(A sample chapter from the Arthurian tale The Killing Sword.)
© 2011 asotir.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
VI. The Lovers’ Tomb
AS THEY TALKED there came a dwarf from Camelot on horseback. And when he found the dead bodies he made great dole and pulled out his hair. ‘Which of you knights has done this deed?’ he asked.
‘Why do you ask it?’ said Balan.
‘For I would know it,’ said the dwarf.
‘It was I,’ said Balyn, ‘who slew this knight in self defense, for he came here to chase and either I must slay him or he me. And this damsel slew herself for his love, which saddens me. And for her sake I shall owe all women the better love.’
‘Alas,’ said the dwarf, ‘you have done great damage unto yourself, for this knight here dead was one of the most valiant men that lived. And trust well, Balyn, the kin of this knight will hunt you through the world till they have slain you.’
‘As for that,’ said Balyn, ‘it little troubles me. But I am right sad that I have displeased my lord King Arthur for the death of this knight.’
So as they talked together there came the King of Cornwall riding through that pass. King Mark was a heavy-set man with a black beard, and his eyes were sad and sunk into his head: an unhappy man in life and love. And when he saw these two bodies dead, and understood how they had died, then the king made great sorrow for the true love that was between them.
‘I wish to God that a woman might love me half so much,’ he said, ‘and I will not depart till I have on this earth made a tomb for them.’
And there he pitched his pavilions and sent his men through all the country to find a tomb. In a church they found one fair and rich, that pleased King Mark.
Then Balyn and Balan bore the two bodies through the forest to the church, and the king let put them both in the earth under the tomb even as they were, the knight bloody in his broken armor as cold as stone, and the damsel naked upon his sword that pierced her through her belly. And the king let write the names of them both on the tomb:
HERE LIE
LANCEOUR
THE KING’S SON OF IRELAND
THAT AT HIS OWN SEEKING
WAS SLAIN
BY THE HAND OF BALYN THE WILD
§
AND WITH HIM
HIS LADY AND PARAMOUR
COLOMBE
THAT SLEW HERSELF
WITH HER LOVE’S SWORD
FOR DOLE AND SORROW.
