Arthur, delighted over having his legal cake and eating it too, then calls for a drink and is certain that he has eluded the grasp of his law — until Mordred appears and sours the moment with the news that, during the course of the Queen's rescue, Lancelot killed Gareth and Gaheris, both unarmed. His son has caught Arthur in another legal bind, for if Arthur does not capture and then try Lancelot for these two murders, he again risks the belittling of his precious law. Of course, Mordred only evokes justice in an attempt to get Arthur out of the country and further his own political ends — but he knows that Arthur (a man infinitely more honorable than he) cannot renege on his law and will be forced to apply it to his friend a second time. Guenever shows a keen understanding of her husband's predicament when she explains to her lady-in-waiting, "The king likes Lancelot so much that he is forced to be unfair to him — for fear of being unfair to other people." If Arthur fails to bring Lancelot to justice for the deaths of Gareth and Gaheris, he is betraying these two subjects as well as the political foundation of his kingdom; the fact that Lancelot killed them accidentally is — like his friendship with Arthur — irrelevant. Justice is supposed to be blind.
Thus, Arthur is forced to follow Lancelot to France and allow Gawaine to seek revenge on his brothers' killer: Although the king has repeatedly asked for an end to blood feuds, he must acknowledge Gawaine's right to demand justice for his loss. Another legal snare is that Arthur must leave Mordred as Lord Protector while he is away; the fact that Mordred — ostensibly the most evil character in all four novels — cannot be stopped because he has not, technically, broken any law suggests the faith Arthur invests in it. After Mordred does overstep his legal boundaries, however, Arthur is free to pursue and battle with him: As with his previously discussed love for both Lancelot and the law, Arthur again is given license to act more according to his heart than his sense of legal prudence. Gawaine's final letter to Lancelot, in which he asks the ill-made knight for his forgiveness and to help Arthur defeat Mordred, reveals the impact of Arthur's law on one of his disciples. If a man as set on the use of Force Majeure as Gawaine can view the law as a better alternative, surely there is hope for a future end to violence.
