this Round Table business begin? Or,better yet, how did the Grail business begin? We can take up the RoundTable business later on."
She thought for a moment. Then, "List, fair sir, and I will say ye: Atthe vigil of Pentecost, when all the fellowship of the Round Tablewere come unto Camelot and there heard their service, and the tableswere set ready to the meat, right so entered into the hall a full fairgentlewoman on horseback, that had ridden full fast, for her horse wasall besweated. Then she there alit, and came before the king andsaluted him; and he said: Damosel, God thee bless. Sir, said she, forGod's sake say me where Sir Launcelot is. Yonder ye may see him, saidthe king. Then she went unto Launcelot and said: Sir Launcelot, Isalute you on King Pelles' behalf, and I require you to come on withme hereby into a forest. Then Sir Launcelot asked her with whom shedwelled. I dwell, said she, with King Pelles. What will ye with me?said Launcelot. Ye shall know, said she, when ye--"
"That'll do for now," Mallory interrupted. "We'll come back to it assoon as I get stocked up on paper and ink. Scheherazade," he added.
"Scheherazade, Sir Thomas? I wot not--"
He leaned down and kissed her. "There's no need for you to wot," hesaid. Probably, he reflected, he would have to do a certain amount ofresearch in order to record the happenings that had ensued his andRowena's departure, and undoubtedly said research would resultironically in the recording of the true visits of Sirs Galahad andLauncelot to the chamber of the Sangraal--the "time-slots" on which heand Perfidion had gambled and lost their shirts. The main body of thework, however, had been deposited virtually on his lap, and its styleand flavor had been arbitrarily determined. Moreover, contrary to whathistory would later maintain, the job would not be done in prison, butright here in the "castle of Yore" with Rowena sitting--anddictating--beside him. As for the impossibility of giving asixth-century damosel as his major source, that could be avoided--asin one sense it already had been--my making frequent allusions toimaginary French sources. And as for the main obstacle to theendeavor--his twenty-second century cynicism--that had been obviatedduring his encounter with Sir Galahad.
The book wouldn't be published till 1485, but just the same, he waskeen to get started on it. Writing it should be fun. Which remindedhim: "I know we haven't known each other very long in one sense,Rowena," he said, "but in another, we've known each other for almostnine hundred years. Will you marry me?"
She blinked once. Then her plum-blue eyes showed how truly blue theycould become and she threw her arms around his gorget. "Wit ye well,Sir Thomas," said she, "that there is nothing in the world but I wouldlever do than be thy bride!"
_Thus did the prose epic knownsuccessively as "La Mort d'Arthur,"THE MOST ANCIENTAND FAMOUS HISTORY OF THERENOWNED PRINCE ARTHUR,KING OF BRITAINE,AS ALSO, ALL THE NOBLE ACTS,AND HEROICKE DEEDSOF HIS VALIANT KNIGHTSOF THE ROUND TABLE,and "Le Morte d'Arthur"come to be recorded._
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