The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights | Page 5

Constantine, for they shall burn thee
in thy tower. For thine own ruin wast thou traitor to their father, and didst bring the
Saxon heathens to the land. Aurelius and Uther are even now upon thee to revenge their
father's murder; and the brood of the white dragon shall waste thy country, and shall lick
thy blood. Find out some refuge, if thou wilt! but who may escape the doom of God?"
The king heard all this, trembling greatly; and, convicted of his sins, said nothing in reply.
Only he hasted the builders of his tower by day and night, and rested not till he had fled
thereto.
In the meantime, Aurelius, the rightful king, was hailed with joy by the Britons, who
flocked to his standard, and prayed to be led against the Saxons. But he, till he had first
killed Vortigern, would begin no other war. He marched therefore to Cambria, and came
before the tower which the usurper had built. Then, crying out to all his knights, "Avenge

ye on him who hath ruined Britain and slain my father and your king!" he rushed with
many thousands at the castle walls. But, being driven back again and yet again, at length
he thought of fire, and ordered blazing brands to be cast into the building from all sides.
These finding soon a proper fuel, ceased not to rage, till spreading to a mighty
conflagration, they burned down the tower and Vortigern within it.
Then did Aurelius turn his strength against Hengist and the Saxons, and, defeating them
in many places, weakened their power for a long season, so that the land had peace.
Anon the king, making many journeys to and fro, restoring ruined churches and, creating
order, came to the monastery near Salisbury, where all those British knights lay buried
who had been slain there by the treachery of Hengist. For when in former times Hengist
had made a solemn truce with Vortigern, to meet in peace and settle terms, whereby
himself and all his Saxons should depart from Britain, the Saxon soldiers carried every
one of them beneath his garment a long dagger, and, at a given signal, fell upon the
Britons, and slew them, to the number of nearly five hundred.
The sight of the place where the dead lay moved Aurelius to great sorrow, and he cast
about in his mind how to make a worthy tomb over so many noble martyrs, who had died
there for their country.
When he had in vain consulted many craftsmen and builders, he sent, by the advice of the
archbishop, for Merlin, and asked him what to do. "If you would honour the
burying-place of these men," said Merlin, "with an everlasting monument, send for the
Giants' Dance which is in Killaraus, a mountain in Ireland; for there is a structure of stone
there which none of this age could raise without a perfect knowledge of the arts. They are
stones of a vast size and wondrous nature, and if they can be placed here as they are there,
round this spot of ground, they will stand for ever."
At these words of Merlin, Aurelius burst into laughter, and said, "How is it possible to
remove such vast stones from so great a distance, as if Britain, also, had no stones fit for
the work?"
"I pray the king," said Merlin, "to forbear vain laughter; what I have said is true, for those
stones are mystical and have healing virtues. The giants of old brought them from the
furthest coast of Africa, and placed them in Ireland while they lived in that country: and
their design was to make baths in them, for use in time of grievous illness. For if they
washed the stones and put the sick into the water, it certainly healed them, as also it did
them that were wounded in battle; and there is no stone among them but hath the same
virtue still."
When the Britons heard this, they resolved to send for the stones, and to make war upon
the people of Ireland if they offered to withhold them. So, when they had chosen Uther
the king's brother for their chief, they set sail, to the number of 15,000 men, and came to
Ireland. There Gillomanius, the king, withstood them fiercely, and not till after a great
battle could they approach the Giants' Dance, the sight of which filled them with joy and
admiration. But when they sought to move the stones, the strength of all the army was in

vain, until Merlin, laughing at their failures, contrived machines of wondrous cunning,
which took them down with ease, and placed them in the ships.
When they had brought the whole to Salisbury, Aurelius, with the crown upon his head,
kept for