46
THE TALE OF BALEN
Again and sadly Merlin spake:
'My heart is wrung for this deed's sake,
To know thee therefore doomed to take
Upon thine hand a curse, and make
Three kingdoms pine through twelve years' change,
In want and woe: for thou shalt smite
The man most noble and truest knight
That looks upon the live world's light
A dolorous stroke and strange.
'And not till years shall round their goal
May this man's wound thou hast given be whole.'
And Balen, stricken through the soul
By dark-winged words of doom and dole,
Made answer: 'If I wist it were
No lie but sooth thou sayest of me,
Then even to make a liar of thee
Would I too slay myself, and see
How death bids dead men fare.'
