Ships plied the wide, wave-tossed waters, bringing costly goods from every foreign port: fine wine in sealed amphora; the beautiful rainbow-hued cloth called samite; magnificent horses; worked leather; cups, bowls, and platters of gold, silver and precious glass. From out of Britain flowed other goods: strong steel, lead, silver, wool, beef and hunting hounds.
For a time the Fairest Island that is in the world flowered, filling this worlds-realm with a heavenly scent.
Through all trials did Britain triumph, and in all good things did it abound. The Island of the Mighty reached a height exceeding even that which it attained in elder times under the Roman Emperors. Britain was exalted then.
For this reason it was decided that Arthur should attain his highest honour. At Whitsuntide in the twenty-first year of the High King's reign he would receive another coronation: the Laurel Crown of the Roman Empire. Yr Amherawdyr Arthyr, he would become, Imperator Artorius; Exalted Arthur, Emperor of the West and Chief Dragon of the Island of the Mighty. The last remnants of the empire would be placed beneath his hand.
So widely renowned and revered was our Pendragon that as soon as word of this impending honour was spoken out, the four winds carried it far and wide throughout this worlds-realm to all foreign nations. And the best men in the world at that time began journeying to Britain to hail the new emperor. Kings, lords, noblemen, bishops and archbishops of the church – men whose worth was beyond measure in their own homelands. They came to honour Arthur, and to see him crowned in glory.
There were so many that Arthur was forced to leave his beloved Caer Lial and go to Caer Legionis in the south. For though it was not a fine city like Caer Lial, it was larger and could house all those streaming into Britain. Also, the deep River Uisc nearby gave safe harbourage to the innumerable ships arriving by twos and fives and tens as soon as the weather broke fair.
In this way, the old City of the Legions came once more under the authority of an emperor and knew again something of its former grandeur. Caerleon, as it was sometimes called now, also boasted another benefit – the twin churches of Julius and Aaron, presided over by Arthur's friend Illtyd, lately archbishop.
Preparations for the coronation began directly after the Christ Mass. Braving winter seas, I sailed with die Emrys, Bedwyr and a hundred of the Cymbrogi to the south to help make ready. Most of my work consisted of reroofing and timbering the long-unused storehouses to receive the tribute of grain, lard, wine, ale and fodder which began flooding into the city as soon as the roads and mountain passes thawed in the spring.
Each of the others directed equally ambitious works of repair aod reconstruction lo the halls, the houses, the streets and walls. Indeed, the whole city resounded with so much uproar of carpenters and masons that it was called Caer Terfsyg – Fortress of Riot. I laboured from sunrise to long past twilight, tireless in my many tasks. My hands grew hard, and my muscles lean. I led men and commanded good works to be done. When the Emrys saw that I could accomplish much, more was given me to do. Thus I became one of Arthur's captains, though I had never led a battle.
From mid-winter to spring's end we laboured, and the ancient vicus was transformed. Walls were rebuilt, streets repaved, foundations shored up, roofs patched and leaded, gates repaired, aqueducts retiled; the marshland south of the city was drained to accommodate the myriad tents and bothies – thus even waste land began blooming with wild flowers again. The people of Caerleon threw themselves into the redeeming of their city, and nowhere did a labourer go without meat or drink, or a helping hand when he required it.
The Emrys oversaw the principal work of restoring the governor's palace. Actually, there had never been a governor in Caer Legionis. The fortress had been once been ruled by a Vicarius named Matinus, who lived well and was widely reputed to be a fair and honest man. His extensive house was later inhabited by a succession of legates and tribunes who added to its luxury and grounds, so that in after times it came to rival the governors' residences of Londinium and Eboracum.
This palace, the Emrys decided, should become the site of Arthur's triumphal reception. The coronation itself would take place in the twin churches: the Church of Aaron for Arthur, and the Church of Julius for Gwenhwyvar. The palace had long been abandoned and considered a prime source of good building-stone by the locals, who pulled down much of the dressed stone and plundered the furnishings. Only the tessellated mosaics on the floor escaped being carried off.
Yet the Emrys maintained that this house alone would serve. And when the citizens learned of the high honour to be paid them in hosting Arthur's coronation, and the work of restoration began in earnest, the pillaged furniture began to reappear. Even the dressed stone returned, liberated from whatever use it had served in the generations since the last tribune decamped for Rome.
upon it came away inspired and cheered to see this revival of imperial splendour. But not only was the empire revived, Celtic nobility also roused from its sleep. Under Myrddin Emrys' guiding hand the inspired blending of both was accomplished: Roman in form and foundation, Celtic in execution and expression. No one who beheld the finished work failed to recognized that in the Pendragon's palace a new craft had come into being.
'It is magnificent!' cried Arthur, when he saw it at last. 'Myrddin, you are indeed a most magnificent enchanter!'
'Speak not of enchantment!' declared the Emrys. 'If this could have been accomplished by enchantment, I have wasted good men's sweat and sleepless nights for nothing!'
'Not for nothing,' soothed Gwenhwyvar, her dark eyes adazzle at all around her. 'Never say it. Your gift is the more precious to us because it wears your love in every line.'
'It is true, Exalted Emrys,' remarked Gwalcmai, who with his brother and the others of the Round Table, had come with the High King to inspect the work and order the final preparations. 'No king has ever had a palace so richly wrought. In this,' he spread his arms to the gilded hall around us, 'the Summer Realm finds its fairest flower.'
The Emrys smiled, but shook his head lightly. 'Its first, perhaps. Not its fairest. Higher, more noble works will be accomplished. What you see is a beginning only, there are greater things to be done.'
'Greater works will be done,' affirmed Arthur. 'But let us honour this one with the proper respect. Thank you, Myrddin. Your gift beggars me for words.'
The Emrys enjoyed the pleasure his gift gave the Pen-dragon, but he had little time to savour it. For, the next day but one, the first of the High King's guests began arriving. Some had wintered in Caer Lial, others at Caer Cam and Caer Melyn in the south. By ship and on horseback they came, and once the flood started it did not reach high water mark for many and many a day to come.
Thus, on the day of die coronation, a day of unrivalled glory in the Island of the Mighty since its beginning, were assembled lords, kings, princes, noblemen and dignitaries of great renown: Fergus and Aedd of Ierne, Cador of Cerniui, Meurig Hen of Dyfed, Ectorius of Caer Edyn, Caw of Alclyd, Maelgwn of Gwynedd, Maluasius of Hislandi, Doldaf of Gotland, Gonval of Llychllyn, Acel of Druim, Cadwallo of the Venedoti, Holdin of Ruteni, Leodegarius of Holland, Gwilenhin of Ffreincland in Gaul, Ban of Armorica, and many, many others of various ranks and races entered the city to do the Pendragon homage.