Then Lancelot sprang to the ground and the battle went on as before, Gawaine's strength increasing hour by hour. But Lancelot, feeling this, warily kept his strength and his wind, keeping under cover of his shield, and tracing and traversing back and forth, to break the strength and courage of his foe. As for Gawaine, he put forth all his might and power to destroy Lancelot, and for three hours pressed him so fiercely that he could barely defend himself. But when noon passed, and Lancelot felt Gawaine's strength again decline, he said,-- "I have proved you twice, Sir Gawaine. By this magic trick of your strength increasing you have deceived many a valiant knight. You have done your worst; now you shall see of what metal I am made." Then he attacked him fiercely, and Gawaine defended himself with all his power; but at length there fell such a heavy blow on his helmet and on the old wound, that he sank to the earth in a swoon. When he came to himself again, he struck feebly at Lancelot as he lay, and cried spitefully,-- "Thou false traitor, I am not yet slain. Come near me, and do this battle to the uttermost." "I shall do no more than I have done," said Lancelot. "When I see you on your feet again I shall stand ready to fight you to the bitter end. But to smite a wounded and prostrate man!--God defend me from such a shame." And he turned and went towards the city, while Gawaine with spiteful malice called him traitor, and vowed he would never cease to fight with him till one of them was dead. A month now passed away, during which Gawaine lay sick of his wound. As he slowly recovered, the old battle-hunger for Lancelot's blood returned to his heart, and he impatiently awaited the day when he could again take the field. But before this day arrived, news came from England that put a sudden end to the war; tidings of such threatening aspect that King Arthur was forced to return in all haste to his own realm. CHAPTER V. THE STING OF THE VIPER. Disastrous, indeed, were the news from England. King Arthur had made the fatal mistake of placing a villain and dastard in charge of his realm, for Mordred had taken advantage of his absence to turn traitor, and seek to seize the crown and sceptre of England as his own. News moved but slowly from over seas in those days, and Mordred, with treasonable craft, had letters written as though they came from abroad, which said that King Arthur had been slain in battle with Sir Lancelot. Having spread this lie far and wide, he called the lords together to London in parliament, and so managed that they voted him king. Then he was crowned at Canterbury, and held a feast for fifteen days, after which he went to Winchester, where Guenever was, and publicly declared that he would wed his uncle's widow.