So Sir Bedivere entered the city and he said, “Who is here?” They say to him, “It is the Archbishop of Canterbury who is here.” Sir Bedivere said to them, “Take me to him.” [Sidenote: _He telleth the Archbishop what hath befallen._] So they took him to where the Archbishop was, and several other bishops were with him. And when the Archbishop beheld Sir Bedivere he said, “Sir, why are you so pale?” Then Sir Bedivere said, “Sir, I am pale because of all that I have beheld.” Then Sir Bedivere told the Archbishop and those who were with him of that great battle they had fought the day before between Salisbury and the sea. And he told him of all that had happened in that battle and of the knights who were slain therein. And he told him how that Sir Mordred was slain and how King Arthur had been wounded by Sir Mordred and had departed at night in that boat as aforetold of. To all this the Archbishop listened with great astonishment and he cried out, “How is this, and what is this thou tellest me? Is King Arthur gone, and has that good and wise King disappeared thus mysteriously from amongst us?” And he said, “What next of kin doth the King leave behind him?” Sir Bedivere said, “His nighest of kin is Sir Constantine of Cornwall, who is cousin unto Sir Gawaine.” The Archbishop said, “Him then shall we crown to be the next King of Britain. For so will he succeed in rightful line from the strain of King Uther Pendragon.” And so it was done as the Archbishop said, for shortly after that Sir Constantine of Cornwall was crowned King of Britain at Camelot--which same, saith the history of these things, is Winchester of these present days. * * * * * So I have told you of the Passing of Arthur, which in all the other histories of those things is told as I have told it. But of that which happened thereafter there are many distinct and separate histories. But that history which hath been accepted of old by the people of England is this: That King Arthur did not die, but that he was taken by Queen Morgana le Fay and by those two other queens to Avalon, and that there he was salved so that he did not die. And that history saith that he lives there yet, and that some day he shall come back to Britain as he promised to do, and that when he thus shall come there, there shall likewise come continual peace and plenty and joy and happiness as he promised. [Sidenote: _Concerning Avalon._]