BRACHET ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original reading passage from _Le Morte Darthur_ (The Death of Arthur), by Sir Thomas Malory (1470), ed. by R.M. Lumiansky (New York: Collier Books, 1982): 66-159 (passim) ========================================================================= Right so as they sat, there came a white hart running into the hall with a white brachet next to him, and thirty couples of black hounds came running after them with a great cry. Then the hart went running about the Round Table; as he went by the sideboard, the white brachet bit him in the buttock and pulled out a piece. Whereupon the hart leapt a great leap and overthrew a knight who sat at the sideboard. Therewith the knight arose, took up the brachet, went forth out of the hall, took his horse and rode away with the brachet. Right so a lady came in on a white palfrey and cried aloud to King Arthur, `Sire, suffer me not to have this spite for the brachet is mine that the knight led away.' `Then,' said Merlin, `call Sir Gawain, for he must bring back the white hart. Also, sir, ye must call Sir Tor, for he must bring back the brachet and the knight, or else slay him. ...'. `Sir,' said the elder `there came a white hart this way this day and many hounds chased him, and a white brachet was always next to say [you are sent] by the knight who went in quest of the knight with the brachet. Now what are your two names?' `I know you ride after the knight with the white brachet, and I shall bring you where he is,' said the dwarf. Then he went to the other pavilion and found a lady lying sleeping therein; and there was the white brachet which bayed at him fast. As soon as Sir Tor spied the white brachet, he took it by force and gave it to the dwarf. With the noise, the lady came out of the pavilion with all her damosels. `What! Will ye take my brachet from me?' said the lady. `Yes,' said Sir Tor, `this brachet I have sought from King Arthur's court hither.' Then they heard a knight call loudly who came after them; he said `Knight, stop and yield my brachet that thou took from my lady.' [They fight.] Sir Tor bade him yield. `That will I not,' said Abelleus, `while my life lasteth and my soul is within my body, unless thou wilt give me the brachet.' `That will I not do,' said Sir Tor, `for it was my quest to bring back thy brachet, thee, or both.' `Earlier when I would have granted you mercy, you would ask none unless ye had the brachet again that was my quest.' Then they were aware that the hart lay dead on a great water-bank; a brachet was biting on his throat, and other hounds came behind. Now we leave them and speak of Sir Lancelot, who rode a great while in a deep forest where he saw a black brachet tracking as if it were on the trail of a hurt deer.Therewith he rode after the brachet, and he saw on the ground a large trail of blood. Then Sir Lancelot rode faster, and always the brachet looked behind her. She went through a great marsh and he followed; then he was aware of an old manor, and thither ran the brachet and so over a bridge. Sir Lancelot rode over that bridge, which was old and weak; when he came into the middle of a great hall he saw a dead knight lying there who was a seemly man, and the brachet licked his wounds. `Why say ye so?' said Sir Lancelot. `I never did this knight any harm, for hither by a trail of blood this brachet brought me. ...'