y away in the old city a bell tolled, and he recollected that it
was Whitsun Eve! That walk home in the twilight was something not easily
to be forgotten, and neither supper nor a pipe could bring him back to
earth and the twentieth century again. Next morning he was up early,
anxious to see if any trace were left of the spot where this marvel had
occurred, for it was scarcely possible that the whole adventure was other
than a dream. But the spot was soon found, and sure enough there was the
stone or peron,[36] and he could examine it in the sunshine at his
leisure. How it got there or whence it came it were impossible to guess;
the chalk for miles around contains nothing but flints, and the peron was
smooth and polished 'as a mill-stone.'

[Illustration: THE PERON]

That Winchester is not Camelot antiquaries have told us often enough. The
city of the Knights may have been in the West Country or in Wales for
aught our bookman cares; but until they can produce a likelier site and a
better peron he will continue to take Sir Thomas's word for it.

One other point. I have said that the stone lay some few paces from the
water. You will notice when you pay a pilgrimage to the stone (it lies at
the ford, hard by a church) that the ground about it is almost level with
the water, so that when the river is in flood the stone must be almost
submerged: in other words, it would then _hove above the water_. It is
easy to see from the bank on the other side that the river has changed
its course by a few yards, leaving the stone now high and dry. If you
dispute this, why then I can only say that the stone, as 'by adventure it
swam down the stream,' must have been cast there by the river when in
flood. That there is a cleft in the stone whence Galahad withdrew the
sword I can neither affirm nor deny; it _may_ have closed up, for with
perons of this nature all things are possible, or the stone itself _may_
have got turned over.[37] At all events I for one shall not be so rash as
to cast suspicion upon so historic a relic.

For those materialists who doubt that such an event ever took place, I
will propound a theory. That the first twelve books of the 'Morte
d'Arthur' were translated from the French by Sir Thomas Malory seems
probable. Caxton says as much in his Preface, and the Epilogue to Book
XII. reads, 'Here endeth the second book of Syr Tristram that was drawen
oute of Frensshe in to Englysshe. But here is no rehersal of the thyrd