Queen Bellicent then tells Leodogran, from the evidence
of Bleys, Merlin's master in necromancy, the story of Arthur's
miraculous advent.
"And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried 'The King!
Here is an heir for Uther!'"
But Merlin, when asked by Bellicent to corroborate the statement of
Bleys, merely
"Answer'd in riddling triplets of old time."
Finally, Leodogran's faith is confirmed by a vision. Thus
doubtfully, amidst rumour and portent, cloud and spiritual light,
comes Arthur: "from the great deep" he comes, and in as strange
fashion, at the end, "to the great deep he goes"--a king to be
accepted in faith or rejected by doubt. Arthur and his ideal are
objects of belief. All goes well while the knights hold that
"The King will follow Christ, and we the King,
In whom high God hath breathed a secret thing."
In history we find the same situation in the France of 1429 -
"The King will follow Jeanne, and we the King."
While this faith held, all went well; when the king ceased to follow,
the spell was broken,--the Maid was martyred. In this sense the poet
conceives the coming of Arthur, a sign to be spoken against, a test
of high purposes, a belief redeeming and ennobling till faith fails,
and the little rift within the lute, the love of Lancelot and
Guinevere, makes discord of the music.
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