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. As matter of legend, it is to
be understood that Guinevere did not recognise Arthur when first he
rode below her window -


"Since he neither wore on helm or shield
The golden symbol of his kinglihood."


But Lancelot was sent to bring the bride -