Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK IV CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XI

How Accolon confessed the treason of Morgan le Fay, King
Arthur's sister, and how she would have done slay him.

THEN Sir Accolon bethought him, and said, Woe worth this sword,
for by it have I got my death.  It may well be, said the king. 
Now, sir, said Accolon, I will tell you; this sword hath been in
my keeping the most part of this twelvemonth; and Morgan le Fay,
King Uriens' wife, sent it me yesterday by a dwarf, to this
intent, that I should slay King Arthur, her brother.  For ye
shall understand King Arthur is the man in the world that she
most hateth, because he is most of worship and of prowess of any
of her blood; also she loveth me out of measure as paramour, and
I her again; and if she might bring about to slay Arthur by her
crafts, she would slay her husband King Uriens lightly, and then
had she me devised <119>to be king in this land, and so to reign,
and she to be my queen; but that is now done, said Accolon, for I
am sure of my death.  Well, said Sir Arthur, I feel by you ye
would have been king in this land.  It had been great damage to
have destroyed your lord, said Arthur.  It is truth, said
Accolon, but now I have told you truth, wherefore I pray you tell
me of whence ye are, and of what court?  O Accolon, said King
Arthur, now I let thee wit that I am King Arthur, to whom thou
hast done great damage.  When Accolon heard that he cried aloud,
Fair, sweet lord, have mercy on me, for I knew not you.  O Sir
Accolon, said King Arthur, mercy shalt thou have, because I feel
by thy words at this time thou knewest not my person; but I
understand well by thy words that thou hast agreed to the death
of my person, and therefore thou art a traitor; but I wite thee
the less, for my sister Morgan le Fay by her false crafts made
thee to agree and consent to her false lusts, but I shall be sore
avenged upon her an I live, that all Christendom shall speak of
it; God knoweth I have honoured her and worshipped her more than
all my kin, and more have I trusted her than mine own wife and
all my kin after.

Then Sir Arthur called the keepers of the field, and said, Sirs,
come hither, for here are we two knights that have fought unto a
great damage unto us both, and like each one of us to have slain
other, if it had happed so; and had any of us known other, here
had been no battle, nor stroke stricken.  Then all aloud cried
Accolon unto all the knights and men that were then there
gathered together, and said to them in this manner, O lords, this
noble knight that I have fought withal, the which me sore
repenteth, is the most man of prowess, of manhood, and of worship
in the world, for it is himself King Arthur, our alther liege
lord, and with mishap and with misadventure have I done this
battle with the king and lord that I am holden withal.

<120>