Brut, part 32 of 55

¶On the third day, it gan to dawn fair; then came toward the host all that were hooded, and three wise bishops, in book well learned; priests and monks, many without number; canons there came, many and good, with all the reliques that were noblest in the land, and yearned Arthur's peace, and his compassion. Thither came the women, that dwelt in the land; they carried in their arms their miserable children; they wept before Arthur wondrously much, and their fair hair threw to the earth; cut off their locks, and there down laid at the king's feet, before all his people; set their nails to their face, so that afterwards it bled. They were naked nigh (nearly) all clean; and sorrowfully they gan to call to Arthur the king, and together thus said, where they were in affliction: "King, we are on earth most wretched of all folk; we yearn thy mercy, through the mild God! Thou hast in this land our people slain, with hunger and with strife, and with many kind of harms; with weapon, with water, and with many mischiefs our children made fatherless and deprived of comfort. Thou art a Christian man, and we are also; the Saxish men are heathen hounds. They came to this land, and this folk here killed; if we obeyed them, that was because of our harm, for we had no man that might accord us with them. They did us much woe, and thou dost to us also; the heathens us hate, and the Christians make us sorrowful;-- whereto and what shall become of us!"-—quoth the women to the king. "Give us yet the men alive, who lie over these rocks; and if thou givest grace to this multitude, thy honour will be the greater, now and evermore. Lord Arthur our king, loosen our bonds! Thou has taken (conquered) all this land, and all this folk is overcome; we are under thy foot; in thee is all the remedy."

¶Arthur heard this, noblest of kings; this weeping and this lament, and immoderate sorrow; then took he to counsel, and had pity in heart; he found in his counsel to do what they him prayed, he gave them life, he gave them limb, and their land to hold. He caused the trumpets to be blown, and the Scots to be summoned; and they came out of the rocks to the ships; on every side approached toward land. They were greatly harmed by the sharp hunger; and oaths they swore, that they would not deceive; and they then gave hostages to the king, and all full soon became the king's men. And then they gan depart; the folk there separated, each man to the end, where he was dwelling, and Arthur there set peace, good with the best.

¶Then said Arthur: "Where art thou, Howel, my relation, dearest of men to me? Seest thou this great lake, where the Scots are harmed, seest thou these high trees, and seest thou these eagles fly? In this fen is fish innumerable. Seest thou these islands, that stand over this water?" Marvellous it seemed to Howel, of such a sight, and he wondered greatly by the water-flood, and thus there spake Howel, of noble race: "Since I was born man of my mother's bosom, saw I in no land things thus wonderful, as I here before me behold with eyes!" The Britons wondered wondrously much. Then spake Arthur, noblest of kings: "Howel, mine own relative, dearest to me of men, listen to my words, of a much greater wonder that I will tell to thee in my sooth speech. By this lake's end, where this water floweth, is a certain little lake, to the wonder of men! It is in length four-and-sixty palms; it is in measure in breadth five-and-twenty feet; five feet it is deep, elves it dug! Four-cornered it is, and therein is fish of four kinds, and each fish in his end where he findeth his kind, may there none go to other, except all as belongeth to his kind. Was never any man born, nor of so wise craft chosen, live he ever so long, that may understand it, what letteth (hindereth) the fish to swim to the others; for there is nought between but water clean!" The yet spake Arthur, noblest of kings: "Howel, in this land's end, nigh the sea-strand, is a lake exceeding great--the water is evil--and when the sea floweth, as if it would rage, and falleth in the lake exceeding quickly, the lake is never the more increased in water. But when the sea falleth in (ebbs), and the ground becomes fair, and in it is all in its old seat, then swelleth the lake, and the waves darken; out the waves there leap, exceeding great, flow out on the land, and the people soon terrify. If any man cometh there, that knoweth nought thereof, to behold the marvel by the sea strand, if he turneth his face toward the lake, be he nought (never) so low born, full well he shall be saved, the water glideth him beside, and the man there remaineth easy, after his will he dwelleth there full still, so that he is not because of the water anything injured!" Then said Howel, noble man of Brittany: "Now I hear tell a wonderful story, and marvellous is the Lord that it all made!"

¶Then said Arthur, noblest of kings. "Blow ye my horns with loud noise, and say ye to my knights, that I will march forth-right." Trumpets there were blown, horns there resounded; bliss was in the host with the busy king, for each was solaced, and proceeded toward his land. And the king forbade them, by their bare life, that no man in the world should be so mad, nor person so unwise, that he should break his peace; and if any man did it, he should suffer doom. Even with the words the army marched, there sung warriors marvellous songs of Arthur the king, and of his chieftains, and said in song, to this world's end never more would be such a king as Arthur, through all things, king nor caiser, in ever any realm!

¶Arthur proceeded to York, with folk very surprising (numerous), and dwelt there six weeks with much joy. The burgh walls were broken and fallen down, that Childric all consumed, and the halls all clean. Then called the king a distinguished priest, Pirai,--he was an exceeding wise man, and learned in book:--"Pirai, thou art mine own priest, the easier it shall be for thee." The king took a rood, holy and most good, and gave to Pirai in hand, and therewith very much land, and the archbishop's staff he there gave to Pirai;--ere was Pirai a good priest, now is he archbishop! Then bade him Arthur, noblest of kings, that he should arear churches, and restore the hymns, and take charge of God's folk, and rule them fair. And he bade all his knights to deem right (just) dooms, and the earth-tillers to take to their craft, and every man to greet other. And what man soever did worse than the king had ordered, he would drive him to a bare burning, and if it were a base man, he should for that hang. The yet spake Arthur, noblest of kings, ordered that each man who had lost his land by whatsoever kind of punishment he were bereaved, that he should come again, full quickly and full soon--the rich and the low--and should have eft his own, unless he were so foully conditioned, that he were traitor to his lord, or toward his lord forsworn, whom the king should deem lost (beyond the limit of pardon). There came three brethren, that were royally born, Loth, and Angel, and Urien;—-well are such three men! These three chieftains came to the king, and set on their knees before the caiser:--"Hail be thou, Arthur, noblest of kings, and thy people with thee; ever may they well be! We are three brethren, born of kings. All our rightful land is gone out of our hand; for the heathen men have made us poor, and wasted us all Leoneis, Scotland, and Moray. And we pray thee, for God's love, that thou be to us in aid, and for thy great honour, that thou be mild to us, and give us our rightful land; and we shall love thee, and hold thee for lord, in each land-wise." Arthur heard this, noblest of kings, how these three knights fair besought him; he had compassion in heart, and began speak, and said these words--best of all kings:--"Urien, become my man; thou shalt to Moray again; thereof thou shalt be called king of the land, and high in my court (or host), with thy forces. And to Angel I set in hand Scotland altogether; to have it in hand, and be king of the land, from the father to the son; thereof thou shalt my man become. And thou, Loth, my dear friend--God be to thee mild!-—thou hast my sister to wife; the better it shall be for thee. I give thee Leoneis, that is a land fair; and I will lay (add) thereto lands most good, beside the Humber, worth an hundred pounds. For my father Uther, the while that he was king here, loved well his daughter, who was his desire esteemed; and she is my sister, and sons she hath twain; they are to me in land dearest of all children." Thus spake Arthur the king. Then was Walwain a little child; so was the other, Modred his brother. But alas! that Modred was born; much harm therefore came! Arthur proceeded to London, and with him his people; he held in the land a mickle husting, and established all the laws that stood in his elders' days; all the good laws that era here stood; he set peace, he set protection, and all freedoms.