At the midnight then sent the chamber-knights six of their men to Appas’s inn; they weened to find him, and bring him to the king.  Then was he flown, and the fiends him carried!  The men came back where the king dwelt, and made known in the chamber of Appas’s departure.  Then might men see sorrow enow be!  Knights fell down, and yearned their deaths; there was mickle lamentation and heart-groaning, there was many a piteous speech, there was yell of men!  They leapt to the bed, and beheld the king; the yet he lay in slumber, and in great sweat.  The knights with weeping awakened the king, and they called to him with mild voice:  “Lord, how is it with thee? how is thy harm?  For now is our leech departed without leave, gone out of court, and left us as wretches.”  The king gave them answer:  “I am all over swollen, and there is no other hap, now anon I shall be dead.  And I bid forth-right, ye who are my knights, that ye greet Uther, who is my own brother, and bid him hold my land in his sway.  God himself through all things let him be a good king!  And bid him be keen, and always deem right, as a father to the poor folk, to the destitute for comfort; —­then may he hold the land in power.  And now to-day, when I be dead, take ye all one counsel, and cause me to be brought right to Stonehenge, where lie much of my kindred, by the Saxons killed.  And send for bishops, and book-learned men; my gold and silver distribute for my soul, and lay me at the east end, in Stonehenge.”  There was no other hap—­there was the king dead!  And all so his men did as the king directed.  Uther was in Wales, and hereof was nothing ware, never through any art hereof nothing wist; nevertheless he had with him the prophet Merlin, he proceeded towards the army that was come to the land.

Uther lay in Wales, in a wilderness, and prepared to march, to fight with Pascent.  Then in the eventime, the moon gan to shine, well nigh all as bright as the sunlight.  Then they saw afar a marvellous star; it was broad, it was large, it was immense!  From it came gleams terribly shining, the star is named in Latin, comet.  Came from the star a gleam most fierce; at this gleam’s end was a dragon fair, from this dragon’s mouth came gleams enow!  But twain there were mickle, unlike to the others; the one drew toward France, the other toward Ireland.  The gleam that toward France drew, it was itself bright enow; to Munt-Giu was seen the marvellous token!  The gleam that stretched right west, it was disposed in seven beams.  Uther saw this—­but he was not hereof wary—­sorrow was to him in heart, and strangely he was frightened; so was all the great folk that was in the host.  Uther called Merlin, and bade him come to him, and thus said to him with very soft words:  “Merlin, Merlin, dear friend, prove thyself, and say to us of the token that we have seen; for I wot not in the worlds-realm to what end it shall befall; unless thou us counsel, back we must ride.”