CHAPTER I

_The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of Arthur_

King Vortigern the usurper sat upon his throne in London, when, suddenly,

upon a certain day, ran in a breathless messenger, and cried aloud--

"Arise, Lord King, for the enemy is come; even Ambrosius and Uther, upon

whose throne thou sittest--and full twenty thousand with them--and they

have sworn by a great oath, Lord, to slay thee, ere this year be done; and

even now they march towards thee as the north wind of winter for

bitterness and haste."

At those words Vortigern's face grew white as ashes, and, rising in

confusion and disorder, he sent for all the best artificers and craftsmen

and mechanics, and commanded them vehemently to go and build him

straightway in the furthest west of his lands a great and strong castle,

where he might fly for refuge and escape the vengeance of his master's

sons--"and, moreover," cried he, "let the work be done within a hundred

days from now, or I will surely spare no life amongst you all."

Then all the host of craftsmen, fearing for their lives, found out a

proper site whereon to build the tower, and eagerly began to lay in the

foundations. But no sooner were the walls raised up above the ground than

all their work was overwhelmed and broken down by night invisibly, no man

perceiving how, or by whom, or what. And the same thing happening again,

and yet again, all the workmen, full of terror, sought out the king, and

threw themselves upon their faces before him, beseeching him to interfere

and help them or to deliver them from their dreadful work.

Filled with mixed rage and fear, the king called for the astrologers and

wizards, and took counsel with them what these things might be, and how to

overcome them. The wizards worked their spells and incantations, and in

the end declared that nothing but the blood of a youth born without mortal

father, smeared on the foundations of the castle, could avail to make it

stand. Messengers were therefore sent forthwith through all the land to

find, if it were possible, such a child. And, as some of them went down a

certain village street, they saw a band of lads fighting and quarrelling,

and heard them shout at one--"Avaunt, thou imp!--avaunt! Son of no mortal

man! go, find thy father, and leave us in peace."

At that the messengers looked steadfastly on the lad, and asked who he

was. One said his name was Merlin; another, that his birth and parentage

were known by no man; a third, that the foul fiend alone was his father.

Hearing the things, the officers seized Merlin, and carried him before the

king by force.

But no sooner was he brought to him than he asked in a loud voice, for

what cause he was thus dragged there?

"My magicians," answered Vortigern, "told me to seek out a man that had no

human father, and to sprinkle my castle with his blood, that it may

stand."

"Order those magicians," said Merlin, "to come before me, and I will

convict them of a lie."

The king was astonished at his words, but commanded the magicians to come

and sit down before Merlin, who cried to them--

"Because ye know not what it is that hinders the foundation of the castle,

ye have advised my blood for a cement to it, as if that would avail; but

tell me now rather what there is below that ground, for something there is

surely underneath that will not suffer the tower to stand?"

The wizards at these words began to fear, and made no answer. Then said

Merlin to the king--

"I pray, Lord, that workmen may be ordered to dig deep down into the

ground till they shall come to a great pool of water."

This then was done, and the pool discovered far beneath the surface of the

ground.

Then, turning again to the magicians, Merlin said, "Tell me now, false

sycophants, what there is underneath that pool?"--but they were silent.

Then said he to the king, "Command this pool to be drained, and at the

bottom shall be found two dragons, great and huge, which now are sleeping,

but which at night awake and fight and tear each other. At their great

struggle all the ground shakes and trembles, and so casts down thy towers,

which, therefore, never yet could find secure foundations."

The king was amazed at these words, but commanded the pool to be forthwith

drained; and surely at the bottom of it did they presently discover the

two dragons, fast asleep, as Merlin had declared.

But Vortigern sat upon the brink of the pool till night to see what else

would happen.

Then those two dragons, one of which was white, the other red, rose up and

came near one another, and began a sore fight, and cast forth fire with

their breath. But the white dragon had the advantage, and chased the other

to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight, turned back upon

his foe, and renewed the combat, and forced him to retire in turn. But in

the end the red dragon was worsted, and the white dragon disappeared no

man knew where.

When their battle was done, the king desired Merlin to tell him what it

meant. Whereat he, bursting into tears, cried out this prophecy, which

first foretold the coming of King Arthur.

"Woe to the red dragon, which figureth the British nation, for his

banishment cometh quickly; his lurkingholes shall be seized by the white

dragon--the Saxon whom thou, O king, hast called to the land. The

mountains shall be levelled as the valleys, and the rivers of the valleys

shall run blood; cities shall be burned, and churches laid in ruins; till

at length the oppressed shall turn for a season and prevail against the

strangers. For a Boar of Cornwall shall arise and rend them, and trample

their necks beneath his feet. The island shall be subject to his power,

and he shall take the forests of Gaul. The house of Romulus shall dread

him--all the world shall fear him--and his end shall no man know; he shall

be immortal in the mouths of the people, and his works shall be food to

those that tell them.

"But as for thee, O Vortigern, flee thou the sons of Constantine, for they

shall burn thee in thy tower. For thine own ruin wast thou traitor to

their father, and didst bring the Saxon heathens to the land. Aurelius and

Uther are even now upon thee to revenge their father's murder; and the

brood of the white dragon shall waste thy country, and shall lick thy

blood. Find out some refuge, if thou wilt! but who may escape the doom of

God?"

The king heard all this, trembling greatly; and, convicted of his sins,

said nothing in reply. Only he hasted the builders of his tower by day and

night, and rested not till he had fled thereto.

In the meantime, Aurelius, the rightful king, was hailed with joy by the

Britons, who flocked to his standard, and prayed to be led against the

Saxons. But he, till he had first killed Vortigern, would begin no other

war. He marched therefore to Cambria, and came before the tower which the

usurper had built. Then, crying out to all his knights, "Avenge ye on him

who hath ruined Britain and slain my father and your king!" he rushed with

many thousands at the castle walls. But, being driven back again and yet

again, at length he thought of fire, and ordered blazing brands to be cast

into the building from all sides. These finding soon a proper fuel, ceased

not to rage, till spreading to a mighty conflagration, they burned down

the tower and Vortigern within it.

Then did Aurelius turn his strength against Hengist and the Saxons, and,

defeating them in many places, weakened their power for a long season, so

that the land had peace.

Anon the king, making many journeys to and fro, restoring ruined churches

and, creating order, came to the monastery near Salisbury, where all those

British knights lay buried who had been slain there by the treachery of

Hengist. For when in former times Hengist had made a solemn truce with

Vortigern, to meet in peace and settle terms, whereby himself and all his

Saxons should depart from Britain, the Saxon soldiers carried every one of

them beneath his garment a long dagger, and, at a given signal, fell upon

the Britons, and slew them, to the number of nearly five hundred.

The sight of the place where the dead lay moved Aurelius to great sorrow,

and he cast about in his mind how to make a worthy tomb over so many noble

martyrs, who had died there for their country.

When he had in vain consulted many craftsmen and builders, he sent, by the

advice of the archbishop, for Merlin, and asked him what to do. "If you

would honour the burying-place of these men," said Merlin, "with an

everlasting monument, send for the Giants' Dance which is in Killaraus, a

mountain in Ireland; for there is a structure of stone there which none of

this age could raise without a perfect knowledge of the arts. They are

stones of a vast size and wondrous nature, and if they can be placed here

as they are there, round this spot of ground, they will stand for ever."

At these words of Merlin, Aurelius burst into laughter, and said, "How is

it possible to remove such vast stones from so great a distance, as if

Britain, also, had no stones fit for the work?"

"I pray the king," said Merlin, "to forbear vain laughter; what I have

said is true, for those stones are mystical and have healing virtues. The

giants of old brought them from the furthest coast of Africa, and placed

them in Ireland while they lived in that country: and their design was to

make baths in them, for use in time of grievous illness. For if they

washed the stones and put the sick into the water, it certainly healed

them, as also it did them that were wounded in battle; and there is no

stone among them but hath the same virtue still."

When the Britons heard this, they resolved to send for the stones, and to

make war upon the people of Ireland if they offered to withhold them. So,

when they had chosen Uther the king's brother for their chief, they set

sail, to the number of 15,000 men, and came to Ireland. There Gillomanius,

the king, withstood them fiercely, and not till after a great battle could

they approach the Giants' Dance, the sight of which filled them with joy

and admiration. But when they sought to move the stones, the strength of

all the army was in vain, until Merlin, laughing at their failures,

contrived machines of wondrous cunning, which took them down with ease,

and placed them in the ships.

When they had brought the whole to Salisbury, Aurelius, with the crown

upon his head, kept for four days the feast of Pentecost with royal pomp;

and in the midst of all the clergy and the people, Merlin raised up the

stones, and set them round the sepulchre of the knights and barons, as

they stood in the mountains of Ireland.

Then was the monument called "Stonehenge," which stands, as all men know,

upon the plain of Salisbury to this very day.

Soon thereafter it befell that Aurelius was slain by poison at Winchester,

and was himself buried within the Giants' Dance.

At the same time came forth a comet of amazing size and brightness,

darting out a beam, at the end whereof was a cloud of fire shaped like a

dragon, from whose mouth went out two rays, one stretching over Gaul, the

other ending in seven lesser rays over the Irish sea.

At the appearance of this star a great dread fell upon the people, and

Uther, marching into Cambria against the son of Vortigern, himself was

very troubled to learn what it might mean. Then Merlin, being called

before him, cried with a loud voice: "O mighty loss! O stricken Britain!

Alas! the great prince is gone from us. Aurelius Ambrosius is dead, whose

death will be ours also, unless God help us. Haste, therefore, noble

Uther, to destroy the enemy; the victory shall be thine, and thou shalt be

king of all Britain. For the star with the fiery dragon signifies thyself;

and the ray over Gaul portends that thou shalt have a son, most mighty,

whom all those kingdoms shall obey which the ray covers."

Thus, for the second time, did Merlin foretell the coming of King Arthur.

And Uther, when he was made king, remembered Merlin's words, and caused

two dragons to be made in gold, in likeness of the dragon he had seen in

the star. One of these he gave to Winchester Cathedral, and had the other

carried into all his wars before him, whence he was ever after called

Uther Pendragon, or the dragon's head.

Now, when Uther Pendragon had passed through all the land, and settled

it--and even voyaged into all the countries of the Scots, and tamed the

fierceness of that rebel people--he came to London, and ministered justice

there. And it befell at a certain great banquet and high feast which the

king made at Easter-tide, there came, with many other earls and barons,

Gorloïs, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Igerna, who was the most famous

beauty in all Britain. And soon thereafter, Gorloïs being slain in battle,

Uther determined to make Igerna his own wife. But in order to do this, and

enable him to come to her--for she was shut up in the high castle of

Tintagil, on the furthest coast of Cornwall--the king sent for Merlin, to

take counsel with him and to pray his help. This, therefore, Merlin

promised him on one condition--namely, that the king should give him up

the first son born of the marriage. For Merlin by his arts foreknew that

this firstborn should be the long-wished prince, King Arthur.

When Uther, therefore, was at length happily wedded, Merlin came to the

castle on a certain day, and said, "Sir, thou must now provide thee for

the nourishing of thy child."

And the king, nothing doubting, said, "Be it as thou wilt."

"I know a lord of thine in this land," said Merlin, "who is a man both

true and faithful; let him have the nourishing of the child. His name is

Sir Ector, and he hath fair possessions both in England and in Wales.

When, therefore, the child is born, let him be delivered unto me,

unchristened, at yonder postern-gate, and I will bestow him in the care of

this good knight."

So when the child was born, the king bid two knights and two ladies to

take it, bound in rich cloth of gold, and deliver it to a poor man whom

they should discover at the postern-gate. And the child being delivered

thus to Merlin, who himself took the guise of a poor man, was carried by

him to a holy priest and christened by the name of Arthur, and then was

taken to Sir Ector's house, and nourished at Sir Ector's wife's own

breasts. And in the same house he remained privily for many years, no man

soever knowing where he was, save Merlin and the king.

Anon it befell that the king was seized by a lingering distemper, and the

Saxon heathens, taking their occasion, came back from over sea, and

swarmed upon the land, wasting it with fire and sword. When Uther heard

thereof, he fell into a greater rage than his weakness could bear, and

commanded all his nobles to come before him, that he might upbraid them

for their cowardice. And when he had sharply and hotly rebuked them, he

swore that he himself, nigh unto death although he lay, would lead them

forth against the enemy. Then causing a horse-litter to be made, in which

he might be carried--for he was too faint and weak to ride--he went up

with all his army swiftly against the Saxons.

But they, when they heard that Uther was coming in a litter, disdained to

fight with him, saying it would be shame for brave men to fight with one

half dead. So they retired into their city; and, as it were in scorn of

danger, left the gates wide open. But Uther straightway commanding his men

to assault the town, they did so without loss of time, and had already

reached the gates, when the Saxons, repenting too late of their haughty

pride, rushed forth to the defence. The battle raged till night, and was

begun again next day; but at last, their leaders, Octa and Eosa, being

slain, the Saxons turned their backs and fled, leaving the Britons a full

triumph.

The king at this felt so great joy, that, whereas before he could scarce

raise himself without help, he now sat upright in his litter by himself,

and said, with a laughing and merry face, "They called me the half-dead

king, and so indeed I was; but victory to me half dead is better than

defeat and the best health. For to die with honour is far better than to

live disgraced."

But the Saxons, although thus defeated, were ready still for war. Uther

would have pursued them; but his illness had by now so grown, that his

knights and barons kept him from the adventure. Whereat the enemy took

courage, and left nothing undone to destroy the land; until, descending to

the vilest treachery, they resolved to kill the king by poison.

To this end, as he lay sick at Verulam, they sent and poisoned stealthily

a spring of clear water, whence he was wont to drink daily; and so, on the

very next day, he was taken with the pains of death, as were also a

hundred others after him, before the villainy was discovered, and heaps of

earth thrown over the well.

The knights and barons, full of sorrow, now took counsel together, and

came to Merlin for his help to learn the king's will before he died, for

he was by this time speechless. "Sirs, there is no remedy," said Merlin,

"and God's will must be done; but be ye all to-morrow before him, for God

will make him speak before he die."

So on the morrow all the barons, with Merlin, stood round the bedside of

the king; and Merlin said aloud to Uther, "Lord, shall thy son Arthur be

the king of all this realm after thy days?"

Then Uther Pendragon turned him about, and said, in the hearing of them

all, "God's blessing and mine be upon him. I bid him pray for my soul, and

also that he claim my crown, or forfeit all my blessing;" and with those

words he died.

Then came together all the bishops and the clergy, and great multitudes of

people, and bewailed the king; and carrying his body to the convent of

Ambrius, they buried it close by his brother's grave, within the "Giants'

Dance."