The Council-hall in Carduel--The twelve Knights of the Round Table described, viz., the three Knights of Council, the three Knights of Battle, the three Knights of Eloquence, and the three Lovers--Merlin warns the chiefs of the coming Saxons, and enjoins the beacon-fires to be lighted--The story returns to Arthur--The dove has not been absent, though unseen--It comes back to Arthur--The Priest leads the King through the sepulchral valley into the temple of the Death-god-- Description of the entrance of the temple, with the walls on which is depicted the progress of the guilty soul through the realms below--The cave, the raft, and the stream which conducts to the cataract--Arthur enters the boat, and the dove goes before him--AEgle awakes from her swoon, and follows the King to the temple--Her dialogue with the Augur--She disappears in the stream--Meanwhile Lancelot wanders in the valleys on the other side of the Alps, and is led to the cataract by the magic ring--The apparition of the dove--He follows the bird up the skirts of the cataract--He finds Arthur and AEgle, and conveys them to the convent--The Christian hymn, and the Etrurian dirge--Arthur and Lancelot seated by the lake--The Lady of the Lake appears in her pinnace to Lancelot--The King's sight is purged from its film by the bitter herb, and he enters the magic bark. In the high Council Hall of Carduel, 1 Beside the absent Arthur's ivory throne (What time the earlier shades of evening fell), Wan-silvering through the hush, the cresset shone O'er the arch-seer,--as, 'mid the magnates there, Rose his large front, august with prophet care; Rose his large front above the luminous guests, 2 The deathless TWELVE of that heroic Ring, Which, as the belt wherein Orion rests, Girded with subject stars the starry king; Without, strong towers guard Rome's elaborate wall; Within is Manhood!--strongest tower of all. First, Muse of Cymri, name the Council three[1] 3 Who, of maturer years and graver mien, Wise in the past, conceived the things to be, And temper'd impulse quick with thought serene; Nor young, nor old--no dupes to rushing Hope, Nor narrowing to tame Fear th' ignoble scope. Of these was Cynon of the highborn race, 4 A cold but dauntless--calm but earnest man; With deep eyes shining from a thoughtful face, And spare slight form, for ever in the van When ripening victories crown'd laborious deeds; Reaper of harvest--sower not of seeds; For scarcely his the quick far-darting soul 5 Which, like Apollo's shaft, strikes lifeless things Into divine creation; but, the whole Once rife, the skill which into concord brings The jarring parts; shapes out the rudely wrought, And calls the action living from the thought.