me, and oft it came to me very nigh; when I at length looked to myself—­strange this seemed to me—­my meat to me was loathsome, my limbs unusual, strange it seemed to me, what it might be!  Then perceived I at the end that I was with child, when my time came, this boy I had.  I know not in this world what his father were, nor who begat him in this worlds-realm, nor whether it were evil thing, or on God’s behalf dight.  Alas! as I pray for mercy, I know not any more to say to thee of my son, how he is come to the world.”  The nun bowed her head down, and covered her features.

The king bethought him what he might do, and drew to him good councillors to counsel, and they said him counsel with the best, that he should send for Magan, who was a marvellous man.—­He was a wise clerk, and knew of many crafts; he would advise well, he could far direct, he knew of the craft that dwelleth in the sky (astronomy), he could tell of each history (or language).  Magan came to court where the king dwelt, and greeted the king with goodly words:  “Hail be thou and sound, Vortiger the king!  I am come to thee, show me thy will.”  Then answered the king, and told the clerk all, how the nun had said, and asked him thereof counsel, from the beginning to the end, all he him told.  Then said Magan:  “I know full well hereon.  There dwell in the sky many kind of beings, that there shall remain until domesday arrive; some they are good, and some they work evil.  Therein is a race very numerous, that cometh among men; they are named full truly Incubi Daemones; they do not much harm, but deceive the folk; many a man in dream oft they delude, and many a fair woman through their craft childeth anon, and many a good man’s child they beguile through magic.  And thus was Merlin begat, and born of his mother, and thus it is all transacted,” quoth the clerk Magan.

Then said Merlin to the king himself:  “King, thy men have taken me, and I am to thee come, and I would learn what is thy will, and for what thing I am brought to the king?” Then said the king with quick speech:  “Merlin, thou art hither come; thou art son of no man!  Much thou longest after loath speech; learn thou wilt the adventure—­now thou shalt hear it.  I have begun a work with great strength, that hath my treasure well much taken away; five thousand men work each day thereon.  And I have lime and stone, in the world is none better, nor in any land workmen so good.  All that they lay in the day—­in sooth I may say it—­ere day in the morrow all it is down; each stone from the other felled to the ground!  Now say my wise and my sage men, that if I take thy blood, out of thy breast, and work my will, and put to my lime, then may it stand to the world’s end.  Now thou knowest it all, how it shall be to thee.”  Merlin heard this, and angered in his mood, and said these words, though he were wrath:  “God himself, who is lord of men, will it never, that the castle should stand for my heart’s blood, nor