CHAPTER VI

How King Arthur pulled out the sword divers times.

Now assay, said Sir Ector unto Sir Kay. And anon he pulled at
the sword with all his might; but it would not be. Now shall ye
assay, said Sir Ector to Arthur. I will well, said Arthur, and
pulled it out easily. And therewithal Sir Ector knelt down to
the earth, and Sir Kay. Alas, said Arthur, my own dear father
and brother, why kneel ye to me? Nay, nay, my lord Arthur, it is
not so; I was never your father nor of your blood, but I wot well
ye are of an higher blood than I weened ye were. And then Sir
Ector told him all, how he was betaken him for to nourish him,
and by whose commandment, and by Merlin's deliverance.

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Then Arthur made great dole when he understood that Sir Ector was
not his father. Sir, said Ector unto Arthur, will ye be my good
and gracious lord when ye are king? Else were I to blame, said
Arthur, for ye are the man in the world that I am most beholden
to, and my good lady and mother your wife, that as well as her
own hath fostered me and kept. And if ever it be God's will that
I be king as ye say, ye shall desire of me what I may do, and I
shall not fail you; God forbid I should fail you Sir, said Sir
Ector, I will ask no more of you, but that ye will make my son,
your foster brother, Sir Kay, seneschal of all your lands. That
shall be done, said Arthur, and more, by the faith of my body,
that never man shall have that office but he, while he and I live