7. Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
Across the ridge, and paced beside the meer,
Counting the dewy pebbles, fixed in thought;
But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud:
"And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost forever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done?
What harm, undone? deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?

8. "The king is sick, and knows not what he does. What record, or what relic of my lord

Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumors of a doubt? but were this kept,
Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, 'King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills.'

So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning reverence.

But now much honor and much fame were lost."

9. So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,

And so strode back slow to the wounded King.
Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
"What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?

And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:

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I heard the water lapping on the crag,

And the long ripple washing in the reeds."

10. To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath: 'Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,

Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!

Authority forgets a dying king,

Laid widowed of the power in his eye

That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art;
For thou, the latest left of all my knights,

In whom should meet the offices of all,
Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.
Yět, for a man may fail in duty twice,

And the third time may prosper, get thee hence;
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,

I will arise and slay thee with my hands."

11. Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,

And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush-beds, and clutched the sword,
And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendor of the moon,

And flashing round and round, and whirled in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,

Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the northern sea.
So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur ;
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samīte, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him
Three times, and drew him under in the meer.
And lightly went the other to the King.

12. Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath,
"Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.

Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen!"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere :

"Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems
Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
Not though I live three lives of mortal men,
So great a miracle as yonder hilt.

Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him ;
But when I looked again, behold an arm,
Clothed in white samīte, mystic, wonderful,

That caught him by the hilt, and brandished him Three times, and drew him under in the meer." 13. And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard. My end draws nigh; 'tis time that I were gone. Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight, And bear me to the margin : yet I fear

66

My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die."
So saying, from the pavement he half rose,
Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,
And looking wistfully with wild blue eyes
As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere

Remorsefully regarded through his tears,
And would have spoken, but he found not words,
Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
O'er bōth his shoulders drew the languid hands,
And rising bōre him through the place of tombs.
14. But as he walked, King Arthur panted hard
Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
When all the house is mute. So sighed the King,
Muttering and murmuring at his ear, "Quick, quick!
I fear it is too late, and I shall die."

But the other swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,
Clothed with his breath, and looking, as he walked
Larger than human on the frozen hills.

He heard the deep behind him, and a cry

Before. His own thought drove him like a goad.
Dry clashed his harness in the icy caves

And barren chasms, and all to left and right
The bare black cliff clanged round him, as he based
His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang
Sharp-smitten with the dint of armèd heels-
And on a sudden, lo! the level lake,

And the long glories of the winter moon.

15. Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,
Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
Beneath them; and descending they were ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream-by these
Three Queens with crowns of gold-and from them rose

A cry that shivered to the tingling stars,
And, as it were one voice, an agony

Of lămentation, like a wind, that shrills

All night in a waste land, where no one comes,
Or hath come, since the making of the world.

Then murmured Arthur, "Place me in the barge,"
And to the barge they came. There those three Queens
Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept.
16. But she that rose the tallest of them all

And fairest, laid his head upon her lap,

And loosed the shattered casque, and chafed his hands,
And called him by his name, complaining loud,

And dropping bitter tears against his brow
Striped with dark blood; for all his face was white

And colorless, and like the withered moon
Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east ;
And all his greaves' and cuisses' dashed with drops
Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls—
That made his forehead like a rising sun

High from the dāïs-throne--were parched with dust
Or, clotted into points, and hanging loose,
Mixed with the knightly growth that fringed his lips.
So like a shattered column lay the King;
Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest,
From spur to plume a star of tournament,
Shot through the lists at Camelot, and charged
Before the eyes of ladies and of kings.

17. Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere,—
"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole ROUND TABLE is dissolved,
Which was an image of the mighty world;

2 Cuisse, (kwis), defensive armor for the thighs.

And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."
18. And slowly answered Arthur from the barge :
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfills himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?

I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within himself make pure! but thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,

Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That noŭrish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
19. But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seëst-if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)
To the island-valley of Avilion ;

20.

Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard-lawns
And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."

So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan,
That, fluting a wild carol, ere her death,

Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
Revolving many memories, till the hull

Looked one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the meer the wailing died away.

19

ALFRED TENNYSON,