the walls would not stand until the ground had been watered
with the blood of a child who could claim no human father.

Five years previous to this prediction, the demons, seeing that so many
souls escaped them owing to the redemption procured by a child of divine
origin, thought that they could regain lost ground by engendering a demon
child upon a human virgin. A beautiful, pious maiden was chosen for this
purpose; and as she daily went to confess her every deed and thought to a
holy man, Blaise, he soon discovered the plot of the demons, and resolved
to frustrate it.

[Sidenote: Birth of the mythical Merlin.] By his advice the girl, instead
of being immediately put to death, as the law required, was locked up in a
tower, where she gave birth to her son. Blaise, the priest, more watchful
than the demons, no sooner heard of the child's birth than he hastened to
baptize him, giving him the name of Merlin. The holy rite annulled the evil
purpose of the demons, but, owing to his uncanny origin, the child was
gifted with all manner of strange powers, of which he made use on sundry
occasions.

"To him
Great light from God gave sight of all things dim,
And wisdom of all wondrous things, to say
What root should bear what fruit of night or day;
And sovereign speech and counsel above man:
Wherefore his youth like age was wise and wan,
And his age sorrowful and fain to sleep."
SWINBURNE, _Tristram of Lyonesse_.

The child thus baptized soon gave the first proof of his marvelous power;
for, when his mother embraced him and declared that she must soon die, he
comforted her by speaking aloud and promising to prove her innocent of all
crime. The trial took place soon after this occurrence, and although Merlin
was but a few days old, he sat up boldly in his mother's lap and spoke so
forcibly to the judges that he soon secured her acquittal. Once when he was
five years old, while playing in the street, he saw the messengers of
Vortigern. Warned by his prophetic instinct that they were seeking him, he
ran to meet them, and offered to accompany them to the king. On the way
thither he saw a youth buying shoes, and laughed aloud. When questioned
concerning the cause of his mirth, he predicted that the youth would die
within a few hours.

"Then said Merlin, 'See ye nought
That young man, that hath shoon bought,
And strong leather to do hem clout [patch],