sought only his ruin, thinking it should be fame for her, by any
means whatsoever, to enslave the greatest wizard of his age. And so
she persuaded him to pass with her overseas into King Ban's land of
Benwick, and there, one day, he showed her a wondrous rock, formed
by magic art. Then she begged him to enter into it, the better to
declare to her its wonders; but when once he was within, by a charm
that she had learnt from Merlin's self, she caused the rock to
shut down that never again might he come forth. Thus was Merlin's
prophecy fulfilled, that he should go down into the earth alive.
Much they marvelled in Arthur's court what had become of the great
magician, till on a time, there rode past the stone a certain
Knight of the Round Table and heard Merlin lamenting his sad fate.
The knight would have striven to raise the mighty stone, but Merlin
bade him not waste his labour, since none might release him save
her who had imprisoned him there. Thus Merlin passed from the world
through the treachery of a damsel, and thus Arthur was without aid
in the days when his doom came upon him.




CHAPTER VII

BALIN AND BALAN


Among the princes that thought scorn of Arthur in the days when
first he became king, none was more insolent than Ryons of North
Wales. So, on a time when King Arthur held high festival at
Camelot, Ryons sent a herald who, in the presence of the whole