Sir Kay

“ Upon this Percival came very close to Sir Kay and he said: "Thou discourteous tall man; now I tell thee, except that there are so many ladies here present, and one of these a Queen, I would have to do with thee in such a manner as I do not believe would be at all to thy liking. Now, first of all I shall follow yonder uncivil knight and endeavor to avenge this noble Queen for the affront he hath put upon her, and when I have done with him, then will I hope for the time to come in which I shall have to do with thee for laying hands upon this beautiful young lady who was so kind to me just now. ”

“ That is marvel, said the king, that thou knowest not thy name, and thou art the goodliest young man that ever I saw. Then the king betook him to Sir Kay, the steward, and charged him that he should give him of all manner of meats and drinks of the best, and also that he had all manner of finding as though he were a lord’s son. That shall little need, said Sir Kay, to do such cost upon him; for I dare undertake he is a villain born, and never will make man, for and he had come of gentlemen he would have asked of you horse and armour, but such as he is, so he asketh. ”

“ Now when Arthur had entered into that meadow once more, he found Sir Kay awaiting his coming with great impatience of spirit. And when Sir Kay saw him he cried out, very vehemently, “Hast thou got a sword?” And Arthur said, “Yea, I have one here.” Thereupon he opened his cloak and showed Sir Kay what sword it was he had brought.
Now when Sir Kay beheld the sword he immediately knew it, and he wist not what to think or what to say, wherefore he stood for a while, like one turned into a stone, looking upon that sword. Then in awhile he said, in a very strange voice “Where got ye that sword?” ”

“ Upon that Sir Boindegardus laughed in great scorn, and therewith seized the golden goblet from the hands of the page and went out from the pavilion, and mounting his horse rode away bearing that precious chalice with him.
Percival berates Sir Kay.
Then the Queen fell aweeping very sorely from fright and shame, and when young Percival beheld her tears, he could not abide the sight thereof. So he cried out aloud against Sir Kay, saying: "Thou tall man! that was very ill done of thee; for, certes, with or without armor thou shouldst have taken the quarrel of this lady upon thee. ”

“ A mighty tournament was then proclaimed, and after the tournament all the nobles were to attempt to draw out the sword from the anvil. All the great men in the land were to be present and the one who drew the sword was to be proclaimed as King.
Sir Hector de Bonmaison went to the tournament, and with him went his rightful son, Sir Kay, and the boy, Arthur. Sir Kay was a powerful knight famous in war and he intended to win the tournament for the credit of his house. ”

“ Sir Kay and the Loathly Lady
Suddenly Sir Kay reined up his steed, amazed; his eye had caught the gleam of scarlet under the trees, and [Pg 277] as he looked he became aware of a woman, clad in a dress of finest scarlet, sitting between a holly-tree and an oak. “Good greeting to you, Sir Kay,” said the lady, but the steward was too much amazed to answer. Such a face as that of the lady he had never even imagined, and he took no notice of her salutation. ”

“ In the divil’s name shall ye wax fat as a porke hog on good browesse, purveyance for a king! Back to your kitching, knaves! [In consternation the Servants make their escape, by way of the banqueting-hall. Alone, Sir Kay looks about to see that all is in order, kicks a forward log into place upon the hearth, then stands beside the chimney, lost in thought. Speaks as if thinking aloud.] What is it that all women do most desire? By my head I know not, and so to bed. [He is about to go, when there is a knock at the door, at first timid and hesitating, then gaining strength. The Knight starts.] ”

“ At a glance she sees the lonely boy. In a twinkling she knows it is Kay. Her little bare feet carry her like wings across the ice floor. Her arms are round his neck.
“Kay, dear, dear Kay!”
But Kay does not move. He is still and cold as the palace walls.
Little Gerda bursts into tears, hot, scalding tears. Her arms are yet round Kay’s neck, and her tears fall upon his heart of ice. They thaw it. They reach the grain of glass, and it melts away.
And now Kay’s tears fall hot and fast, and as they pour, the tiny bit of glass passes out of his eye, and he sees, he knows, his long-lost playmate. ”

“ So by fortune, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were speaking together at a window and so as they looked out on the Thames, they saw this black barge and marveled what it meant. Then the King called Sir Kay and showed it to him.
[141]
“Go thither,” said the King to Sir Kay, “and take with you Sir Brandiles and Sir Agravaine and bring word what is there.”
Then these knights departed and came to the barge and went in; and there they found the fair maiden lying in a rich bed, and a poor man sitting in the barge’s end and no word would he speak. ”

“ KAY, JOSEPH (1821–1878) , English economist, was born at Salford, Lancashire, on the 27th of February 1821. Educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1848. He was appointed judge of the Salford Hundred court of record in 1862 and in 1869 was made a queen’s counsel. He is best known for a series of works on the social condition of the poor in France, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Austria, the materials for which he gathered on a four years’ tour as travelling bachelor of his university. ”

“ Instead of waiting, as he should have done, until Mr Kay had retired for good, he unlocked the door directly he had passed, and when a muffled crash told him that the house-master was in the dining-room among the chairs, out he came and fled softly upstairs towards his bedroom. He thought that Mr Kay might possibly take it into his head to go round the dormitories to make certain that all the members of his house were in. In which case all would be discovered.
When he reached his room he began to fling off his clothes with feverish haste. Once in bed all would be well. ”

“ Then came in Sir Sagramore le Desirous, Sir Dodinas le Savage, Sir Dinadan, Sir Bruin le Noire, that Sir Kay named La Cote Male Taile, and Sir Kay le Seneschal, Sir Kay de Stranges, Sir Meliot de Logris, Sir Petipase of Winchelsea, Sir Galleron of Galway, Sir Melion of the Mountain, Sir Cardok, Sir Uwaine les Avoutres, and Sir Ozanna le Cure Hardy. ”

“ But, when Fenn came out of the pavilion with Kennedy and Silver, he found a stirring battle in progress. The members of the other houses who had come to look on at the match stood in knots, and gazed with approval at the efforts of Kay's and Blackburn's juniors to wipe each other off the face of the earth. The air was full of shrill battle-cries, varied now and then by a smack or a thud, as some young but strenuous fist found a billet. The fortune of war seemed to be distributed equally so far, and the combatants were just warming to their work. ”

“ Eleven is good enough for second place in the hundred, don't you think? There are lots of others in the house who can do quite decently on the track, if they try. I've been making strict inquiries. Kay's are hot stuff, Jimmy. Heap big medicine. That's what they are."
"You're a wonderful man, Kennedy," said Jimmy Silver. And he meant it. Kennedy's uphill fight at Kay's had appealed to him strongly. He himself had never known what it meant to have to manage a hostile house. He had stepped into his predecessor's shoes at Blackburn's much as the heir to a throne becomes king. ”

“ Bot well thai faucht in diuerß placis sere,
But at last they are nearly all overpowered by numbers.
With multitud yar folk confusit were,
That long in sich wyß mycht thai nocht conteñ.
SIR KAY’S MESSAGE TO SIR HARWY.
Sir Kay sends Gawane’s squire with a message to Sir Harwy that he ought not to suffer the best knight that ever bore arms to be surprised,
3204 Sir kay, that hath sir gawans qsquyaris sen,
He clepit hyme, and haith hyme prayt so,
That to sir harwy the rewell wil he go,
And say to hyme, “ws think hyme ewil awysit ”

“ In vain he and Grant fought. Twice the frail little boat spun around and then seized by a sudden eddy in the current was borne swiftly and relentlessly towards the rapids below.
“We’re goners!” cried Fred.
“Keep your nerve!” shouted Grant fiercely. “You do the steering from the bow. You can see the rocks from there.”
At racehorse speed the canoe shot forward. With every second its momentum increased until it seemed fairly to fly over the water. White-lipped and with jaws set the two boys sat and awaited their fate. From the shore George and John watched with feverish anxiety. ”

“ His companions were not slow to follow his example and a moment later they were whizzing at breakneck speed along the highway.
"Where are we being sent?" demanded Earl, who all this time had been consumed with intense curiosity.
Jacques merely shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know," he said.
"Say," exclaimed Leon suddenly, "what's this driver trying to do; kill us? Personally I'd rather be killed in battle if I must die. An automobile accident seems out of place in war." ”

“ It was hard that a man who on Monday would be bowling against Warner and Beldam, or standing up to Trott and Hearne, should on the preceding Tuesday be sent indoors like a naughty child by a man who stood five-feet-one in his boots, and was devoid of any sort of merit whatever. ”

“ The voice seemed strangely familiar to the ears of both Leon and Earl. They peered eagerly through the darkness to see if they could discover the identity of the speaker. All they could see was the faint outline of some soldier's figure. The man, whoever it was, had a bandage tied around his face.
"Did anyone here want twine?" he asked again.
"Jacques!" cried Leon eagerly. "What are you doing here?"
"Leon, is it you?" demanded Jacques, for it was the daring young Frenchman who had returned. "Where is Earl?" ”

“ After putting on my armor, and leaving there my blessing, I returned to my own court. That horse I still possess, and he is in the stable yonder. And I declare that I would not part with him for the best palfrey in the island of Britain.
"Now, of a truth, Kay, no man ever before confessed to an adventure so much to his own discredit; and verily it seems strange to me that neither before nor since have I heard of any person who knew of this adventure, and that the subject of it should exist within King Arthur's dominions without any other person lighting upon it." ”

“ Fenn had to go over to the gymnasium shortly after this. Jimmy Silver stayed on, talking to Kennedy.
"And bar Kay," said Jimmy, "how do you find the house doing? Any better?"
"Better! It's getting a sort of model establishment. I believe, if we keep pegging away at them, we may win some sort of a cup sooner or later."
"Well, Kay's very nearly won the cricket cup last year. You ought to get it next season, now that you and Fenn are both in the team."
"Oh, I don't know. It'll be a fluke if we do. Still, we're hoping. It isn't every house that's got a county man in it. ”

“ The prospect of reaching a place where the enemy's shells would not be roaring around their ears was a pleasant one to many of the men; the strain of the first line trenches is a heavy one for any man. Others however were displeased, for they had no wish to be absent during any possible fighting.
"The idea of being able to take a bath appeals to me," exclaimed Leon eagerly when he heard of the order. "I am certainly dirty."
"We all are that," laughed Jacques, "but what do you expect? A man can't roll around in the smoke and dirt the way we have the last few days and not get dirty." ”

“ Blackburn's non-combatants, dotted round the boundary, shrieked their applause. Three wickets had fallen for five runs, and life was worth living. Kay's were silent and gloomy.
Billy Silver continued to occupy one end in an immovable manner, but at the other there was no monotony. Man after man came in, padded and gloved, and looking capable of mighty things. They took guard, patted the ground lustily, as if to make it plain that they were going to stand no nonsense, settled their caps over their eyes, and prepared to receive the ball. ”

“ Wayburn, who had accompanied Fenn to the wicket at the beginning of Kay's first innings, had now for his partner one Walton, a large, unpleasant-looking youth, said to be a bit of a bruiser, and known to be a black sheep. He was one of those who made life at Kay's so close an imitation of an Inferno. His cricket was of a rustic order. He hit hard and high. When allowed to do so, he hit often. But, as a rule, he left early, a prey to the slips or deep fields. Today was no exception to that rule.
Kennedy's first ball was straight and medium-paced. ”

“ I'd forgotten Kay's for the moment. Now you mention it, they are rather a crew. But I shouldn't think they'd find it worth while to rot about here. It isn't as if they were on their native heath. People have a prejudice against having their tent-ropes loosed, and they'd get beans if they did anything in that line. ”

“ Wherefore king Ban and king Bors made them ready and dressed their shields and harness, and they were so courageous that many knights shook and trembled for eagerness. All this while Lucas, and Gwinas, and Briant, and Bellias of Flanders, held strong meddle against six kings, that was king Lot, king Nentres, king Brandegoris, king Idres, king Uriens, and king Agwisance. So with the help of Sir Kay and of Sir Griflet they held these six kings hard, that unneth they had any power to defend them. ”