And grease to smear hem all about?
He weeneth to live hem to wear:
But, by my soul, I dare well swear,
His wretched life he shall for-let [lose],
Ere he come to his own gate.'"
ELLIS, _Merlin_.

[Sidenote: Merlin as a prophet.] A few more predictions of an equally
uncanny and unpleasant nature firmly established his reputation as a
prophet even before he reached court. There he boldly told the king that
the astrologers, wishing to destroy the demon's offspring, who was wiser
than they, had demanded his blood under pretext that the walls of Salisbury
would stand were it only shed. When asked why the walls continually fell
during the night, Merlin attributed it to the nightly conflict of a red and
a white dragon concealed underground. In obedience to his instructions,
search was made for these monsters, and the assembled court soon saw a
frightful struggle between them. This battle finally resulted in the death
of the red dragon and the triumph of the white.

"With long tailis, fele [many] fold,
And found right as Merlin told.
That one dragon was red as fire,
With eyen bright, as basin clear;
His tail was great and nothing small;
His body was a rood withal.
His shaft may no man tell;
He looked as a fiend from hell.
The white dragon lay him by,
Stern of look, and griesly.
His mouth and throat yawned wide;
The fire brast [burst] out on ilka [each] side.
His tail was ragged as a fiend,
And, upon his tail's end,
There was y-shaped a griesly head,
To fight with the dragon red."
ELLIS, _Merlin_.

The white dragon soon disappeared also, and the work of the castle now
proceeded without further hindrance. Vortigern, however, was very uneasy,
because Merlin had not only said that the struggle of the red and the white
dragon represented his coming conflict with Constans's sons, but further
added that he would suffer defeat. This prediction was soon fulfilled.
Uther and his brother Pendragon landed in Britain with the army they had
assembled, and Vortigern was burned in the castle he had just completed.

Shortly after this victory a war arose between the Britons under Uther and
Pendragon, and the Saxons under Hengist. Merlin, who had by this time
become the prime minister and chief adviser of the British kings, predicted
that they would win the victory, but that one would be slain. This
predi