Low but clear within the wall the monarch's wise discourse broke down
Saying, plain as rap could say, "A rap is threatened to thy crown."
"Perdy!" said the startled monarch. "What strange visitant thus shocks
All our ears at such a moment? It must be the ghost of—" Knocks
Two or three upon the wall came, ere "of Merlin," he could say.
Then Sir Lancelot stepped before him, as the echoes died away.
"If a knight should fly from knocks, 'twould surely be a parlous shame,"
Said he. "Wherefore to accomplish this adventure I shall claim.
I will take my horse and spear and journey down to Caer Lud,
Where 'Linette, the damsel sauvage,'[1] dwells beside the Fleet's clear flood;