Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PASSING OP ARTHUR That story which the bold Sir Bedivere, First made and latest left of all the knights, Told, when the man was no more than a voice In the white winter of his age, to those With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds. For on their march to westward, Bedivere, Who slowly paced among the slumbering host, Heard in his tent the meanings of the King : " I found Him in the shining of the stars, I mark'd Him in the flowering of His fields, But in His ways with men I find Him not. I waged His wars, and now I pass and die. 0 me ! for why is all around us here As if some lesser god had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would, Till the High God behold it from beyond, And enter it, and make it beautiful ? Or else as if the world were wholly fair, But that these eyes of men are dense and dim, And have not power to see it as it is : Perchance, because we see not to the close ;— For I, being simple, thought to work His will, And have but stricken with the sword in vain ; And all whereon I lean'd in wife and friend Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm Eeels back into the beast, and is no more. My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death: Nay—God my Christ—I pass but shall not die." Then, ere that last weird battle in the west, There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain kill'd In Lancelot's' war, the ghost of Gawain blown Along a wandering wind, and past his ear Went shrilling, " Hollow, hollow all delight! Hail, King ! to-morrow thou shalt pass away. Farewell ! there is an isle of rest for thee. And I am blown along a wandering wind, And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight." And fainter onward, like wild birds that change Their season in the night and wail their way From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream Shrill'd ; but in going mingled wi...