r Bedivere departed, and went to the sword, and lightly took it
up, and went to the waterside. There he bound the girdle about the
hilts, and then he threw the sword as far into the water as he might.
And there came an arm and an hand above the water, and met it, and
caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished, and then vanished
away the hand with the sword in the water.

So Sir Bedivere came again to the King, and told him what he saw.
"Alas," said the King, "help me thence, for I fear me I have tarried
over long."

Then Sir Bedivere took the King upon his back, and so went with him to
that waterside. And when they were at the waterside, even fast by the
bank hove a little barge, with many fair ladies in it, and among them
all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and
shrieked when they saw King Arthur.

[Illustration: The Passing of Arthur]

"Now put me into the barge," said the King; and so he did softly. And
there received him three queens with great mourning, and so they set
him down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head, and then
that queen said, "Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from
me? Alas, this wound on your head hath caught over much cold."

And so then they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld all these
ladies go from him. Then he cried, "Ah, my lord Arthur, what shall
become of me now ye go from me, and leave me here alone among mine
enemies!"

"Comfort thyself," said the King, "and do as well as thou mayest, for
in me is no trust for to trust in. For I will into the vale of
Avilion, to heal me of my grievous wound. And if thou hear never more
of me, pray for my soul."

Ever the queens and the ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity to
hear. And as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge he
wept and wailed, and so took the forest, and he went all that night;
and in the morning he was ware betwixt two ancient cliffs of a chapel
and an hermitage, and he was glad.

When he came into the chapel he saw a hermit praying by a tomb new
graven. The hermit was the Bishop of Canterbury that Sir Mordred had
banished, and Sir Bedivere asked him what man was there interred.

"Fair son," said the hermit, "I wot not verily, but this night, at
midnight, here came a number of ladies, and brought hither a dead
corpse, and prayed me to bury him; and here they offered an hundred
tapers, and gave me an hundred besants."

Then Si