will go into Britain, and say
to the King Aurelie, that my stones I will defend, and unless the king
be still, and do my will, I will in his land with fight withstand,
make him waste paths, and wildernesses many; widows enow--there
husbands shall die!" Thus the unwise king played with words, but it
all happened another wise, other than he weened. His army was ready,
and forth they gan march, so long that they came whereon the Britons
lay. Together they came, and hardily encountered, and fought
fiercely--the fated fell! But the Irish were bare, and the Britons in
armour, the Irish fell, and covered all the fields. And the King
Gillomar gan him to flee there, and fled forth-right, with twenty of
his knights, into a great wood--of worship bereaved--his Irish folk
was felled with steel. Thus was the king shamed, and thus he ended his
boast, and thus went to the wood, and let his folk fall! The Britons
beheld the dead over the fields; seven thousand there lay deprived of
life. The Britons went over the fields to their tents, and worthily
looked to (or took care of) their good weapons, and there they gan to
rest, as Merlin counselled them.

On the fourth day then gan they to march, and proceeded to the hill,
all well weaponed, where the marvellous work stood, great and most
strong! Knights went upward, knights went downward, knights went all
about, and earnestly beheld it, they saw there on the land the
marvellous work stand. There were a thousand knights with weapons well
furnished, and all the others to wit guarded well their ships. Then
spake Merlin, and discoursed with the knights: "Knights, ye are
strong, these stones are great and long, ye must go nigh, and forcibly
take hold of them; ye must wreathe them fast with strong sail-ropes,
shove and heave with utmost strength trees great and long, that are
exceeding strong, and go ye to one stone, all clean, and come again
with strength, if ye may it stir." But Merlin wist well how it should
happen. The knights advanced with mickle strength; they laboured full
greatly, but they had not power, so that they ever any stone might
stir! Merlin beheld Uther, who was the king's brother, and Merlin the
prophet said these words: "Uther, draw thee back, and assemble thy
knights, and stand ye all about, and diligently behold, and be ye all
still, so that no man there stir ere I say to you now anon how we
shall commence, 'Take ye each a stone.'" Uther drew him back, and
assembled his k