How Queen Morgana le Fay Returned to Camelot and to the Court With Intent to Do Ill to King Arthur. Also How King Arthur and Others Went a-Hunting and of What Befell Thereby. NOW, after Merlin had quitted the Court with Vivien in that manner aforetold, Queen Morgana le Fay returned again to Camelot. There she came unto King Arthur and kneeled before him, bowing her face, with an appearance of great humility. And she said, “Brother, I have meditated much upon these matters that have passed and I perceive that I have done very ill to talk against thee as I have done, and to be so rebellious against thy royalty. Wherefore I crave of thee to forgive me my evil words and thoughts against thee.”
Queen Morgana le Fay and King Arthur are reconciled.
Then King Arthur was very much moved and he came to Queen Morgana and took her by the hand and lifted her up upon her feet and kissed her brow, and her eyes, saying, “My sister, I have no ill-will against thee, but nothing but love for thee in my heart.” And so, Queen Morgana le Fay abode at the Court in the same manner as she had aforetime done, for King Arthur believed that they were reconciled.
King Arthur showeth Excalibur to Queen Morgana.
Now one day, Queen Morgana and the King fell into a friendly talk concerning Excalibur, and Queen Morgana le Fay expressed a very great desire to see that noble weapon more closely than she had yet done, and King Arthur said he would sometime show it to her. So the next day he said, “Sister, come with me and I will show thee Excalibur.” Therewith he took Queen Morgana by the hand and led her into another apartment where was a strong wooden coffer bound with bands of iron. Then the King opened the coffer and therein Queen Morgana le Fay beheld Excalibur where he lay in his sheath. Then King Arthur said to her,{182} “Lady, take this sword and examine it as you please.” Therewith Queen Morgana took Excalibur into her hands and lifted him out of the coffer. And she drew the sword out of the sheath and, lo! the blade flashed like lightning. Then she said, “Sir, this is a very beautiful sword and I would that I might take it hence and keep it for a little so that I might enjoy it in full measure.”
Now King Arthur was of a mind to show the Queen great courtesy at this time of their reconciliation, wherefore he said to her, “Take it, and be thou its keeper for as long as thou wilt.” So Queen Morgana took Excalibur and his sheath and bare them away with her to her inn, and she hid the sword in the bed in which she slept.
Then Queen Morgana sent for sundry goldsmiths, eight in number, and for certain armorsmiths, eight in number, and for certain cunning jewellers, eight in number, and she said unto them, “Make me a sword in every particular like this sword that I have here.” And thereupon she showed then Excalibur in his sheath. So these goldsmiths and armorsmiths and lapidaries labored with great diligence, and in a fortnight they had made a sword so exactly like Excalibur that no eye could have told the difference betwixt the one and the other. And Queen Morgana le Fay kept both swords by her until her purposes should have been fulfilled.
 
It befell upon a certain day that King Arthur proclaimed a hunt, and he and all of his Court were party thereunto.
Queen Morgana le Fay giveth a horse to King Arthur.
Now the day before this hunt took place Queen Morgana le Fay came to King Arthur and said, “Brother, I have here for thee a very beautiful and noble horse which I intend to give thee as a gift of love.” Therewith she called aloud and there came two grooms bringing a horse as black as jet and all beset with trappings and harness of silver. And the horse was of such extraordinary beauty that neither King Arthur nor anybody who was with him had ever before seen its like for beauty. So a wonderful delight possessed the King at sight of the horse and he said, “Sister, this is the noblest gift I have had given to me for this long time.” “Ha! brother,” quoth Queen Morgana, “doth that horse then belike thee?” “Yea,” said King Arthur, “it belikes me more than any horse that I ever beheld before.” “Then,” quoth Queen Morgana, “consider it as a gift of reconciliation betwixt thee and me. And in sign of that reconciliation I beg of thee that thou wilt ride that horse forth upon the hunt to-morrow day.” And King Arthur said, “I will do so.{183}”
So the next day he rode forth to the hunt upon that horse as he said that he would do.
King Arthur rideth a-hunting.
Now it happened some time after noon that the hounds started a hart of extraordinary size, and the King and all of his Court followed the chase with great eagerness. But the horse of King Arthur soon out-stripped all the other horses saving only that of a certain very honorable and worthy knight of the Court hight Sir Accalon of Gaul. So Sir Accalon and the King rode at a great pace through the forest, and they were so eager with the chase that they wist not whither they were riding. And at last they overtook the hart and found that it was embushed in a certain very thick and tangled part of the forest, and there King Arthur slew the stag, and so the chase was ended.
King Arthur and Sir Accalon of Gaul are lost in the forest.
Now after this had come to pass, the King and Sir Accalon would have retraced their way whither they had come, but in a little they perceived that they were lost in the mazes of the woodland and wist not where they were. For they had followed the chase so far that they were in an altogether strange country. So they wandered hither and thither at great length until eventide, at which time they were oppressed with hunger and weariness. Then King Arthur said to Sir Accalon, “Messire, meseems we shall have nowhere to rest ourselves to-night unless it be beneath a tree in this forest.”
To this Sir Accalon made reply, “Lord, if thou wilt follow my counsel thou wilt let our horses seek their own way through this wilderness, so, haply, because of the instinct of such creatures, they shall bring us unto some place of habitation.”
Now this advice appeared to be very good to King Arthur, wherefore he did as Sir Accalon advised and let loose his bridle-rein and allowed his horse to travel as it listed. So King Arthur’s horse went along a certain path, and Sir Accalon followed after the King. And they went a great pass in this wise, and the night was descending upon them in the forest.
But, before it was entirely dark, they emerged out of that forest and into an open place where they beheld before them a very wide estuary, as it were an inlet of the sea. And before them was a beach of sand, very smooth, and white, and they two went down to that beach and stood upon the shore, and they wist not what to do, for there was no habitation in sight in any direction.
King Arthur and Sir Accalon see a wonderful ship.
Now, whiles they stood there a-doubt, they suddenly perceived a ship at a very great distance away. And this ship approached where they{184} perceived that it was of a very strange and wonderful appearance, for it was painted in many divers colors, very gaudy and brilliant, and the sails were all of cloth of silk, woven in divers colors and embroidered with figures like to the figures of a tapestry; and King Arthur was very greatly amazed at the appearance of that ship.
Now, as they stood so watching the ship, they perceived that it drew nigher and nigher to that place where they were, and in a little it beached itself upon the shore of sand not very far away from them.
Then King Arthur said to Sir Accalon, “Sir, let us go forward to the shore where we may look into this ship, for never did I see its like before in all of my life, wherefore I have a thought that maybe it is fay.”
So they two went to where the ship was and they stood upon the shore and looked down into it, and at first they thought that there was no one upon board of the ship, for it appeared to be altogether deserted. But as they stood there marvelling at the wonderfulness of that ship and at the manner in which it had come thither, they beheld, of a sudden, that certain curtains that hung before an apartment at the farther extremity of the ship were parted asunder and there came forth from that place twelve very beautiful damsels. Each of these was clad in a rich garment of scarlet satin very bright and shining, and each wore around her head a circlet of gold, and each had many bracelets of gold upon her arms. These damsels came forward unto where the two knights were and they said, “Welcome, King Arthur!” And they said, “Welcome, Sir Accalon!”
At this King Arthur was very much astonished that they should know him, and he said, “Fair ladies, how is this? Ye appear to know me very well, but I know ye not. Who are ye that know me and my companion and call us by name?”
Unto this the chiefest of those damsels made reply, “Sir, we are part fay and we know all about you; and we know how that ye have been following a very long chase; and we know that ye are aweary, anhungered, and athirst. Wherefore we beseech ye that ye come aboard of this ship and rest and refresh yourselves with food and drink.”
Now, this appeared to King Arthur to be a very bel-adventure, wherefore he said to Sir Accalon, “Messire, I have a great mind for to go aboard this ship and to follow out this adventure.” And Sir Accalon said, “Lord, if thou goest, I will go also.”
King Arthur and Sir Accalon enter the ship of damoiselles.
So those ladies let fall a gangplank from the ship and King Arthur and Sir Accalon drave their horses up the gangplank and aboard the ship, and{185} sailed away as it had come—very swiftly—and it was now the early night-time with the moon very round and full in the sky like to a disk of pure shining silver.
Then those twelve damoiselles aided King Arthur and Sir Accalon to dismount; and some took their horses away and others led t............