. THE COMING OF SIR GALAHAD
XXIV. HOW SIR GALAHAD WON THE RED-CROSS SHIELD
XXV. THE ADVENTURES OF SIR PERCIVALE
XXVI. THE ADVENTURES OF SIR BORS
XXVII. THE ADVENTURES OF SIR LAUNCELOT
XXVIII. HOW SIR LAUNCELOT SAW THE HOLY GRAIL
XXIX. THE END OF THE QUEST

BOOK IX.--THE FAIR MAID OF ASTOLAT

XXX. THE FAIR MAID OF ASTOLAT

BOOK X.--QUEEN GUENEVERE

XXXI. HOW MORDRED PLOTTED AGAINST SIR LAUNCELOT
XXXII. THE TRIAL OF THE QUEEN
XXXIII. HOW SIR GAWAIN DEFIED SIR LAUNCELOT
XXXIV. HOW KING ARTHUR AND SIR GAWAIN WENT TO FRANCE

BOOK XI.--THE MORTE D'ARTHUR

XXXV. MORDRED THE TRAITOR
XXXVI. THE BATTLE IN THE WEST
XXXVII. THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
XXXVIII. THE DEATH OF SIR LAUNCELOT AND OF THE QUEEN

INTRODUCTION

Among the stories of world-wide renown, not the least stirring are
those that have gathered about the names of national heroes. The
_AEneid_, the _Nibelungenlied_, the _Chanson de Roland_, the _Morte
D'Arthur_,--they are not history, but they have been as National
Anthems to the races, and their magic is not yet dead.

In olden times our forefathers used to say that the world had seen
nine great heroes, three heathen, three Jewish, and three
Christian; among the Christian heroes was British Arthur, and of
none is the fame greater. Even to the present day, his name
lingers in many widely distant places. In the peninsula of Gower, a
huge slab of rock, propped up on eleven short pillars, is still
called Arthur's Stone; the lofty ridge which looks down upon
Edinburgh bears the name of Arthur's Seat; and--strangest, perhaps,
of all--in the Franciscan Church of far-away Innsbrueck, the finest
of the ten statues of ancestors guarding the tomb of the Emperor
Maximilian I. is that of King Arthur. There is hardly a country in
Europe without its tales of the Warrior-King; and yet of any real
Arthur history tells us little, and that little describes, not the
knightly conqueror, but the king of a broken people, struggling for
very life.

More than fifteen centuries ago, this country, now called England,
was inhabited by a Celtic race known as the Britons, a warlike
people, divided into numerous tribes constantly at war with each
other. But in the first century of the Christian era they were
conquered by the Romans, who added Britain to their vast empire and
held it against attacks from without and rebellions from within by
stationing legions, or troops of soldiers, in st