And Vivien answer'd smiling as in wrath.

"Have I not sworn? I am not trusted. Good!

Well, hide it, hide it; I shall find it out;
And being found take heed of Vivien.
A woman and not trusted, doubtless I
Might feel some sudden turn of anger born
Of your misfaith; and your fine epithet
Is accurate too, for this full love of mine
Without the full heart back may merit
well

Your term of overstrain'd. So used as I,
My daily wonder is, I love at all.
And as to woman's jealousy, O why not?

And one to make me jealous if I love, Was this fair charm invented by yourself} I well believe that all about this world Ye cage a buxom captive here and there, Closed in the four walls of a hollow tower From which is no escape for evermore."

Then the great Master merrily answer'd her.

"Full many a love in loving youth was mine,

I needed then no charm to keep them mine

But youth and love; and that full heart of yours

Whereof you prattle, may now assure you mine;

Solive uncharm'd. For those who wrought it first,

The wrist is parted from the hand that waved,

The
Who paced it, ages back: but will ye

feet unmortised from their ankle-
bones

hear

The legend as in guerdon for your rhyme?

"There lived a king in the most East

ern East,

Less old than I, yet older, for my blood
Hath earnest in it of far springs to be.
A tawny pirate anchor'd in his port,
Whose bark had plunder'd twenty name-
less isles;

And passing one, at the high peep of dawn,
He saw two cities in a thousand boats
All fighting for a woman on the sea.
And pushing his black craft among them
all,

He lightly scatter'd theirs and brought her off,

With loss of half his people arrow-slain; A maid so smooth, so white, so wonderful, They said a light came from her when

she moved:

And since the pirate would not yield her up,

The King impaled him for his piracy ; Then made her Queen: but those islenurtur'd eyes Waged such unwilling tho' successful war On all the youth, they sicken'd; councils thinn'd,

And armies waned, for magnet-like she drew

The rustiest iron of old fighters' hearts ;

That carry kings in castles, bow'd black knees

Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands,

To make her smile, her golden anklebells.

What wonder, being jealous, that he sent His horns of proclamation out thro' all The hundred under-kingdoms that he sway'd

To find a wizard who might teach the King

Some charm, which being wrought upon

the Queen

Might keep her all his own: to such a one He promised more than ever king has given,

A league of mountain full of golden mines, A province with a hundred miles of coast, A palace and a princess, all for him : But on all those who tried and fail'd, the King

Pronounced a dismal sentence, meaning by it

To keep the list low and pretenders back, Or like a king, not to be trifled with Their heads should moulder on the city gates.

And many tried and fail'd, because the charm

Of nature in her overbore their own: And many a wizard brow bleach'd on the walls :

And many weeks a troop of carrion crows Hung like a cloud above the gateway towers."

She ceased, and made her lithe arm round his neck

Tighten, and then drew back, and let her eyes

Speak for her, glowing on him, like a bride's

On her new lord, her own, the first of men.

He answer'd laughing, "Nay, not like

to me.

At last they found his foragers for charms

A little glassy-headed hairless man, Who lived alone in a great wild on grass ; Read but one book, and ever reading grew So grated down and filed away with thought,

So lean his eyes were monstrous; while the skin

Clung but to crate and basket, ribs and spine.

And since he kept his mind on one sole aim,

Nor ever touch'd fierce wine, nor tasted flesh,

Nor own'd a sensual wish, to him the wall That sunders ghosts and shadow-casting

men

Became a crystal, and he saw them thro'it, And heard their voices talk behind the wall,

And learnt their elemental secrets, powers And forces; often o'er the sun's bright eye Drew the vast eyelid of an inky cloud, And lash'd it at the base with slanting

storm;

Or in the noon of mist and driving rain, When the lake whiten'd and the pinewood roar'd,

And the cairn'd mountain was a shadow, sunn'd

The world to peace again: here was the

man.

And so by force they dragg'd him to the King.

And then he taught the King to charm the Queen

In such-wise, that no man could see her more,

Nor saw she save the King, who wrought

the charm,

Coming and going, and she lay as dead, And lost all use of life; but when the King

And Vivien answer'd smiling saucily; "You have the book: the charm is written in it:

Good take my counsel: let me know it at once:

For keep it like a puzzle chest in chest, With each chest lock'd and padlock'd thirty-fold,

And whelm all this beneath as vast a mound

As after furious battle turfs the slain
On some wild down above the windy deep.
I yet should strike upon a sudden means
Todig, pick, open, find and read the charm:
Then, if I tried it, who should blame me
then?"

And smiling as a Master smiles at one That is not of his school, nor any school But that where blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, On all things all day long; he answer'd her.

"You read the book, my pretty Vivien ! O ay, it is but twenty pages long, But every page having an ample marge, And every marge enclosing in the midst A square of text that looks a little blot, The text no larger than the limbs of fleas ; And every square of text an awful charm, Writ in a language that has long gone by. So long, that mountains have arisen since With cities on their flanks

-you read

the book! And every margin scribbled, crost, and cramm'd

With comment, densest condensation, hard

To mind and eye; but the long sleepless nights

Of my long life have made it easy to me.

myself;

And in the comment did I find the charm. O, the results are simple; a mere child Might use it to the harm of any one, And never could undo it: ask no more: For tho' you should not prove it upon me, But keep that oath you swore, you might, perchance,

Assay it on some one of the Table Round, And all because you dream they babble of you."

And Vivien, frowning in true anger, said:

"What dare the full-fed liars say of me? They ride abroad redressing human wrongs!

They sit with knife in meat and wine in

horn.

They bound to holy vows of chastity! Were I not woman, I could tell a tale. But you are man, you well can understand The shame that cannot be explain'd for shame.

Not one of all the drove should touch me: swine!"

Then answer'd Merlin careless of her words.

"Ye breathe but accusation vast and

vague,

Spleen-born, I think, and proofless. If ye know,

Set up the charge ye know, to stand or fall!"

And Vivien answer'd frowning wrathfully.

"O ay, what say ye to Sir Valence, him Whose kinsman left him watcher o'er his

wife

And two fair babes, and went to distant lands;

Was one year gone, and on returning found Not two but three: there lay the reckling, one

But one hour old! What said the happy sire?

A seven months' babe had been a truer

gift.

Those twelve sweet moons confused his fatherhood."

Then answer'd Merlin "Nay, I know the tale.

dame :

Some cause had kept him sunder'd from his wife :

One child they had it lived with her: she died:

His kinsman travelling on his own affair Was charged by Valence to bring home the child.

He brought, not found it therefore take the truth.'

Christ,

Or some black wether of St. Satan's fold. What, in the precincts of the chapel-yard, Among the knightly brasses of the graves, And by the cold Hic Jacets of the dead!" |

Round

To all the foulness that they work. Myself Could call him (were it not for womanhood)

The pretty, popular name such manhood

earns,