So the king began waiting for Merlin in his town to find out whether he would come, and he thought in his heart that if he did come, he would ask him how Hengist had been killed, for few people even knew about his death. Thus the king waited for Merlin; then one day the king happened to be leaving the church when a very handsome, well-dressed man came along who certainly looked like a gentleman.

And he came straight before the king and said to him, “Sir, whom are you waiting for in this town?"

And the king answered, “I was waiting for Merlin to come speak to me.”

“Sir,” he said, “you are not so clever that you can recognize him when he is talking to you! Now, call those you have brought who should know who Merlin is and ask them if I could ever be this Merlin."

And when the king heard him, he was amazed. He sent for the ones who ought to recognize Merlin and said to them, “My lords, we are waiting for Merlin, but there is no one here among us who, to my knowledge, knows what he looks like. If you know him, tell me.”

“Sir,” they said, “it would be impossible for us not to recognize him, if we saw him.”

And the gentleman who was with the king spoke and said, “My lords, how can people who don’t know themselves know another?”

And they answered, “We do not see him here, and if we did, we would know him by his looks.”

The gentleman said to them, “I’ll show him to you.”

Then he called the king into a room all by themselves and said to him, “Sir, I want very much to be friends with you and your brother Uther. And you should know that I am that Merlin whom you have come looking for, but those who think they know me do not know anything about me. I will show you this soon. Go out there and bring me the ones who say they know me well. And as soon as they see me, they will tell you that you have found me and that if I had willed it so, they would never have found me.”

When the king heard this he was very glad, and he said to him, “I’ll do whatever you want.”

So he went out of the room as quickly as he could and brought those who he thought would recognize Merlin. And when they were there, Merlin took on the likeness in which they had seen him. As soon as they saw him, they said to the king, “Sir, it is indeed true that you have found Merlin.”

Vulgate Merlin