He sealed it in a bier, and sent it
worshipfully to Rome. At the same time he wrote letters to the senate
that no other truage would he pay them for Britain, which he guarded
as his realm. If truage they yet required, then truage they should
receive coined in the very mint. Kay, who was wounded to death in the
battle, was carried to Chinon, the castle he had builded, and called
after his own name. There he was interred in a holy hermitage,
standing in a little grove, near by the city. Bedevere was brought to
Bayeux in Normandy, a town of his lordship. He was lain in the ground
beyond the gate, looking over towards the south. Holdin was borne to
Flanders, and buried at Tervanna. Ligier was buried at Boulogne.
Arthur, for his part, sojourned all through the winter in Burgundy,
giving peace and assurance to the land. He purposed when summer was
come to pass the mountains, and get him to Rome. He was hindered in
his hope by Mordred, of whose shame and vileness you shall now hear.
This Mordred was the king's kin, his sister's very son, and had
Britain in his charge. Arthur had given the whole realm to his care,
and committed all to his keeping. Mordred did whatever was good in his
own eyes, and would have seized the land to his use.
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