He bowed his head. slow dropped his spear; The reins slipped through his hand; And, stained with blood-his stately corse Lay breathless on the strand. "O bear me off, (Sir Elmer cried); The combat swims-yet Hengist's vest Brave Hengist's fall the Saxons saw, And all in terror fled; The bowmen to his castle gates 66 The brave Sir Elmer led. O, wash my wounds, my sister dear; O, pull this Saxon dart, That, whizzing from young Hengist's arm, “Yet in my hall his vest shall hang; And Britons yet unborn, Shall with the trophies of to-day Their solemn feasts adorn." All trembling, Mey beheld the vest; "O, Merlin!" loud she cried; "Thy words are true-my slaughtered love Shall have a breathless bride! "Oh! Elmer, Elmer, boast no more That low my Hengist lies! Oh! Hengist, cruel was thine arm! My brother bleeds and dies!" She spake, the roses left her cheeks, And life's warm spirit fled: So, nipt by winter's withering blasts, The snow-drop bows its head! Yet parting life one struggle gave,— Return, my Hengist! oh, return, "Oh-still he lives-he smiles again, With all his grace he moves: I come -I come, where bow nor spear Shall more disturb our loves!" Was drawn from Elmer's side; And thrice he called his sister Mey, And thrice he groaned, and died! Where in the dale a moss-grown Cross O'ershades an aged thorn, Sir Elmer's and young Hengist's corse And there, all clad in robes of white, And there, at dawn and fall of day, All from the neighbouring groves The turtles wail, in widowed notes, And sing their hapless loves. THE GRAVE OF KING ARTHUR. BY THOMAS WARTON. THE fabled disappearance of King Arthur, has been before treated of; but the particular mention of his removal to a distant island, deserves a further elucidation. This happy spot was called the "Fortunate Island," and the " Island of Apples," and was governed by nine sisters, the chief of whom-Morgen, or Morgana-was eminently skilled in medicine, mathematics, and magic. Taliessin gravely relates King Arthur's voyage to this island, after the ordinary method of human sailing, -"our pilot being Barinthus, to whom were well known the seas, and the stars of heaven." Morgen pronounced that the King might recover, if left for a considerable time to her care and medicaments, which, accordingly, is said to have been done. These were the Hesperides and "Happy Islands" of the ancients; the receptacle, as was supposed, of happy spirits.* Tasso has placed in them his luxurious bower of the dissolute Armida. To descend, however, to sober fact-they are now known as the Canaries.-ED. STATELY the feast, and high the cheer, * "The Happy Isles," "The Fortunate," so styled Sublime, in formidable state And warlike splendour, Henry * sate; Illumining the vaulted roof, A thousand torches flamed aloof: Of Radnor's inmost mountains rude), To crown the banquet's solemn close, * Henry II.-A.D. 1171. On his expedition to suppress a rebellion raised by Roderick, King of Connaught, commonly called O'Conner Dun,-i. e., the Brown Monarch, he is said to have been informed by a Welsh harper, in a song, of the real site of King Arthur's burial-place; till then, generally unknown. After his return, on searching at Glastonbury Abbey, they actually found the royal remains. Cilgarran Castle, where the discovery is supposed to have been made, stands on a rock, above the river Teine, in Pembrokeshire, and was built about the beginning of the Eleventh century, by Roger de Montgomery, who led the van of the Norman army, at the battle of Hastings.-W. + Antiquaries mention, also, two other preparations of honey,—oxymel and hydromel; the composition of both of which may, in some measure, be gnessed at from their Greek derivations, οξυ, ύδωρ, and μελι.-ED. And to the strings of various chime, "O'er Cornwall's cliffs the tempest roared, "When Arthur ranged his red-cross ranks, Arm'd with fate the mighty blow; She pillowed his majestic head; * Tintagel, or Tintadgel Castle, where King Arthur is said to have been born, and to have chiefly resided. Some of its huge fragments still remain, on a rocky peninsular cape, of a prodigious declivity towards the sea, and almost inaccessible from the land side, on the northern coasts of Cornwall.-W. |