Chapter Chapter 9 · THE TOURNAMENT

THE TOURNAMENT

They were always having grand tournaments there at Camelot; and

very stirring and picturesque and ridiculous human bull-fights

they were, too, but just a little wearisome to the practical mind.

However, I was generally on hand--for two reasons: a man must

not hold himself aloof from the things which his friends and his

community have at heart if he would be liked--especially as

a statesman; and both as business man and statesman I wanted

to study the tournament and see if I couldn't invent an improvement

on it. That reminds me to remark, in passing, that the very first

official thing I did, in my administration--and it was on the very

first day of it, too--was to start a patent office; for I knew

that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was

just a crab, and couldn't travel any way but sideways or backways.

Things ran along, a tournament nearly every week; and now and then

the boys used to want me to take a hand--I mean Sir Launcelot and

the rest--but I said I would by and by; no hurry yet, and too much

government machinery to oil up and set to rights and start a-going.

We had one tournament which was continued from day to day during

more than a week, and as many as five hundred knights took part

in it, from first to last. They were weeks gathering. They came

on horseback from everywhere; from the very ends of the country,

and even from beyond the sea; and many brought ladies, and all

brought squires and troops of servants. It was a most gaudy and

gorgeous crowd, as to costumery, and very characteristic of the

country and the time, in the way of high animal spirits, innocent

indecencies of language, and happy-hearted indifference to morals.

It was fight or look on, all day and every day; and sing, gamble,

dance, carouse half the night every night. They had a most noble

good time. You never saw such people. Those banks of beautiful

ladies, shining in their barbaric splendors, would see a knight

sprawl from his horse in the lists with a lanceshaft the thickness

of your ankle clean through him and the blood spouting, and instead

of fainting they would clap their hands and crowd each other for a

better view; only sometimes one would dive into her handkerchief,

and look ostentatiously broken-hearted, and then you could lay

two to one that there was a scandal there somewhere and she was

afraid the public hadn't found it out.

The noise at night would have been annoying to me ordinarily, but

I didn't mind it in the present circumstances, because it kept me

from hearing the quacks detaching legs and arms from the day's

cripples. They ruined an uncommon good old cross-cut saw for me,

and broke the saw-buck, too, but I let it pass. And as for my

axe--well, I made up my mind that the next time I lent an axe

to a surgeon I would pick my century.

I not only watched this tournament from day to day, but detailed

an intelligent priest from my Department of Public Morals and

Agriculture, and ordered him to report it; for it was my purpose

by and by, when I should have gotten the people along far enough,

to start a newspaper. The first thing you want in a new country,

is a patent office; then work up your school system; and after that,

out with your paper. A newspaper has its faults, and plenty of them,

but no matter, it's hark from the tomb for a dead nation, and don't

you forget it. You can't resurrect a dead nation without it; there

isn't any way. So I wanted to sample things, and be finding out

what sort of reporter-material I might be able to rake together out

of the sixth century when I should come to need it.

Well, the priest did very well, considering. He got in all

the details, and that is a good thing in a local item: you see,

he had kept books for the undertaker-department of his church

when he was younger, and there, you know, the money's in the details;

the more details, the more swag: bearers, mutes, candles, prayers

--everything counts; and if the bereaved don't buy prayers enough

you mark up your candles with a forked pencil, and your bill

shows up all right. And he had a good knack at getting in the

complimentary thing here and there about a knight that was likely

to advertise--no, I mean a knight that had influence; and he also

had a neat gift of exaggeration, for in his time he had kept door

for a pious hermit who lived in a sty and worked miracles.

Of course this novice's report lacked whoop and crash and lurid

description, and therefore wanted the true ring; but its antique

wording was quaint and sweet and simple, and full of the fragrances

and flavors of the time, and these little merits made up in a measure

for its more important lacks. Here is an extract from it:

Then Sir Brian de les Isles and Grummore Grummorsum, knights of the

castle, encountered with Sir Aglovale and Sir Tor, and Sir Tor

smote down Sir Grummore Grummorsum to the earth. Then came Sir

Carados of the dolorous tower, and Sir Turquine, knights of the

castle, and there encountered with them Sir Percivale de Galis and

Sir Lamorak de Galis, that were two brethren, and there encountered

Sir Percivale with Sir Carados, and either brake their spears unto

their hands, and then Sir Turquine with Sir Lamorak, and either of

them smote down other, horse and all, to the earth, and either

parties rescued other and horsed them again. And Sir Arnold, and

Sir Gauter, knights of the castle, encountered with Sir Brandiles

and Sir Kay, and these four knights encountered mightily, and brake

their spears to their hands. Then came Sir Pertolope from the

castle, and there encountered with him Sir Lionel, and there Sir

Pertolope the green knight smote down Sir Lionel, brother to Sir

Launcelot. All this was marked by noble heralds, who bare him

best, and their names. Then Sir Bleobaris brake his spear upon Sir

Gareth, but of that stroke Sir Bleobaris fell to the earth. When

Sir Galihodin saw that, he bad Sir Gareth keep him, and Sir Gareth

smote him to the earth. Then Sir Galihud gat a spear to avenge his

brother, and in the same wise Sir Gareth served him, and Sir

Dinadan and his brother La Cote Male Taile, and Sir Sagramore le

Disirous, and Sir Dodinas le Savage; all these he bare down with

one spear. When King Aswisance of Ireland saw Sir Gareth fare so

he marvelled what he might be, that one time seemed green, and

another time, at his again coming, he seemed blue. And thus at

every course that he rode to and fro he changed his color, so that

there might neither king nor knight have ready cognizance of him.

Then Sir Agwisance the King of Ireland encountered with Sir Gareth,

and there Sir Gareth smote him from his horse, saddle and all. And

then came King Carados of Scotland, and Sir Gareth smote him down

horse and man. And in the same wise he served King Uriens of the

land of Gore. And then there came in Sir Bagdemagus, and Sir

Gareth smote him down horse and man to the earth. And Bagdemagus's

son Meliganus brake a spear upon Sir Gareth mightily and knightly.

And then Sir Galahault the noble prince cried on high, Knight with

the many colors, well hast thou justed; now make thee ready that I

may just with thee. Sir Gareth heard him, and he gat a great

spear, and so they encountered together, and there the prince brake

his spear; but Sir Gareth smote him upon the left side of the helm,

that he reeled here and there, and he had fallen down had not his

men recovered him. Truly, said King Arthur, that knight with the

many colors is a good knight. Wherefore the king called unto him

Sir Launcelot, and prayed him to encounter with that knight. Sir,

said Launcelot, I may as well find in my heart for to forbear him

at this time, for he hath had travail enough this day, and when a

good knight doth so well upon some day, it is no good knight's part

to let him of his worship, and, namely, when he seeth a knight hath

done so great labour; for peradventure, said Sir Launcelot, his

quarrel is here this day, and peradventure he is best beloved with

this lady of all that be here, for I see well he paineth himself

and enforceth him to do great deeds, and therefore, said Sir

Launcelot, as for me, this day he shall have the honour; though it

lay in my power to put him from it, I would not.

There was an unpleasant little episode that day, which for reasons

of state I struck out of my priest's report. You will have noticed

that Garry was doing some great fighting in the engagement. When

I say Garry I mean Sir Gareth. Garry was my private pet name

for him; it suggests that I had a deep affection for him, and that

was the case. But it was a private pet name only, and never spoken

aloud to any one, much less to him; being a noble, he would not

have endured a familiarity like that from me. Well, to proceed:

I sat in the private box set apart for me as the king's minister.

While Sir Dinadan was waiting for his turn to enter the lists,

he came in there and sat down and began to talk; for he was always

making up to me, because I was a stranger and he liked to have

a fresh market for his jokes, the most of them having reached that

stage of wear where the teller has to do the laughing himself while

the other person looks sick. I had always responded to his efforts

as well as I could, and felt a very deep and real kindness for him,

too, for the reason that if by malice of fate he knew the one

particular anecdote which I had heard oftenest and had most hated

and most loathed all my life, he had at least spared it me. It was

one which I had heard attributed to every humorous person who

had ever stood on American soil, from Columbus down to Artemus Ward.

It was about a humorous lecturer who flooded an ignorant audience

with the killingest jokes for an hour and never got a laugh; and

then when he was leaving, some gray simpletons wrung him gratefully

by the hand and said it had been the funniest thing they had ever

heard, and “it was all they could do to keep from laughin' right

out in meetin'.” That anecdote never saw the day that it was

worth the telling; and yet I had sat under the telling of it

hundreds and thousands and millions and billions of times, and

cried and cursed all the way through. Then who can hope to know

what my feelings were, to hear this armor-plated ass start in on

it again, in the murky twilight of tradition, before the dawn of

history, while even Lactantius might be referred to as “the late

Lactantius,” and the Crusades wouldn't be born for five hundred

years yet? Just as he finished, the call-boy came; so, haw-hawing

like a demon, he went rattling and clanking out like a crate of

loose castings, and I knew nothing more. It was some minutes

before I came to, and then I opened my eyes just in time to see

Sir Gareth fetch him an awful welt, and I unconsciously out with

the prayer, “I hope to gracious he's killed!” But by ill-luck,

before I had got half through with the words, Sir Gareth crashed

into Sir Sagramor le Desirous and sent him thundering over his

horse's crupper, and Sir Sagramor caught my remark and thought

I meant it for _him_.

Well, whenever one of those people got a thing into his head,

there was no getting it out again. I knew that, so I saved my

breath, and offered no explanations. As soon as Sir Sagramor

got well, he notified me that there was a little account to settle

between us, and he named a day three or four years in the future;

place of settlement, the lists where the offense had been given.

I said I would be ready when he got back. You see, he was going

for the Holy Grail. The boys all took a flier at the Holy Grail

now and then. It was a several years' cruise. They always put in

the long absence snooping around, in the most conscientious way,

though none of them had any idea where the Holy Grail really was,

and I don't think any of them actually expected to find it, or

would have known what to do with it if he _had_ run across it.

You see, it was just the Northwest Passage of that day, as you may

say; that was all. Every year expeditions went out holy grailing,

and next year relief expeditions went out to hunt for _them_. There

was worlds of reputation in it, but no money. Why, they actually

wanted _me_ to put in! Well, I should smile.