killed, fought on foot like an enraged lion, standing
among dead men and horses, and felling all who came within reach of his
sword. As for King Arthur, his armor was so covered with crimson stains
that no man knew him, and his horse went fetlock deep in blood.

When night approached, the hostile force was driven across a little
stream, the eleven warrior kings still valiantly facing the victorious
foe.

Then came Merlin into the press of struggling knights, mounted on a
great black horse, and cried to Arthur,--

"Wilt thou never have done? Of threescore thousand men this day thou
hast left alive but fifteen thousand, and it is time to cry, Halt! I bid
you withdraw, for if you continue the battle fortune will turn against
you. As for these kings, you will have no trouble with them for three
years to come, for more than forty thousand Saracens have landed in
their country, and are burning and despoiling all before them."

This advice was taken, and the defeated kings were allowed to withdraw
the remnant of their forces without further harm, while King Arthur
richly rewarded his allies and their knights from the treasure found in
the hostile camp.

Thus was King Arthur seated firmly on his throne. But who he was he knew
not yet, for the mystery that lay over his birth Merlin had never
revealed. After the battle Merlin went to his master Bleise, who dwelt
in Northumberland, and told him the events of the mighty contest. These
Bleise wrote down, word by word, as he did the after-events of King
Arthur's reign, and the deeds of his valiant knights. And so was made
the chronicle of the great achievements of arms, and the adventures of
errant knights, from which this history is drawn.

Of some things that Merlin further did we must here speak. While Arthur
dwelt in the castle of Bedegraine, Merlin came to him so disguised that
the king knew him not. He was all befurred in black sheepskins, with a
great pair of boots and a bow and arrows, and brought wild geese in his
hand, as though he had been a huntsman.

"Sir," he said to the king, "will you give me a gift?"

"Why should I do so, churl?" asked the king.

"You had better give me a gift from what you have in hand than to lose
great riches which are now out of your reach; for here, where the battle
was fought, is great treasure hidden in the earth."

"Who told you that, churl?"

"Merlin told me so."

Then was the king abashed, for he now knew that it was Merlin w