castle with the dust. On exploring the spot there appeared, indeed, the dragon-monsters couched in their subterranean lair,

'With long tailes many a fold,

And found right as Merlin told.'

The ensuing conflict was terrible to witness, and ended in the destruction of the red dragon,

'That never of him was founden shred,

But dust upon the ground he lay.'

The victorious white forthwith disappeared, and Merlin, being confronted with the wise men, fiercely asked how they had dared to thirst for his blood? Quite humble and conscience-stricken, they pretended that the heavenly signs had deceived them; but Merlin, enjoying their humiliation, shewed that the characters which they had seen were written there by his wicked father, who sought his destruction. Merlin, however, pardoned them-was made the king's chief counsellor, and the fortress was speedily finished. But the red dragon was typical of Vortigern's fate, the white of the triumph of Aurelius and Uther; and so it speedily turned out. Vortigern lost his crown, and, on the victorious Uther's death, Merlin embraced the cause of Arthur against the rival kings, and by his feats of diablerie,* soon raised him to the dictatorship of Britain.

Happy, it is said, is the monarch who has a conjurer for his minister; and Arthur required all Merlin's diplomatic genius for the black art, to repel the fierce Saxons, the Irish, and other foes. They cut out plenty of work both for that cunning clerk and his young hero, supported as they were by the old knights of Uther, and all the chivalry of the Round Table. Besides, the arch-magician Morgain and one or two knowing old witches were almost his match at his own

* In other words, by his learning and deep policy, which, aided by his pretensions to supernatural powers, gave him a command over men's minds of more extensive influence than the sword of Arthur itself. There is as little doubt of the title of the Cymbrians, and the old Welch-as a branch of the great Teutonic family-to the honour of originating the British romance, the genuine songs and poetry which characterise the ancient literature of Wales.

weapons, and are known sometimes to have beguiled the good clerk Merlin.' He succeeded, however, in reconciling a number of the refractory princes of North Wales and Cornwall, who received the boon of knighthood at the hands of Arthur, and fought under his banners. In one of their conflicts with a vast horde of misbelieving Irish giants,' the adherents of the king were in imminent peril of being cut to pieces, when luckily the constable or mayor of London, whose name was Sir Do, apprized by Merlin of their desperate condition, ran in all haste to Algate, where he blew a blast with his horn, which soon brought the aldermen with their numerous wards -at least seven thousand men-to his summons. He made them arm, and marched out in double-quick time to the aid of the hardprest Britons.

The valour of the aldermen and their lumber-troops speedily turned the scale; and Sir Gowain with fresh alacrity was seen to leap over the heads of twelve assailants, and carve down to the chine a great pagan who was in the act of killing his brother. The victorious aldermen having returned to their respective wards, were requested by Sir Gowain, and other knights, to divide the booty among the brave citizens, whose acclamations on this proposal exceeded even their feats of arms. We next hear of this great minister attending his royal master, with only thirty-nine knights, from Breckenhoe to Chester, which was then preparing to resist a tremendous assault of the Irish giant Ryance, at the head of fifteen tributary kings. Upon their arrival, they found Leodegan, lord president, seated with two-hundred and fifty knights in deep council as to the means of repelling the threatened assault upon the capital. Merlin drew up his royal company before the council hall, and marching at their head up to the throne, where Arthur had seated himself, he bade King Ban deliver himself of the loyal address which he had committed to memory before he left Breckenhoe. On his right Arthur was supported by Ban, on his left by King Bohort, while barons and knights hand in hand followed in pairs. Among these were presented in succession Sir Antour, his old tutor,

Sir Ulfin, Sir Bretel, Sir Kay, Sir Lucan, Sir Do, son of the mayor of London, Sir Grifles, Sir Maroc, Sir Drians, of the wild forest, Sir Belias, of Maiden Castle, Sir Amours, the brown, Sir Ancales, the red, Sir Aladan, the crisp, Sir Cleodes, the foundling, Sir Amadan, the orgulous, Sir Oroman, hardy of heart, Sir Bleheris, a godson of King Bohort, and others no less illustrious. Merlin, the bearer of the white rod before the monarch, though last, was not the least of the courtly number.

Arthur and his knights, headed by Merlin with a fiery dragon for his ensign, were soon in the field. Every where in the thick of the mélée the King sought the giant Saphiran, the most skilful and terrible of all royal infidels, who unhorsed every Knight of the Round Table whom he met. He was just on the point of dispatching the Lord President Leodegan, when Arthur flew to his relief; but, astonished for a moment at Saphiran's terrific appearance, he hesitated and almost scrupled to attack him, when Merlin cried out in a tone of reproach

Maddened at this taunt, the British hero sprang upon the enemy and received Saphiran's spear upon his shield, which, piercing through hide and hauberk, wounded Arthur in the side. But at the same instant his own lance passed clean through the Milesian's body, and

'Quoth Arthur, thou hethen Cokein,
Wende to the devil Apolin !

The pagen fell dede to ground,

His soul laught* hell-hounde.'

The preceding is a pretty fair specimen of the exploits which may be performed by a king who fights his own battles, and who has a conjuror for his privy-counsellor and his standard-bearer. But we must bid good night at present to the mirror of princes and

* Read caught.

of prime ministers; and to those brilliant ornaments of the Round Table, Sir Gowain, Sir Launcelot, Sir Key, and Sir Do, the pink of chivalry, and once, doubtless, arbiters of the graces, the fashionable military loungers along the rows, and upon the walls of the good city of Carleon.

Picturesque in its appearance, its ancient edifices and curiously constructed rows give Chester a singularly quiet and solemn air, in striking contrast with the bustle of other cities, and blending well with its venerable relics and long departed renown. Its magnificent castle, of which too little is now left, commanded extensive and varied prospects, with the pleasant vale of Eden in the foreground, through which the river of the same name takes its devious way, as it has been quaintly but truly described by an old poet'From castle all these things are seene

As pleasures of the eye,

The goodly groves, and vallies greene,

And woodie mountains high.'*

Among the illustrious captives who once filled the dreary donjon of the castle was the unhappy Queen of Scots, after her defeat at Langside. The Lady's walk' is still pointed out to the stranger, and there, it is believed, the unfortunate Duke of Norfolk first imbibed that fatal passion, which served only to accelerate the fate of its lovely object. Some ash trees, planted by the Queen's own hand, long continued to spread their shade over her favourite resort, and the chamber where she wept away the solitary hours still retains a stern and melancholy air. The crownless Richard also, and many a royal and noble head, once lay within its walls, bidding farewell as they entered even to hope itself.

On reaching its summit the spectator beholds towards the east a range of lofty hills, and the dim mountain-peaks of Keswick glooming in the distant horizon. From the city walls—the noblest and most entire in Britain, embracing a circuit of two miles

* Churchyard.