Merlin, the enchanter, met his match with Nimue, the enchantress. For all his gifts of wisdom and magic, he wasn't safe from the wiles of Nimue -- the Damsel of the Lake. So he had only himself to blame when having, as Malory puts it, "fallen in a dotage on the damsel," he taught her some of his magic and found it used against him. Having showed her many wonders, Merlin fell out of favour with Nimue. She was "ever passing weary of him" and "afeard of him because he was a devil's son."
   She decided to use the magic powers she had learned from Merlin to imprison him. Some accounts say that she imprisoned him in a tower -- which has inspired David's sculpture. Others record that she persuaded Merlin to go under a magic stone "to let her wit of the marvels there." Once she had him there, "she wrought so there for him that he never came out for all the craft he could do." The ungrateful damsel then "departed and left Merlin" -- a sadly undignified ending for such a wise man.