The three were clad like tillers of the soil.

made

away;

And saying: Son, I have seen the good ship sail

Keel upward, and mast downward, in the heavens,

250

And solid turrets topsy-turvy in air;
And here is truth, but an it please thee
not,

Take thou the truth as thou hast told it me.
For truly, as thou sayest, a fairy king
And fairy queens have built the city, son;
They came from out a sacred mountain-
cleft

Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand,

And built it to the music of their harps. And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son, For there is nothing in it as it seems Saving the King; tho' some there be that hold

260

Clear honor shining like the dewy star
Of dawn, and faith in their great King,
with pure

Affection, and the light of victory,
And glory gain'd, and evermore to gain.

Then came a widow crying to the King: 'A boon, Sir King! Thy father, Uther, reft

From my dead lord a field with violence; For howsoe'er at first he proffer'd gold, 329 Yet, for the field was pleasant in our eyes, We yielded not; and then he reft us of it Perforce and left us neither gold nor field.

Said Arthur, 'Whether would ye? gold or field?'

To whom the woman weeping, 'Nay, my lord,

The field was pleasant in my husband's eye.'

Then came Sir Kay, the seneschal, and cried,

'A boon, Sir King! even that thou grant her none,

360 This railer, that hath mock'd thee in full hall

None; or the wholesome boon of gyve and gag.'

But Arthur: We sit King, to help the wrong'd

Thro' all our realm. The woman loves her lord.

Peace to thee, woman, with thy loves and hates !

The kings of old had doom'd thee to the flames;

Aurelius Emrys would have scourged thee dead,

And Uther slit thy tongue; but get thee

Then Arthur cried to rend the cloth, to rend

In pieces, and so cast it on the hearth. An oak tree smoulder'd there. • The goodly knight!

What! shall the shield of Mark stand among these?'

For, midway down the side of that long hall,

A stately pile, whereof along the front, Some blazon'd, some but carven, and some

blank,

His arms were carven only; but if twain, His arms were blazon'd also; but if none, The shield was blank and bare, without a sign

Saving the name beneath. And Gareth saw The shield of Gawain blazon'd rich and bright,

And Modred's blank as death; and Arthur cried

409

To rend the cloth and cast it on the hearth.

'More like are we to reave him of his

crown

Than make him knight because men call him king.

The kings we found, ye know we stay'd their hands

From war among themselves, but left them

kings;

Of whom were any bounteous, merciful, Truth-speaking, brave, good livers, them we enroll'd

Among us, and they sit within our hall. But Mark hath tarnish'd the great name of king,