Then the King was silent for a little while and then he cried out, “Oh, woe is me! that all my authority hath departed from me with my strength! For it was to be supposed that mine enemies would betray me but not that my friends would betray me. But here lie I hovering upon the edge of death, and now this knight who is my sworn knight and vassal will not do that which I bid him to do because of the jewels that enrich the hilt of that sword.”
Then Sir Bedivere wept and he said, “Lord, I will do that which thou biddest me to do.” And King Arthur said, “Do it, and make haste.”
Sir Bedivere casteth away the sword.
So Sir Bedivere ran forth from that chapel. And he ran to where the sword was hidden and he took the sword and wrapped the belt of the sword about it. And he ran down the rocks to the sea shore, and when he had come there he whirled the sword several times about his head and cast it far out over the water.
An arm catcheth the sword.
And Sir Bedivere beheld the sword that it whirled, flashing in the moonlight like to pure circles of light, whirling in the darkness. So the sword described a circle above the water and it descended to the water, and as the sword descended to the water there emerged from the water an arm. And around the arm was a sleeve of white samite and about the arm were many bracelets of gold inset with precious stones. And the arm catched the sword by the haft and brandished it thrice, and then drew it down beneath the water. And the water closed over it and the sword and the arm were gone.
All this Sir Bedivere beheld, and when he had beheld it he returned, musing, to where King Arthur lay in that small chapel above the cliffs.
And when he returned, King Arthur said to him, “Sir, did you do as I commanded you to, and did you fling Excalibur into the water?” Sir Bedivere said, “Lord, I did as you commanded me.”
Quoth King Arthur, “And what did you behold?”
Said Sir Bedivere, “When I thus threw that sword into the water of the sea, an arm came out of that water. And the arm had to it a sleeve of white samite and it was enclasped with many bracelets of gold, and the bracelets were set with many precious stones of various sorts. And the hand of the arm catched Excalibur by the hilt and it brandished him three times in the air and then it drew him beneath the water. That is what I saw.”