Arthur still sleeps--The sounds that break his rest--The war between the beast and the man--How ended--The Christian foe and the heathen--The narrative returns to the Saxons in pursuit of Arthur--Their chase is stayed by the caverns described in the preceding book, the tides having now advanced up the gorge through which Arthur passed, and blocked that pathway--The hunt is resumed at dawn--The tides have receded from the gorge--One of the hounds finds scent--The riders are on the track-- Harold heads the pursuit--The beech-tree--The man by the water spring-- The wood is left--The knight on the brow of the hill--Parley between the earl and the knight--The encounter--Harold's address to his men, and his foe--His foe's reply--The dove and the falcon--The unexpected succour-- And conclusion of the fray--The narrative passes on to the description of the Happy Valley--in which the dwellers await the coming of a stranger--History of the Happy Valley--a colony founded by Etrurians from Fiesole, forewarned of the destined growth of the Roman dominion-- Its strange seclusion and safety from the changes of the ancient world-- The law that forbade the daughters of the Lartian or ruling family to marry into other clans--Only one daughter (the queen) is left now, and the male line in the whole Lartian clan is extinct--The contrivance of the Augur for the continuance of the royal house, sanctioned by two former precedents--A stranger is to be lured into the valley--The simple dwellers therein to be deceived into believing him a god--He is to be married to the queen, and then, on the birth of a son, to vanish again amongst the gods (_i.e._ to be secretly made away with)--Two temples at the opposite ends of the valley give the only gates to the place--By the first, dedicated to Tina (the Etrurian Jove), the stranger is to be admitted--In the second, dedicated to Mantu (the god of the shades), he is destined to vanish--Such a stranger is now expected in the Happy Valley--He emerges, led by the Augur, from the temple of Tina--AEgle, the queen, described--Her stranger-bridegroom is led to her bower. We raise the curtain where the unconscious king 1 Beneath the beech his fearless couch had made; Here, the fierce fangs prepared their deadly spring; There, in the hand of Murder gleam'd the blade; And not a sound to warn him from above; Where, still unsleeping, watch'd the guardian dove! Hark, a dull crash!--a howling, ravenous yell! 2 Opening fell symphony of ghastly sound, Jarring, yet blent, as if the dismal hell Sent its strange anguish from the rent Profound: Through all its scale the horrible discord ran, Now mock'd the beast, now took the groan of man;