Idylls of the King | Page 6

his need.
'And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit
And hundred winters

are but as the hands
Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege.
'And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,
Who knows a subtler
magic than his own--
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.

She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,
Whereby to drive the
heathen out: a mist
Of incense curled about her, and her face

Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;
But there was heard
among the holy hymns
A voice as of the waters, for she dwells

Down in a deep; calm, whatsoever storms
May shake the world, and
when the surface rolls,
Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.
'There likewise I beheld Excalibur
Before him at his crowning borne,
the sword
That rose from out the bosom of the lake,
And Arthur
rowed across and took it--rich
With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt,

Bewildering heart and eye--the blade so bright
That men are blinded
by it--on one side,
Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,

"Take me," but turn the blade and ye shall see,
And written in the
speech ye speak yourself,
"Cast me away!" And sad was Arthur's face

Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,
"Take thou and strike!
the time to cast away
Is yet far-off." So this great brand the king

Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.'
Thereat Leodogran rejoiced, but thought
To sift his doubtings to the
last, and asked,
Fixing full eyes of question on her face,
'The
swallow and the swift are near akin,
But thou art closer to this noble
prince,
Being his own dear sister;' and she said,
'Daughter of
Gorlois and Ygerne am I;'
'And therefore Arthur's sister?' asked the
King.
She answered, 'These be secret things,' and signed
To those
two sons to pass, and let them be.
And Gawain went, and breaking
into song
Sprang out, and followed by his flying hair
Ran like a colt,
and leapt at all he saw:
But Modred laid his ear beside the doors,

And there half-heard; the same that afterward

Struck for the throne,
and striking found his doom.

And then the Queen made answer, 'What know I?
For dark my
mother was in eyes and hair,
And dark in hair and eyes am I; and dark

Was Gorlois, yea and dark was Uther too,
Wellnigh to blackness;
but this King is fair
Beyond the race of Britons and of men.

Moreover, always in my mind I hear
A cry from out the dawning of
my life,
A mother weeping, and I hear her say,
"O that ye had some
brother, pretty one,
To guard thee on the rough ways of the world."'
'Ay,' said the King, 'and hear ye such a cry?
But when did Arthur
chance upon thee first?'
'O King!' she cried, 'and I will tell thee true:
He found me first when
yet a little maid:
Beaten I had been for a little fault
Whereof I was
not guilty; and out I ran
And flung myself down on a bank of heath,

And hated this fair world and all therein,
And wept, and wished
that I were dead; and he--
I know not whether of himself he came,

Or brought by Merlin, who, they say, can walk
Unseen at
pleasure--he was at my side,
And spake sweet words, and comforted
my heart,
And dried my tears, being a child with me.
And many a
time he came, and evermore
As I grew greater grew with me; and sad

At times he seemed, and sad with him was I,
Stern too at times,
and then I loved him not,
But sweet again, and then I loved him well.

And now of late I see him less and less,
But those first days had
golden hours for me,
For then I surely thought he would be king.
'But let me tell thee now another tale:
For Bleys, our Merlin's master,
as they say,
Died but of late, and sent his cry to me,
To hear him
speak before he left his life.
Shrunk like a fairy changeling lay the
mage;
And when I entered told me that himself
And Merlin ever
served about the King,
Uther, before he died; and on the night

When Uther in Tintagil past away
Moaning and wailing for an heir,
the two

Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,
Then from
the castle gateway by the chasm
Descending through the dismal
night--a night
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost--


Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps
It seemed in heaven, a ship,
the shape thereof
A dragon winged, and all from stern to stern

Bright with a shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen.
And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watched the great sea fall,

Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one,
gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged

Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
And down the wave and in
the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,
Who
stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King!
Here is an heir for
Uther!" And the fringe
Of that great breaker, sweeping up