HOW SIR LAUNCELOT DEPARTED FROM THE KING AND FROM JOYOUS GARD XXXVIII. HOW KING ARTHUR AND SIR GAWAINE INVADED SIR LAUNCELOT'S REALM XXXIX. OF SIR MORDRED'S TREASON XL. OF ARTHUR'S LAST GREAT BATTLE IN THE WEST XLI. OF THE PASSING OF KING ARTHUR XLII. OF THE END OF THIS BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS KING ARTHUR . . . . . . . . . . . . (W. B. Margetson) _Frontispiece_ THE DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . (J. Pettie, R.A.) MERLIN AND NIMUE . . . . . . . . . . (Burne-Jones) SIR TRISTRAM AND THE FAIR ISOUD . . (D. G. Rosetti) SIR GALAHAD . . . . . . . . . . . . (G. F. Watts) SIR LAUNCELOT AT THE CROSS . . . . . (Stella Langdale) ELAINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (J. M. Strudwick) THE PASSING OF ARTHUR . . . . . . . (Stella Langdale) "We have from the kind Creator a variety of mental powers, to which we must not neglect giving their proper culture in our earliest years, and which cannot be cultivated either by logic or metaphysics, Latin or Greek. We have an imagination, before which, since it should not seize upon the very first conceptions that chance to present themselves, we ought to place the fittest and most beautiful images, and thus accustom and practise the mind to recognise and love the beautiful everywhere." Quoted from Wieland by Goethe in his Autobiography Introduction Among the best liked stories of five or six hundred years ago were those which told of chivalrous deeds--of joust and tourney and knightly adventure. To be sure, these stories were not set forth in printed books, for there were no printed books as early as the times of the first three King Edwards, and few people could have read them if there had been any. But children and grown people alike were eager to hear these old-time tales read or recited by the minstrels, and the interest in them has continued in some measure through all the changing years and tastes. We now, in the times of the seventh King Edward, still find them far more worth our while than many modern stories. For us they have a special interest, because of home setting and Christian basis, and they may well share in our attention with the legends of Greece and Rome. In these early romances of chivalry, Arthur and his knights of the Round Table are by far the most popular heroes, and the finding of the Holy Grail is the highest achievement of knightly valour. The material for the Arthur stories came from many countries and from many different periods of history. Much of it is wholly fanciful, but the writers connected all the incidents directly or indirectly with the old Briton king of the fifth century, who was the model of knighthood, "without fear and without reproach."