When it had vanished, Morgan le Fay mounted her horse again, and
rode fast after her knights, for the King and Ontzlake were in hot
pursuit, and sore she feared lest they should come up with her
before she might reach the shelter of the Valley of Stones. But she
had rejoined her company of knights before the King had reached the
narrow mouth of the valley. Quickly she bade her men scatter among
the boulders, and then, by her magic art, she turned them all, men
and horses and herself too, into stones, that none might tell the
one from the other.

When King Arthur and Sir Ontzlake reached the valley, they looked
about for some sign of the presence of the Queen or her knights,
but naught might they see though they rode through the valley and
beyond, and returning, searched with all diligence among the rocks
and boulders. Never again was Queen Morgan le Fay seen at Camelot,
nor did she attempt aught afterwards against the welfare of the
King. When she had restored her knights to their proper form, she
hastened with them back to her own land, and there she abode for
the rest of her days until she came with the other queens to carry
Arthur from the field of the Battle in the West.

Nor would the King seek to take vengeance on a woman, though sorely
she had wronged him. His life long, he guarded well the sword
Excalibur, but the sheath no man ever saw again.




CHAPTER VI