“I know a sword nearby,” thought Arthur,“that I can bring to Sir Kay so that he would have a sword to fight with.”
So Arthur went to the churchyard. No one was guarding the stone and the anvil, because all the knights went to the tournament. Arthur took the sword by the handles and easily pulled it from under the anvil.
“Now I have a good sword for Sir Kay,” he said.
So Arthur brought the sword to his brother. Sir Kay immediately recognized the sword. He came to Sir Ector and said, “See, father, this is the sword from the stone. Therefore I am the rightful king of this land.”
Sir Ector recognized the sword, too. He took Arthur and Sir Kay back to the church, and asked Sir Kay to swear on the Book and answer, where did he get the sword.
“My brother Arthur gave it to me,” said Sir Kay.
“How did you get this sword?” Sir Ector asked Arthur.
“Sir, I will tell you,” Arthur replied. “When I came home, I saw that no one was there, so I couldn’t get Sir Kay’s sword. I didn’t want him to miss the tournament[14], so I came here and pulled this sword from the stone without any trouble.”
“Did you see any knights guarding the sword?” Sir Ector asked.
“No,” Arthur said.
“Now,” said Sir Ector to Arthur, “I understand that you must be the rightful king of this land.”
“Why me?” said Arthur.
“Sir,” said Sir Ector, “It is the will of God, because the man that can pull this sword from the stone should be the rightful king of this land. Now let me see if you can put the sword back into the stone and then pull it out again.”
“With ease,” said Arthur, and put the sword back into stone. Sir Ector tried pulling the sword out, but couldn’t, and neither could Sir Kay. Then Arthur pulled it out again with ease. Sir Ector and Sir Kay kneeled before Arthur.
“Alas,” said Arthur, “my dear father and brother, why do you kneel before me?”
“No, lord Arthur, it is not so,” said Sir Ector, “I was never your father, and you are not of my blood, but of higher blood that I thought.”
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