CHAPTER XXI
“I put my life in my hands.”--The Book of Judges.
At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished.We armed each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with manyblows of loving force. I was inferior in strength to both my brothers,but a little more agile than either; and upon this agility, joined toprecision in hitting with the point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes ofsuccess in the ensuing combat. I likewise laboured to develop yet morethe keenness of sight with which I was naturally gifted; and, from theremarks of my companions, I soon learned that my endeavours were not invain.
The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the attempt,and succeed or perish--perhaps both. We had resolved to fight on foot;knowing that the mishap of many of the knights who had made the attempt,had resulted from the fright of their horses at the appearance of thegiants; and believing with Sir Gawain, that, though mare’s sons mightbe false to us, the earth would never prove a traitor. But most of ourpreparations were, in their immediate aim at least, frustrated.
We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak. We had rested from all labourthe day before, and now were fresh as the lark. We bathed in coldspring water, and dressed ourselves in clean garments, with a sense ofpreparation, as for a solemn festivity. When we had broken our fast,I took an old lyre, which I had found in the tower and had myselfrepaired, and sung for the last time the two ballads of which I havesaid so much already. I followed them with this, for a closing song:
Oh, well for him who breaks his dream With the blow that ends the strife And, waking, knows the peace that flows Around the pain of life!
We are dead, my brothers! Our bodies clasp, As an armour, our souls about; This hand is the battle-axe I grasp, And this my hammer stout.
Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead; No noise can break our rest; The calm of the grave is about the head, And the heart heaves not the breast.
And our life we throw to our people back, To live with, a further store; We leave it them, that there be no lack In the land where we live no more.
Oh, well for him who breaks his dream With the blow that ends the strife And, waking, knows the peace that flows Around the noise of life!
As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like adirge, the death of the song, we all sprang to our feet. For, throughone of the little windows of the tower, towards which I had looked asI sang, I saw, suddenly rising over the edge of the slope on which ourtower stood, three enormous heads. The brothers knew at once, by mylooks, what caused my sudden movement. We were utterly unarmed, andthere was no time to arm.
But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for eachcaught up his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence behind, sprangto the door. I snatched up a long rapier, abruptly, but very finelypointed, in my sword-hand, and in the other a sabre; the elder brotherseized his heavy battle-axe; and the younger, a great, two-handed sword,which he wielded in one hand like a feather. We had just time to getclear of the tower, embrace and say good-bye, and part to some littledistance, that we might not encumber each other’s motions, ere thetriple giant-brotherhood drew near to attack us. They were about twiceour height, and armed to the teeth. Through the visors of their helmetstheir monstrous eyes shone with a horrible ferocity. I was in the middleposition, and the middle giant approached me. My eyes were busy with hisarmour, and I was not a moment in settling my mode of attack. I saw thathis body-armour was somewhat clumsily made, and that the overlappingsin the lower part had more play than necessary; and I hoped that, ina fortunate moment, some joint would open a little, in a visible andaccessible part. I stood till he came near enough to aim a blow at mewith the mace, which has been, in all ages, the favourite weapon ofgiants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and let the blow fall upon thespot where I had been standing. I expected this would strain the jointsof his armour yet more. Full of fury, he made at me again; but I kepthim busy, constantly eluding his blows, and hoping thus to fatigue him.He did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I attempted none asyet; but while I watched his motions in order to avoid his blows, I, atthe same time, kept equal watch upon those joints of his armour, throughsome one of which I hoped to reach his life. At length, as if somewhatfatigued, he paused a moment, and drew himself slightly up; I boundedforward, foot and hand, ran my rapier right through to the armour ofhis back, let go the hilt, and passing under his right arm, turned ashe fell, and flew at him with my sabre. At one happy blow I divided theband of his helmet, which fell off, and allowed me, with a second cutacross the eyes, to blind him quite; after which I clove his head, andturned, uninjured, to see how my brothers had fared. Both the giantswere down, but so were my brothers. I flew first to the one and thento the other couple. Both pairs of combatants were dead, and yet lockedtogether, as in the death-struggle. The elder had buried his battle-axein the body of his foe, and had fallen beneath him as he fell. The gianthad strangled him in his own death-agonies. The younger had nearly hewnoff the left leg of his enemy; and, grappled with in the act, had,while they rolled together on the earth, found for his dagger a passagebetwixt the gorget and cuirass of the giant, and stabbed him mortally inthe throat. The blood from the giant’s throat was yet pouring over thehand of his foe, which still grasped the hilt of the dagger sheathedin the wound. They lay silent. I, the least worthy, remained the solesurvivor in the lists.
As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed of mylife, I suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the Shadow, black inthe sunshine. I went into the lonely tower, and there lay the uselessarmour of the noble youths--supine as they.
Ah, how sad it looked! It was a glorious death, but it was death. Mysongs could not comfort me now. I was almost ashamed that I was alive,when they, the true-hearted, were no more. And yet I breathed freer tothink that I had gone through the trial, and had not failed. And perhapsI may be forgiven, if some feelings of pride arose in my bosom, when Ilooked down on the mighty form that lay dead by my hand.
“After all, however,” I said to myself, and my heart sank, “it was onlyskill. Your giant was but a blunderer.”
I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when thedeath-fight was over, and, hastening to the country below, roused thepeasants. They came with shouting and gladness, bringing waggons tocarry the bodies. I resolved to take the princes home to their father,each as he lay, in the arms of his country’s foe. But first I searchedthe giants, and found the keys of their castle, to which I repaired,followed by a great company of the people. It was a place of wonderfulstrength. I released the prisoners, knights and ladies, all in a sadcondition, from the cruelties and neglects of the giants. It humbled meto see them crowding round me with thanks, when in truth the gloriousbrothers, lying dead by their lonely tower, were those to whom thethanks belonged. I had but aided in carrying out the thought bornin their brain, and uttered in visible form before ever I laid holdthereupon. Yet I did count myself happy to have been chosen for theirbrother in this great deed.
After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners, we allcommenced our journey towards the capital. This was slow at first; but,as the strength and spirits of the prisoners returned, it became morerapid; and in three days we reached the palace of the king. As weentered the city gates, with the huge bulks lying each on a waggon drawnby horses, and two of them inextricably intertwined with the dead bodiesof their princes, the people raised a shout and then a cry, and followedin multitudes the solemn procession.
I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old king. Joyand pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their loss. On me he heapedevery kindness that heart could devise or hand execute. He used to sitand question me, night after night, about everything that was in anyway connected with them and their preparations. O
ur mode of life,and relation to each other, during the time we spent together, was aconstant theme. He entered into the minutest details of the constructionof the armour, even to a peculiar mode of riveting some of the plates,with unwearying interest. This armour I had intended to beg of the king,as my sole memorials of the contest; but, when I saw the delight he tookin contemplating it, and the consolation it appeared to afford him inhis sorrow, I could not ask for it; but, at his request, left my own,weapons and all, to be joined with theirs in a trophy, erected in thegrand square of the palace. The king, with gorgeous ceremony, dubbed meknight with his own old hand, in which trembled the sword of his youth.
During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, muchcourted by the young nobles. I was in a constant round of gaiety anddiversion, notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. For thecountry was so rejoiced at the death of the giants, and so many of theirlost friends had been restored to the nobility and men of wealth, thatthe gladness surpassed the grief. “Ye have indeed left your lives toyour people, my great brothers!” I said.
But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had not seenall the time that I was at work in the tower. Even in the society of theladies of the court, who seemed to think it only their duty to makemy stay there as pleasant to me as possible, I could not help beingconscious of its presence, although it might not be annoying me at thetime. At length, somewhat weary of uninterrupted pleasure, and nowisestrengthened thereby, either in body or mind, I put on a splendid suitof armour of steel inlaid with silver, which the old king had givenme, and, mounting the horse on which it had been brought to me, took myleave of the palace, to visit the distant city in which the lady dwelt,whom the elder prince had loved. I anticipated a sore task, in conveyingto her the news of his glorious fate: but this trial was spared me, in amanner as strange as anything that had happened to me in Fairy Land.