Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere: 
  “Hast thou perform’d my mission which I gave? 
  What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?”

  And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere: 
  “I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
  And the wild water lapping on the crag.”

  To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale: 
  “Thou hast betray’d thy nature and thy name,
  Not rendering true answer, as beseem’d
  Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight: 
  For surer sign had follow’d, either hand,
  Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. 
  This is a shameful thing for men to lie. 
  Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again,
  As thou art lief[5] and dear, and do the thing
  I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.”

[Footnote 5:  Lief is an old word meaning beloved.]

  Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
  Across the bridge, and paced beside the mere,
  Counting the dewy pebbles, fix’d in thought;
  But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
  How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
  His palms together, and he cried aloud: 

  “And if indeed I cast the brand away,
  Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
  Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
  Which might have pleased the eyes of many men. 
  What good should follow this, if this were done? 
  What harm, undone?  Deep harm to disobey,
  Seeing obedience is the bond of rule. 
  Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
  An act unprofitable, against himself? 
  The King is sick, and knows not what he does. 
  What record, or what relic of my lord
  Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
  And rumors of a doubt?  But were this kept,
  Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
  Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
  Saying, ’King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur,
  Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake. 
  Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
  Upon the hidden bases of the hills.’ 
  So might some old man speak in the aftertime
  To all the people, winning reverence. 
  But now much honor and much fame were lost.”

  So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,[6]
  And hid Excalibur the second time,
  And so strode back slow to the wounded King.

[Footnote 6:  Conceit here means fancy.]

  Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily: 
  “What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?”

  And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere: 
  “I heard the water lapping on the crag,
  And the long ripple washing in the reeds.”

  To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath: 
  “Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
  Unknightly, traitor-hearted!  Woe is me! 
  Authority forgets a dying king,
  Laid widow’d of the power in his eye
  That bowed the will.  I see thee what