Page:Whyte-Melville--Bones and I.djvu/291

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GUINEVERE.
283

are about to reclaim him for their own, he stretches the hands of free forgiveness, as it were, from the other world.

How short, in the face of doom so imminent, so inevitable, appears that span of life, in which so much has been accomplished! Battles have been fought, victories gained, a kingdom established, a bulwark raised against the heathen, an example set to the whole of Christendom, and yet it seems but yesterday


"They found a naked child upon the sands
Of wild Dundagil by the Cornish sea,
And that was Arthur."


Now in the height of glory, in the fulfilment of duty, in the prime of manhood, such sorrows have overtaken him, as must needs whisper their prophetic warning that his task is done, and it is time to go. Where, he sees not, cares not. True to himself and his knighthood, he is ready now, as always, to