Then slowly from the shore the barge moved. And Sir Bedivere, as
he saw his master go, was filled with grief and loneliness, for
he only of all the brave King's knights was left. And so he
cried in mourning:-

"'Ah! my Lord Arthur, wither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead.
. . . . . .
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."

Mournfully from the barge Arthur answered and bade him pray, for
"More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of," and
so he said farewell,

"and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan."

Long stood Sir Bedivere thinking of all that had come and gone,
watching the barge as it glided silently away, and listening to
the wailing voices,

"till the hull
Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away."

Sir Bedivere turned then and climbed,