And caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere."

Then Sir Bedivere, in wonder, returned to the King, who, when he
saw him come, cried:-

"'Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.
Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?'"

So Sir Bedivere told the King how truly this time he had cast
away the sword, and how an arm "clothed in white samite, mystic,
wonderful," had caught it and drawn it under the mere. Then at
the King's bidding Sir Bedivere raised Arthur and bore him to the
water's edge.

"Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,
Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
Beneath them; and descending they were ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms,
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream - by these
Three Queens with crowns of gold: and from them rose
A cry that shiver'd to the tingling start,
And, as it were one voice, an agony
Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills
All night in a waste land, where no one comes,
Or hath come, since the making of the world.

Then, murmur'd Arthur, 'Place me in the barge.'
So to the barge they came. There those three Queens
Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept."