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:  75
  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 and dear, and do the thing 80
  I bad thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.’

  Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
  Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
  Counting the dewy pebbles, fix’d in thought;
  But when he saw the wonder of the hilt, 85
  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, 90
  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 95
  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 rumours of a doubt? but were this kept, 100
  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 105
  Upon the hidden bases of the hills.” 
  So might some old man speak in the after-time
  To all the people, winning reverence. 
  But now much honour and much fame were lost.’

  So spake he, clouded with his own conceit, 110
  And hid Excalibur the second time,
  And so strode back slow to the wounded King.

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

  And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:  115
  ’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! 120
  Authority forgets a dying king,
  Laid widow’d of the power in his eye
  That bow’d the will.  I see thee what thou art,
  For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
  In whom should meet the offices of all, 125
  Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
  Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
  Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes. 
  Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
  And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:  130
  But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
  I will arise and slay thee with my hands.’