Английские легенды / The English Legends - стр. 2

“Let it be so[8],” said Uther. “You will have the child.”

“Get ready,” said Merlin, “Tonight you will lie with Igraine in the castle of Tintagil. You will look like her husband the duke, Sir Ulfius will look like Sir Brastias, one of the duke’s knights, and I will look like Sir Jordanus, another of the duke’s knights. Do not talk a lot with her nor her men, just say that you are sick. Go to bed, and rise in the early morning, and I will come to bring you back.”

They rode to the castle of Tintagil. The duke saw them depart from the siege of Terrabil, so came out to fight with the king’s men. That night he was killed even before Uther came to Tintagil.

After the death of the duke, king Uther laid with Igraine, looking like the duke three hours after the duke was dead. In the early morning Merlin came to Uther to take him back. Uther kissed lady Igraine and departed in all haste.

When the lady heard that her husband the duke was killed that night, she wondered, who came to her chambers looking like the duke. She mourned privately, but didn’t tell anybody. Soon, the lords of king Uther asked him to end the war between him and Igraine. He was happy to do that, and he made Sir Ulfius to be the messenger.

“Now we will do well,” said Ulfius. “Our king is a strong man, and he doesn’t have a wife, and my lady Igraine is a fair lady. It would be great joy for us all and it might please the king to make her his queen.”

So king Uther took Igraine as a wife and made her his queen.

But the queen was pregnant, and soon everyone could see that. So the king came to her and asked who the father of the child was. She didn’t want to tell him.

“Tell me the truth,” said the king, “And I promise I will love you even more after that.”

“I will tell you the truth,” said Igraine. “The same night my lord was killed, a man came to me at the castle of Tintagil, and he looked exactly like my lord, and with him were two men looking like my lord’s knights Sir Brastias and Sir Jordanus. So I went into bed with him, as I should have with my lord, and that night we conceived a child.”

“You’re telling me the truth,” said Uther, “Because it was I who came to lay with you that night. And I am the father of the child.” And he told her how all of that happened as Merlin planned. She was happy to know that Uther was the father.

Soon Merlin came to the king.

“Sir,” he said, “You swore that you would give the child to me to nourish.”

“As you wish,” Uther said.

“I know a lord of yours in this land,” said Merlin, “his name is Sir Ector, and he is a true and faithful knight, and he owns many parts in England and Wales. Send for him, and tell him that in the name of his love to you, he should put his own child to nourishing of another woman, and that your child should be nourished by Sir Ector’s wife. And when the child is born, have him secretly brought to me unchristened, through the back door of the castle.”