The portent causes terror, until Merlin, as interpreter, tells of revolutions, the rise and fall of nations, and the changes in Britain’s state which it signifies. Aurelius has been treacherously slain at Winchester by the Saxons, and Prince Uter is to be his avenger. The passage in which Merlin relates what is to come is one of singular dignity and impressiveness. Seven rays are “speaking heralds” to the island. Uter Pendragon is to have a son and a daughter. The latter will be Queen of Ireland, while of the son “thus Fate and Merlin tells”-- “All after times shall fill their chronicles With fame of his renown, whose warlike sword Shall pass through fertile France and Germany, Nor shall his conquering foot be forced to stand, Till Rome’s imperial wealth hath crowned his fame With monarch of the west; from whose seven hills With conquest, and contributory kings He back returns to enlarge the Briton bounds, His heraldry adorned with thirteen crowns. He to the world shall add another worthy, And, as a loadstone, for his prowess draw A train of martial lovers to his court. It shall be then the best of knighthood’s honour At Winchester to fill his castle hall, And at his Royal table sit and feast In warlike orders, all their arms round hurled As if they meant to circumscribe the world.” This is a noble passage, and sums up the leading points in King Arthur’s history, as related in the Fabliaux, and at the same time serves as evidence of the power of divination and eloquence of Merlin. The matter of the prophecy was obviously taken from Malory, but the dramatist introduced one strange variation in his story. Merlin, indignant that his demoniac father should strive to harm his mother, uses his art and magic spells to enclose the Devil in a rock--an idea suggested, no doubt, by Merlin’s own fate. Furthermore, finding himself called to aid Pendragon against the Saxons, Merlin conducts his mother to a place of retirement called Merlin’s Bower, and tells her that when she dies he will erect a monument-- “Upon the verdant plains of Salisbury-- (No king shall have so high a sepulchre)-- With pendulous stones that I will hang by art, Where neither lime nor mortar shall be used, A dark enigma to the memory, For none shall have the power to number them.”