So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fallen in Lyonness 3 about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was
deep,

The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land. 10
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.

Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep

1 Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas More 2 Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I of England 3 supposed to lie between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, now submerged, but cf. Layamon's Brut