Then was the monument called “Stonehenge,” which stands, as all men know, upon the plain of Salisbury to this very day.

Soon thereafter it befell that Aurelius was slain by poison at Winchester, and was himself buried within the Giants’ Dance.

At the same time came forth a comet of amazing size and brightness, darting out a beam, at the end whereof was a cloud of fire shaped like a dragon, from whose mouth went out two rays, one stretching over Gaul, the other ending in seven lesser rays over the Irish sea.

At the appearance of this star a great dread fell upon the people, and Uther, marching into Cambria against the son of Vortigern, himself was very troubled to learn what it might mean.  Then Merlin, being called before him, cried with a loud voice:  “O mighty loss!  O stricken Britain!  Alas! the great prince is gone from us.  Aurelius Ambrosius is dead, whose death will be ours also, unless God help us.  Haste, therefore, noble Uther, to destroy the enemy; the victory shall be thine, and thou shalt be king of all Britain.  For the star with the fiery dragon signifies thyself; and the ray over Gaul portends that thou shalt have a son, most mighty, whom all those kingdoms shall obey which the ray covers.”

Thus, for the second time, did Merlin foretell the coming of King Arthur.  And Uther, when he was made king, remembered Merlin’s words, and caused two dragons to be made in gold, in likeness of the dragon he had seen in the star.  One of these he gave to Winchester Cathedral, and had the other carried into all his wars before him, whence he was ever after called Uther Pendragon, or the dragon’s head.

Now, when Uther Pendragon had passed through all the land, and settled it—­and even voyaged into all the countries of the Scots, and tamed the fierceness of that rebel people—­he came to London, and ministered justice there.  And it befell at a certain great banquet and high feast which the king made at Easter-tide, there came, with many other earls and barons, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Igerna, who was the most famous beauty in all Britain.  And soon thereafter, Gorlois being slain in battle, Uther determined to make Igerna his own wife.  But in order to do this, and enable him to come to her—­for she was shut up in the high castle of Tintagil, on the furthest coast of Cornwall—­the king sent for Merlin, to take counsel with him and to pray his help.  This, therefore, Merlin promised him on one condition—­namely, that the king should give him up the first son born of the marriage.  For Merlin by his arts foreknew that this firstborn should be the long-wished prince, King Arthur.

When Uther, therefore, was at length happily wedded, Merlin came to the castle on a certain day, and said, “Sir, thou must now provide thee for the nourishing of thy child.”

And the king, nothing doubting, said, “Be it as thou wilt.”

“I know a lord of thine in this land,” said Merlin, “who is a man both true and faithful; let him have the nourishing of the child.  His name is Sir Ector, and he hath fair possessions both in England and in Wales.  When, therefore, the child is born, let him be delivered unto me, unchristened, at yonder postern-gate, and I will bestow him in the care of this good knight.”