“What saw’st thou?” said King Arthur.
“Sir, I saw the water lap on the crags.”
Then spoke the King in great wrath: “Traitor and unkind! Twice hast thou betrayed me! Art dazzled by the splendor of the jewels, thou that, till now, hast ever been dear and true to me? Go yet again, but if thou fail me this time, I will arise and, with mine own hands, slay thee.”
Then Sir Bedivere left the King and, that time, he took the sword quickly from the place where he had hidden it and, forbearing even to look upon it, he twisted the belt about it and flung it with all his force into the water. A wondrous sight he saw, for, as the sword touched the water, a hand rose from out the deep, caught it, brandished it thrice and threw it beneath the surface.
So Bedivere hastened back to the King and told him what he had seen.
“It is well,” said Arthur; “now, bear me to the water’s edge and hasten, I pray thee, for I have tarried over long and my wound has taken cold.”
So Sir Bedivere raised the King on his back and bore him tenderly to the lonely shore, where the lapping waves floated many an empty helmet and the fitful moonlight fell on the upturned faces of the dead. Scarce had they reached the shore when there hove in sight a barge, and on its deck stood three tall women, robed all in black and wearing crowns on their heads.
“Place me in the barge,” said Arthur, and softly Sir Bedivere lifted the King into it. And these three queens wept sore over Arthur, and one took his head in her lap and [chafed his hands], crying:
“Alas! my brother, thou hast been overlong in coming, and I fear me thy wound has taken cold.”
Then the barge began to move slowly forth from the land. When Sir Bedivere saw this, he lifted up his voice and cried with a bitter cry: