Reclined in revery against the root

Of a great oak, a fragment of the west,

A dwarf, in crimson satin tightly dressed,

Skipped like a leaf the early frosts have burned,

A red oak-leaf; and like a leaf he turned,

And danced and rustled. And it seemed he came

From Camelot; from his belovéd dame,

Morgane le Fay. He on his shoulder bore

A mighty blade, wrought strangely o'er and o'er

With mystic runes, drawn from a scabbard which