Needs the Queen these defenders? COLEGREVANCE What fool boy’s talk is this? A paramour The more, say I. AGRAVAINE False to one, false to all. LAVAINE Liar! AGRAVAINE I will have blood for that. COLEGREVANCE And I. BEDIVERE For shame! Be silent. Here in the King’s hall! AGRAVAINE Off, masks! We have slobbered phrases long enough. The Queen confessed, you know it by her eye And cheek of flame that spoke clear as a trumpet “Launcelot is mine! None else shall have his love While I have breath and can deceive the King.” Shall the King be deceived? BORS Drag him away! AGRAVAINE To the King! COLEGREVANCE, MADOR, PATRICE To the King! BEDIVERE, LUCAN, KAY, BORS To the King? No. GAWAINE Silence! To the King? And shame The very floor we stand on? To the King, And with what pitiable pretext? Why, But that the wine is flown into your brains, What colour is in this tale? The morning air Will blow it into nothing. AGRAVAINE That we’ll see. BEDIVERE Mordred, you vowed devotion to the Queen. MORDRED I have said naught against her. BORS Hypocrite! AGRAVAINE Do you dare insult my brother? LUCAN Are Britain’s peers Grown tavern brawlers? KAY Launcelot shall hear you And prove upon your bodies that you lie. AGRAVAINE The truth is out, and Launcelot shall die For all his champions. PATRICE Come we to the King. BEDIVERE Are knightly vows then turned to drunkards’ oaths? KAY Is loyalty in the gutter? GAWAINE Shame on all If one word come to the King’s ear of this. BEDIVERE And with this hubbub we affront the Queen Most shamefully. Remove we all, at once. (_The knights pass out in great turmoil_, MORDRED _lingering last_.) MORDRED I have pulled the sluice. Now let the torrent stream. [_Exit._ GUENEVERE _enters with one of her women_. GUENEVERE Sir Launcelot, have you found him? WOMAN He is here. (GUENEVERE _dismisses the woman with a gesture_. LAUNCELOT _enters, grave and preoccupied_.) LAUNCELOT My Queen! GUENEVERE