Merlin began to smile and said, “They were chasing me because of something I said to them, and it was true.”

The king asked what it was

‘That I will tell you,” said Merlin. ‘The fact is that as I was going through the forest just now, alone as you see me, chance brought me on these peasants, who were cutting two oaks and working very quickly to lay them on the ground. And I said to them, ‘Why are you hurrying so with this work?’ ‘Because it is necessary,’ they answered. ‘Truly, necessary to your misfortune,’ I said, ‘and it is of necessity that you are going to your death. Certainly, it is great folly, for know that the sooner you see them cut down, the sooner you will receive death. For two of you will be hanged from these very oaks, and the third will be killed with one of your axes.’ When they heard what I was saying, they were much pained by it and attacked me, their axes in their hands, to kill me. They would have done me harm, had they had the time.”

“Now tell me, Merlin, is it true that it will happen as you have said?”

‘Yes, indeed,” said Merlin, “for as soon as they have arrived at their destination, they will quarrel over a horse that they will have bought on the way, for each will want it for himself because the price will seem good to them. Over this, a fight will break out among the three of them; the two who are brothers will kill the third, who is their first cousin. Then the justice of the village will come onto the very deed; he will have them seized and hanged on those same oaks that they brought from the woods, because it will be the nearest wood to hand.”

The king began to smile at this and said that Merlin knew about this adventure not from God but from the evil spirit.

Post-Vulgate Merlin