As soon as Merlin made Blaise understand this task, he marvelled at the things Merlin said, and they seemed good and lovely to him. And Merlin said to him, "You must write a book and suffer hard work and trouble, and I will suffer even more."
And Merlin said to Blaise, "I will be sent for from the West, and those who will come to find me swore to their lord to kill me and bring him my blood, but when they see and hear me they will not want to kill me. And when I go with them, you will go to those who have the Holy Grail, and write in this book what happened to me and what will happen from here on, and also all the deeds of the great men of this land; and this book will be in the memories of men forever and they will hear it willingly in many places. And you will bring this book when I go with those who will come to find me, and you will entitle it the Book of Joseph; and know for truth that the holy history of the Holy Grail should indeed be called by such a name, because it held the precious blood of Jesus Christ our redeemer, when Joseph caught it in the cup and put the cup in the monument he kept for himself in his orchard, in which no other man lies buried."
And this history that Blaise wrote, began five hundred and forty years after the Passion of Jesus Christ, and in that season there was in Great Britain a king whose name was Costanes, and he had three sons, and one of them was named Maynes, and the second, Padragon, and the youngest, Uter. And there was a knight who was named Verenguer,[1] and he was a very good knight and a man of great discretion, and very sly. And that king Costanes died and Maynes, who was the eldest son, was made king. And the king made war on the people of Saxony, who were pagans, and Verenguer was the steward of this boy king, and he gathered to himself what he could, and had great power in the kingdom, and saw that the king was weak, and that the people were ill-treated by the war; and he said that he did not want to help the king, nor would he involve himself with his land. And when the Saxons found this out, they gathered a great host and came against the Christians. The king came to Verenguer and said to him, "Friend, help me to defend the land, for we and all the others will do what you want."
And Verenguer answered, "Sir, let the others help you, for there are many in your land who dislike me because I serve you so well."
When the king and the others heard they could obtain no more from him, they went to fight the Saxons, and the Saxons won, and they suffered many losses. And Maynes said that they would not have lost so many if Verenguer had been with them. So the king was saddened and he could not hold the people as well as he needed to, and the people no longer loved him. And they came to Verenguer and said to him, "We are without a king, for the one we have is worthless. Lord, be our king and maintain us, for in this land there is no man who will guard us aright."
He said, "I cannot be king, while my lord is alive."
They responded, "It would be better if he were dead."
Verenguer said, "If he were dead, and you wished it, I would be king, but as long as he is alive, I cannot be king."
And when they heard what Verenguer said, they thought about it, and left him, and some of the noblemen took to heart in secrecy what Verenguer had said to them. And they agreed that the best they could do was to kill Maynes and make Verenguer king, and after "he finds out that he is king because of us, he will always do what we want." They chose twelve among them to go and kill the king, and the others stayed in the village to help them, in case anyone wished to do them harm; and the twelve went where the king was, and killed him quickly and without danger, for he was a boy, and afterwards they returned to Verenguer and said to him, "Now you will be king, for we have killed Maynes."
When Verenguer heard this, he pretended that it made his heart heavy, and said in semblance of anger, "You did me wrong in killing your lord, and I counsel you to flee, for the good men of the land will kill you for such an evil deed, and it disturbs me much that you came here."
So the traitors who killed their lord fled, and the people of the land took counsel and agreed, and they made Verenguer king, who had won the hearts of most of the men, as I already told you. And when this counsel was done, two noblemen came who were guardians of the other two boys, Padragon and Uter, and they understood that this death was because of Verenguer, and they said, "Since he had his lord killed, he can do no less than have us kill these two who remain in our keeping."
Then they agreed to go westward with the children, where their grandparents lived, and they took them to a city whose name was Borges, but now nothing more is said of them.
Verenguer became king, and once he was crowned and anointed, some of those whom I told you killed King Maynes came to him. And when Verenguer saw that they were coming, he pretended that he had never known who they were, and they, seeing that he received them with dissimulation, asked him how he could receive them thus, since he knew that he was king because of them, for they had killed King Maynes. And when the king heard this, he commanded that they be taken, and said, "You said that you killed your lord. You would do as much to me, if you could, like the traitors you are, but I will keep you from it."
And when they heard this, they were very scared, and said, "Sir, we thought what we did was for our benefit, and that you would love us from your heart, and we would receive mercy from you."
Verenguer, when he heard this, said, "I will show you how a man should love such men as yourselves."
Then he had them taken, and dragged by twelve horses, so that little remained of them. And after this was done to the good men, their relatives came to Verenguer and said to him, "You did us great dishonor, since you killed our relatives in such a vile way, and never will we do you service in good heart."
And when Verenguer saw that they menaced him, he said to them, "You say ill. I will do to you exactly what I did to them."
And they answered him very angrily, as men who doubted him little, "Ah, Verenguer! Menace us as you like, but we have so many friends, that we will give you war from here on; and we defy you, for you are not our natural lord, nor hold you the land loyally, though you have it against God and against right; and you will die such a death as our relatives died."
When Verenguer heard this said he was very angry, but he did not want to start a fight; and they left and began to war against him and destroy the land, and they raised a great part of it against him. And when Verenguer heard this, he was very afraid that they would throw him out of the land, and he sent for the Saxons to aid him, and they were very happy to do so, and they had among them one whose name was Anguis, and he served Verenguer a long time, and was a very good knight. And he served him so well, that Verenguer took his daughter to wife, and the Saxons were much angered by this, for they said that she would betray her beliefs, for his wife did not believe in the law of Jesus Christ. And Verenguer knew that the people did not love him.
After Verenguer understood his situation, he decided to make a tower which would fear no man on earth. Then he sent to the greatest masters to tell him what they could of the building of this tower. And he had the tower made, as he wished, and when it was as high as three or four arms' length, it fell to earth, and it fell thus three times. And when Verenguer saw he could not build it, he was heavy of heart, and he said that he would never have pleasure more if he could not find out why the tower fell. Then he sent for all the wise men of his land, and recounted the marvel of the tower to them, and begged their counsel. And when they heard this they marveled, and said, "This may not be save by astronomy."
And he asked who knew about astronomy, saying, "This I do not know, but tell me who those who do know are, and if you tell me this, I will make it worth your while."
Then the wizards went out and asked if among them there was one who knew astronomy, and so they found seven, and they went to the king and spoke to him, and the king asked if they knew why the tower fell. They said, "If by man it can be known, we will know it."
Then the king sent out all the wizards, save for the seven who remained with him, and he worked hard to know why the tower fell, and how that might be. And those seven were very wise in their art. They worked hard on this, but they found nothing more than one thing, and that, as it seemed to them, should not make the tower unsteady, and they were therefore very frightened. The king asked them for news, and they said that what he commanded was a great thing, and he should appoint a time to have their counsel upon it. And the king said that it pleased him and set them a three-day time limit.
[1] Vortigern. The confusion of names here, present also in the 1535 Seville edition and therefore probably a factor of the earliest Spanish translation from French, stems from the long history of Counts of Barcelona with the family name Verenguer.