Above all were the
figures of the three queens who were to help Arthur in time of
need.

The three looked till their eyes were dazzled. Then they heard a
peal of music, and the gate slowly opened. An old man with a long
gray beard came out to greet them, and returning led them up past
the gardens and groves and roofs and towers of Camelot to
Arthur's great palace on the summit of the hill.

Gareth hardly thought of the splendors of the palace. He
approached the arched doorway of the Assembly Hall, thinking
only as his heart beat quickly, that at last he was to see the
good King Arthur. Even before he entered he heard the voice of
the king. For it was one of the days when Arthur was giving
judgment to his people.

The king sat on a throne made of gold and ivory and ebony. On its
arms and back were carved great dragons. Arthur wore a gold crown
which was not brighter than his own beautiful hair and beard. His
blue eyes were as calm and clear as the sky in summer time. His
trusty knights stood about him on each side of the throne. The
tallest of these, who had a worn, browned face, and piercing dark
eyes, under frowning brows, must be, Gareth knew, the famous
knight, Sir Lancelot.

As Gareth entered, a widow came forward and cried to Arthur:

"Hear me, oh, King! Your father, King Uther, took away a field
from my husband, who is now dead. The king promised us gold, but
he gave us no gold, nor would he return our field."

Then Arthur said:

"Which would you rather have, the gold or the field?"

The woman wept, saying:

"Oh, King, my dead husband loved the field. Give it back to me."

"You shall have your field again," said Arthur, "and besides I
will give you three times the amount of gold it is worth to pay
you for the years King Uther had it."

Gareth thought that Arthur was indeed a just king. And while this
was passing through his mind, another widow came forward and
cried:

"Hear me, oh, King! Heretofore you have been my enemy. You killed
my husband with your own hands. It is hard for me to ask justice
or favor of you. Yet I must. My husband's brother took my son and
had him slain, and has now stolen his land. So I ask you for a
knight who will do battle and get my son's land for me, and
revenge me for his death."

Then a good knight stepped forward and said:

"Sir King, I am her kinsman. Let me do battle for her and right
her wrongs."

But Sir Kay, Arthur's foster brother, said:

"Lord Arthur,