s and went in.

Sir Ector strode up the aisle to the altar, and turning to his son,
said sternly:

'Now, swear on God's book and the holy relics how thou didst get this
sword.'

Sir Kay's heart went weak, and he stammered out the truth.

'How gat you this sword?' asked Sir Ector of Arthur.

'Sir, I will tell you,' said Arthur, and so told him all as it had
happened.

Sir Ector marvelled what this should mean; for Arthur had been given to
him to nourish and rear as a week-old child by Merlin, but the wizard
had only told him that the babe was a son of a dead lady, whose lord
had been slain by the pagans.

Then Sir Ector went to the stone and bade Arthur put back the sword
into the wedge of steel, which the young man did easily.

Thereupon Sir Ector strove with all his strength to draw the sword
forth again, but though he pulled till he sweated, he could not stir
the sword.

'Now you essay it,' he said to his son. But naught that Sir Kay could
do availed.

'Now do you try,' he bade Arthur.

Arthur lightly grasped the handle with one hand, and the sword came out
without hindrance.

Therewith Sir Ector sank to his knees, and Sir Kay also. And they bared
their heads.

'Alas,' said Arthur, 'my own dear father and brother, why kneel ye so
to me?'

'Nay, nay, my lord Arthur, it is not so,' said Sir Ector, 'for I was
never your father. I wot well ye are of higher blood than I weened. For
Merlin delivered you to me while yet ye were a babe.'

The tears came into Arthur's eyes when he knew that Sir Ector was not
his father, for the young man had loved him as if he were of his own
blood.

'Sir,' said Ector unto Arthur, 'will ye be my good and kind lord when
ye are king?'

'Ah, if this be true as ye say,' cried Arthur, 'ye shall desire of me
whatsoever ye may, and I shall give it you. For both you and my good
lady and dear mother your wife have kept and loved me as your own.'

'Sir,' said Sir Ector, 'I crave a boon of you, that while you live,
your foster-brother, Sir Kay, shall be high seneschal of all your
lands.'

'That shall be done, and never man shall have that office but him,
while he and I live,' replied Arthur.

Then hastily Sir Ector rode to the archbishop, and told him how and by
whom the sword had been achieved from the stone. Thereupon the
archbishop let call a great meeting on Twelfth Day of all the kings and
barons.

So on the day appointed, all men gathered in the churchyard of St.
Pau