Quoth Sir Bedivere, “What should I have beheld, Lord? I beheld nothing but the waves beating upon the shore. And the moon shone upon those waves, as it were a path of living and of glittering silver.”
Then King Arthur said, “Ah, liar and caitiff knight! I am undone for trusting to thee. For thou hast deceived me, who trusted in thee. For thou hast coveted the jewels set upon the handle of the sword, and hast refrained from casting it into the water of the sea.” Then Sir Bedivere said, “Lord, I repent me of this.”
But King Arthur said, “Go now, and do what I bid thee do, and see to it that this time thou failest not. For my time draweth near and I have now but a little while to live.”
Sir Bedivere goeth forth again.
He doth not cast away the sword.
So Sir Bedivere went forth again and he went to that place where he had hidden the sword. And he took the sword from where it lay hidden and lifted it in his hands. And when he again beheld the light of the moon illuminating its handle of gold and flaming upon the jewels of the handle, his heart and his purpose weakened within him, and he said to himself, “Surely, it would be a sin to cast away this sword. For it is the most beautiful and noblest sword in all of the world. Wherefore then should I destroy this sword that belongeth not more to the King himself than to the world in which he lives? Certes, the King raved in this, wherefore for the sake of posterity and for the sake of those who are to come after, I will not cast this sword into the sea.”
So Sir Bedivere returned to the King, and the King said to him, panting as he spake, “Sir, have you performed that which I have commanded you to undertake?”
And Sir Bedivere said, “Yea, Lord.”
Quoth the King, “What saw you in doing this thing?”
Said Sir Bedivere, “Lord, I beheld the moon shining on high, and I beheld the waves of the sea breaking noisily up against the pebbles of the beach; but naught else did I behold.”