Guinevere and her unarmed knights and holds them prisoner in his castle. After Maleagant's archers kill his horse, Lancelot has to ride to the castle in a cart in order to save the queen. Knowing Lancelot was on his way, Maleagant pleads to Guinevere for mercy, which she grants and then forces Lancelot to stifle his rage against Maleagant. Later, Maleagant learns of Guinevere's unfaithfulness to Arthur and is willing to fight in a duel at Arthur's court in an attempt to prove it to others. After Guinevere made it known that she wants Maleagant dead, Lancelot kills him even though Maleagant begs for mercy. However, this happens only after Maleagant agreed to continue fighting with Lancelot's helmet removed, his left side body armour removed, and his left hand tied behind his back (Lancelot felt it necessary to finish the bout, but would not slay Maleagant unless Maleagant agreed to continue fighting). In the romance Sone de Nansai, the hero Sone visits an island said to have been Meleagan's, whose father was Baudemagus; his grandfather was named Tadus. Meleagan's island is perfectly square and its walls are made of crystal; there is a palace at each corner and a fountain wells up through a gilded copper horn at the center. The Sword Bridge connects the island to a causeway, a bowshot away, which leads to the mainland. In Meleagan's day, many men were beheaded there. Modern fiction Maleagant appears in modern retellings like Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and T. H. White's The Once and Future King (as Sir Meliagrance). In the aftermath of the desperate battle at the end of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the protagonist, time traveling American Hank Morgan, tries to help the severely wounded Sir Maleagant, but is stabbed by him. In The Warlord Chronicles novels by English author Bernard Cornwell, based on the Arthurian legend, a secondary character named Melwas is mentioned many times, here as the king of the tribe of the Belgae, who inhabited the region roughly corresponding to modern Hampshire with its capital at Venta Belgarum (modern Winchester). At first glance, the only similarity between the legendary character and the fictional one seems to be their common name, but, upon closer inspection, we find some clues that indicate a possible intention of the author of having his fictional Melwas to be his own peculiar version