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THE COMING OF ARTHUR / 1 195
But thou art closer to this noble prince, Being his own dear sister;' and she said,
315 'Daughter of Gorloi's and Ygerne am I;' 'And therefore Arthur's sister?' ask'd the King She answer'd, 'These be secret things,' and sign'd To those two sons to pass, and let them be. And Gawain went, and breaking into song
320 Sprang out, and follow'd 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.
325 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 Gorloi's, yea and dark was Uther too, Wellnigh to blackness; but this King is fair
330 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,
335 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:
340 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 wish'd that I were dead; and he?
345 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.
350 And many a time he came, and evermore As I grew greater grew with me; and sad At times he seem'd, 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.
355 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, 360 Died but of late, and sent his cry to me, To hear him speak before he left his life.
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1 138 / ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Shrunk like a fairy changeling8 lay the mage;
And when I enter'd 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 thro' the dismal night?a night
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost?
Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps
It seem'd in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon wing'd, and all from stem 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 watch'd 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 the strand,
