Then Merlin, as if it were a magic thing that would please her, brought out his thought about the Island of the White Tower. Away beyond the Western Island, in a sea that is never sailed on, that island lies. Only on Midsummer Day does it come near to the Western Island so that men may see it. There, said Merlin, they might go. Those who would search for him could never come to him there. He told her more and more about the Island of the White Tower, and Vivien listened in delight to all he told her. And when he had sworn he would take her to it she unsaid the spell with which she had bespelled him, and he rose up from where he had been held, and he sprang across the magic figure that was drawn upon the ground. And with Vivien Merlin went through the forest. * * * * * The fishermen who cast their nets by the shores of the Western Ocean have this story of Merlin and Vivien. They tell how in a boat of crystal twelve creatures sailed to the Island of the White Tower. And two were Merlin and Vivien, and nine were the nine prime bards of the Isle of Britain who went with Merlin, and one was the tame wolf that was Merlin’s servant. They sailed out upon a Midsummer’s Day, and from that good day to this no hint or hair of the Enchanter has been seen by King nor clown in all the Isle of Britain. II. ZABULUN THE ENCHANTER It was Anluan, the father of Eean, Anluan who had once been a fisherman by the shores of the Western Ocean, who told this story of the Enchanter of the Isle of Britain. The fishermen know the story, and they, more often than any others, have seen the Island of the White Tower as it shows itself on the rim of the Western Ocean. The story was told after the white horse and the red horse had clattered across the stones of the courtyard, bringing Eean and Bird-of-Gold toward their meeting with Merlin. Candles thicker than a man’s wrist had been put upon the supper table; fresh torches had been set in the sconces along the walls; and logs of resinous wood had been piled upon the hearth. All this was done so that the King and his lords might drink their last cups of wine before they went into the sleeping chambers. And now, in the light of shining candles and blazing torches and mounting hearth fires, the squires and the servers went amongst the company filling the wine cups up. Some had already the wine in their cups, and were waiting for King Manus to raise his in a health. Then the strangest of strange things happened. No wind came into the hall, but suddenly the candles upon the table and the torches along the walls went out. The servers went to relight the torches at the hearth, but the hearth blaze had died down, and all the logs were black. And blackness was in the chamber where, a minute before, candles and torches and hearth fires were blazing. The King and his lords stood around the table, while the servers and squires ran through every chamber of the castle to find a spark of light.