for him. This Arthur
readily consented to do, for he was fond of Kaye, whom, as we have
already seen, he supposed to be his own brother. Turning his horse
about, he rode full speed back to the lodgings; but when he arrived
there he found every one had gone to the tournament, and he could not
find his foster-brother's sword. For a moment he was perplexed. He knew
it would never do for Sir Kaye to be found at a tournament without his
sword, f