Home › Supporters. - Mottoes. - Shield. - Colors. - Metals. - Furs › Supporters. - Mottoes. - Shield. - Colors. - Metals. - Furs: Arthur

Supporters. - Mottoes. - Shield. - Colors. - Metals. - Furs: Arthur

You all know the tales connected with the Round Table of King Arthur, and what a martial hero the king himself was; and perhaps you have heard how he was ensnared in a network of wars with Flolo, who governed Gaul in those days. This was done by a Messire Yves de Kerskao, who had relied upon Flolo to help him in some wicked schemes of his own, by which he expected to gain possession of certain rich provinces of France. This, Flolo refused to do, perhaps because he wanted to get them himself. Yves therefore denounced Flolo as a "miscreant, a pagan, a cursed and sacrilegious worshipper of idols, who persecuted the pious followers of Christ, and everywhere destroyed the shrines of the Blessed Virgin." All this was quite true; but as long as the monstrous sinner did not interfere with Yves' wishes, or would have shown himself willing to aid Yves in accomplishing his desire, the heinousness of his guilt was nothing to the knight who now pronounced him such a blot on the face of the earth. Arthur, without knowing the substratum of the prayers with which Yves besieged him for the immediate punishment of such an infidel, agreed to invade France and punish its governor. But the supplication of some lovely maid detained the king at Windsor - a castle which he is said to have founded and built, and where the Order of the Knights of the Round Table was instituted - longer than he expected. One day the impatient and wrathful Yves burst into the banquet-hall, bearing a roasted heron on a silver platter, and exclaimed, "Room, room for the valiant! Room for those who bring food for the brave! The heron is of all birds the most cowardly, and fears even his own shadow; I shall give this dish to the most cowardly amongst you, and that, in my opinion, is Arthur, heir of this most noble land of Gaul, whence he has been driven by the Romans. Ho, the king of the brave dare not fight for the kingdom which might have been his own!" Arthur's blood boiled, and his hand was on the hilt of his sword, but, restraining himself, he swore that not a twelvemonth should pass before he would meet the evil Flolo. So the channel was crossed by Arthur and a noble retinue of followers, and, traversing the sunny fields of France, then all beautiful in the dress of early summer, he met his antagonist in the Isle de Notre Dame, in Paris. Flolo sent a herald to Arthur, defying the bravest of his knights to meet him in single FURS. combat, saying it was needless to shed much blood in such a quarrel. So saying, the herald flung the iron gauntlet of Flolo into the middle of the hall. Knight after knight sprang to pick it up, but Arthur, motioning them back, took it up himself, and sent back word that he, the king, would accept the challenge. That night King Arthur attended mass, and prayed for protection, and the heathen Flolo sent up his petitions to Bacchus and to Dame Ivrognerie. The next morning the two champions met, and charged upon each other with such fury that what was horse and what was master, as well as what was the dust of the field, the bystanders could not tell. But, with shivered lances, they quickly regained their proper places, and fell to hacking each other at a most dreadful rate with their swords. Flolo was as towering as a giant as he was tremendous as a sinner, the muscles of his arm being like bands of steel; so his blows fell with terrific force upon the hitherto invincible knight. It is said that Arthur absolutely felt his knees bend beneath him. The giant saw the advantage he was obtaining over the celebrated chieftain, and, raising his heavy sword, prepared to despatch him immediately. Just at this critical moment, "a radiant figure, wrapped in a mantle of ermine," intervened between the two combatants, and the mantle was quickly flung over King Arthur's shield. This, by its extraordinary brilliancy, so dazzled the eyes of Flolo that he became blind for the moment; and Arthur, with his knees stiffening beneath the shielding cover, bethought him once more of his good sword, Excalibur, - and, brandishing it bravely above his head, chopped off the head of the giant in less time than a sparrow could gobble a cricket. He was unaware of the apparition and of the miraculous help given him, but upon being informed of it by his knight he built a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin upon the identical spot over which now "those cymbals glorious are swinging uproarious in the gorgeous towers of Notre Dame." He then assumed the ermine as his armorial bearing, and since that time it has always been borne by the Dukes of Bretagne.