And while the slaughter and the noise and shouting were at their greatest, suddenly there came down through the battle Merlin the Wizard, upon a great black horse, and riding to King Arthur, he cried out, “Alas, my Lord! will ye have never done?  Of sixty thousand have ye left but fifteen thousand men alive.  Is it not time to stay this slaying? for God is ill pleased with ye that ye have never ended, and yonder kings shall not be altogether overthrown this time.  But if ye fall upon them any more, the fortune of this day will turn, and go to them.  Withdraw, Lord, therefore, to thy lodging, and there now take thy rest, for to-day thou hast won a great victory, and overcome the noblest chivalry of all the world.  And now for many years those kings shall not disturb thee.  Therefore, I tell thee, fear them no more, for now they are sore beaten, and have nothing left them but their honour; and why shouldest thou slay them to take that?”

Then said King Arthur, “Thou sayest well, and I will take thy counsel.”  With that he cried out, “Ho!” for the battle to cease, and sent forth heralds through the field to stay more fighting.  And gathering all the spoil, he gave it not amongst his own host, but to Kings Ban and Bors and all their knights and men-at-arms, that he might treat them with the greater courtesy as strangers.

Then Merlin took his leave of Arthur and the two other kings, and went to see his master, Blaise, a holy hermit, dwelling in Northumberland, who had nourished him through all his youth.  And Blaise was passing glad to see him, for there was a great love ever between them; and Merlin told him how King Arthur had sped in the battle, and how it had ended; and told him the names of every king and knight of worship who was there.  So Blaise wrote down the battle, word for word, as Merlin told him; and in the same way ever after, all the battles of King Arthur’s days Merlin caused Blaise, his master, to record.

CHAPTER III

The Adventure of the Questing Beast—­King Arthur drives the Saxons from the Realm—­The Battles of Celidon Forest and Badon Hill

Anon, thereafter, came word to King Arthur that Ryence, King of North Wales, was making war upon King Leodegrance of Camelgard; whereat he was passing wroth, for he loved Leodegrance well, and hated Ryence.  So he departed with Kings Ban and Bors and twenty thousand men, and came to Camelgard, and rescued Leodegrance, and slew ten thousand of Ryence’s men and put him to flight.  Then Leodegrance made a great festival to the three kings, and treated them with every manner of mirth and pleasure which could be devised.  And there had King Arthur the first sight of Guinevere, daughter of Leodegrance, whom in the end he married, as shall be told hereafter.