Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/271

 "Nor I," said Merlin. "Once I dreamed of it, But I was buried. I shall see no Grail, Nor would I have it otherwise. I saw Too much, and that was never good for man. The man who goes alone too far goes mad In one way or another. God knew best, And he knows what is coming yet for me. I do not ask. Like you, I have enough." That night King Arthur's apprehension found In Merlin an obscure and restive guest, Whose only thought was on the hour of dawn, When he should see the last of Camelot And ride again for Brittany; and what words Were said before the King was left alone Were only darker for reiteration. They parted, all provision made secure For Merlin's early convoy to the coast, And Arthur tramped the past. The loneliness Of kings, around him like the unseen dead, Lay everywhere; and he was loath to move, As if in fear to meet with his cold hand The touch of something colder. Then a whim, Begotten of intolerable doubt, Seized him and stung him until he was asking If any longer lived among his knights A man to trust as once he trusted all, And Lancelot more than all. "And it is he Who is to have me first," so Merlin says, "As if he had me not in hell already. Lancelot! Lancelot!" He cursed the tears That cooled his misery, and then he asked Himself again if he had one to trust Among his knights, till even Bedivere, Tor, Bors, and Percival, rough Lamorak,