Abundel Castle.]

SIR BEVIS, A BALLAD—ISABELLA.

339

Where ye find again this’ trusty glaive,

There hollow the ground for Bevis’s grave IFor my eyes wax dim and my blood runs cold,

And my heart of life hath lost its hold.’

He said: and fleet from his hand he threwThe deadly weapon so tried and true;

And away—as impelled by some nameless charm—■

I.ike a shaft that’s shot by a wizard’s arm;

Away the falchion glanced, and fellIn the depth of Pugh’s deserted dell.—

That night there was mass for a parted soul;

At St. Martin’s gate there was Christian dole;

Where priest and vassal the dirge began,

' For JIT 53fl)tS the warlike Castellan 1

Then they searched the shadowy forest round,

And they hollowed a grave where the sword was found;

And there they have laid each stiffened limbOf the brave Syr Bevis, the wise and grim.

Where at noon the trooping deer convene,

Where at night the timid hare is seen,

Where the monk of St. Lazarus counts his beads,

They have laid him down in his warrior's weeds;

They have monks to chant, and bells to toll—

And all for the rest of Syr Bevis’ soul.

Now ye who visit that haunted dell,

To count your beads in St. James’s cell,

Or haply to slay Montgomery’s deer,

Tread light on the ashes that slumber here.”

The anecdote related at p. 40 of the text, is thus told in the Latin ofFather Matthew of St. Albans, p. 853:—“ a.d. 1252. Tempore quoque subeodem domino rege adhuc moram Londini continuante, venit ad eum incameram suam Isabella, comitissa Harundelliae, relicta Comitis IlarundelliseII. et ejusdem regis cognata; ut pro jure suo de quadam custodia ipsam con-tingente verba faceret sibi profectura. Rex autem vultum ei primb protendensserenum, posted, cum verbis asperioribus objurgans, nihil quod postulavitcomitissa favorabiliter exaudivit; vindicavit enim sibi rex custodiam cujusdamcustodiae ratione particulae, ipsum regem contingentis. Unde ipsa comitissa,licbt mulier, non tamen muliebriter respondit imperterrita. ‘ O domine rexquare avertis faciem tuam d justitia? Jam in curia tua quod justum estnequit impetrari, medius inter Dominum et nos constitueris; sed nec teipsumnee nos sanb regis, nec ecclesiam veritus es multipliciter perturbare; quodnon tan turn in presen tiarum, sed multoties est experta. Nobiles insuperregni modis variis vexare non formidas vel erubescis.’ Quod cbm audissetrex, corrugans nares et subsannans, voce dixit elevata: ‘ Quid est hoc, 6domina Comitissa? Confecerantne Magnates Anglite Chartam, et pepigerunttecum, ut fieres eorum quia eloquens es, advocata, et prolocutrix?’ Ad quod