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.
 
 <10>
 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
 Therewithal they went unto the Archbishop, and told him how the
 sword was achieved, and by whom; and on Twelfth-day all the
 barons came thither, and to assay to take the sword, who that
 would assay.  But there afore them all, there might none take it
 out but Arthur; wherefore there were many lords wroth, and said
 it was great shame unto them all and the realm, to be
 overgoverned with a boy of no high blood born.  And so they fell
 out at that time that it was put off till Candlemas and then all
 the barons should meet there again; but always the ten knights
 were ordained to watch the sword day and night, and so they set a
 pavilion over the stone and the sword, and five always watched. 
 So at Candlemas many more great lords came thither for to have
 won the sword, but there might none prevail.  And right as Arthur
 did at Christmas, he did at Candlemas, and pulled out the sword
 easily, whereof the barons were sore aggrieved and put it off in
 delay till the high feast of Easter.  And as Arthur sped before,
 so did he at Easter; yet there were some of the great lords had
 indignation that Arthur should be king, and put it off in a delay
 till the feast of Pentecost.
 
 Then the Archbishop of Canterbury by Merlin's providence let
 purvey then of the best knights that they might get, and such
 knights as Uther Pendragon loved best <11 CH. VII  HOW KING
 ARTHUR WAS CROWNED>and most trusted in his days.  And such
 knights were put about Arthur as Sir Baudwin of Britain, Sir Kay,
 Sir Ulfius, Sir Brastias.  All these, with many other, were
 always about Arthur, day and night, till the feast of Pentecost.