Next to them, by chance, sat a great lourdan of a Dane, as honest, brave, and stupid a fellow as ever tugged at oar; and after a while they fell talking, till the strangers had heard the reason of this great feast, and all the news of the country side. With her maids behind her, and her harper before her (so was the Cornish custom), she pledged one by one each of the guests, slave as well as free, while the harper played a tune. She came down at last to the strangers. Her "But whence did they come, not to know it face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. already; for all Cornwall was talking thereof ? "Oh-they came out of Devonshire, seeking service down west, with some merchant or rover, being seafaring men." The stranger with the black hair had been, meanwhile, earnestly watching the Princess, who sat at the board's head. He saw her watching him in return; and with a face sad enough. At last she burst into tears. "What should the bride weep for, at such a merry wedding?" asked he of his companion. "Oh-cause enough;" and he told bluntly rough the Princess's story. "And what is more," said he, "the King of Waterford sent a ship over last week, with forty proper lads on board, and two gallant holders with them, to demand her: but for all answer, they were put into the strong house, and there they lie, chained to a log, at this minute. Pity it is, and shame, I hold, for I am a Dane myself; and pity, too, that such a bonny lass should go to an unkempt Welshman like this, instead of a tight smart Viking's son, like the Waterford lad.” The stranger answered nothing: but kept his eyes upon the Princess, till she looked at him sted!fastly in return. She filled a cup of wine, and one of her maids offered it to the stranger. He put it back, courteously but firmly. "Not from your hand," said he. A growl against his bad manners rose straightway; and the minstrel, who (as often happened in those days) was jester likewise, made merry at his expense, and advised the company to turn the wild beast out of the hall. Why 66 Silence, fool!" said the Princess. should he know our west-country ways? He may take it from my hand, if not from hers. And she held out to him the cup herself. He took it, looking her steadily in the face; and it seemed to the minstrel as if their hands lingered together round the cup-handle, and that he saw the glitter of a ring. Like many another of his craft before and since, he was a vain, meddlesome vagabond, and must needs pry into a secret which certainly did not concern him. So he could not leave the stranger in peace; and knowing that his privileged calling protected him from that formidable fist, he never passed him by without a sneer or a jest, as he wandered round the She turned pale and red again: but after a while table, offering his harp, in the Cornish fashion, to she spoke. "There is a stranger there; and what his rank may be, I know not: but he has been thrust down to the lowest seat, in a house that used to honour strangers, instead of treating them like slaves. Let him take this dish from my hand, and eat joyfully, lest when he goes home he may speak scorn of bridegroom and bride, and our Cornish weddings." The servant brought the dish down: he gave a look at the stranger's shabby dress, turned up his rose, and pretending to mistake, put the dish into the hand of the Dane. any one who wished to play and sing. "But not to you, Sir Elf-locks: he that is rude to a pretty girl when she offers him wine, is too great a boor to understand my trade." "It is a fool's trick," answered the stranger at last, "to put off what you must do at last. If I had but the time, I would pay you for your tune with a better one than you ever heard." "Take the harp, then, boor!" said the minstrel, with a laugh and a jest. The stranger took it, and drew from it such music as made all heads turn toward him at once. "Hold, lads," quoth the stranger. "If I have Then he began to sing, sometimes by himself, and ears, that was meant for me." sometimes his comrades, "more Girviorum tripliciter "Scald !" roared the bridegroom (now well in his cups) from the head of the table; "ask what thou wilt, short of my bride and my kingdom, and it is thine." "Give me, then, Hannibal Grylls, King of Marazion, the Danes who came from Ranald, of Waterford." A few minutes after, the minstrel, bursting with jealousy and rage, was whispering in Hannibal's ear. The hot old Punic * blood flashed up in his cheeks, and his thin Punic lips curved into a snaky smile. Perhaps the old Punic treachery in his heart; for all that he was heard to reply was, "We must not disturb the good-fellowship of a Cornish wedding." The stranger, nevertheless, and the Princess likewise, had seen that bitter smile. shall pass your bridal night in my dog-kennel, after my dog-whip has taught you not to give rings again to wandering harpers." The wretched Princess shuddered; for she knew too well that such an atrocity was easy and common enough. She knew it well. Why should she not? The story of the Cid's Daughters and the Kuights of Carrion; the far more authentic one of Robert of Belesme; and many another ugly tale of the early middle age, will prove but too certainly Men drank hard and long that night: and when that, before the days of chivalry began, neither daylight came, the strangers were gone. In the morning the marriage ceremony was performed; and then began the pageant of leading home the bride. The minstrels went first, harping and piping: then King Hannibal, carrying his bride behind him on a pillion; and after them a string of servants and men-at-arms, leading country ponies laden with the bride's dower. Along with them, unarmed, sulky, and suspicious, walked the forty Danes, who were informed that they should go to Marazion, and there be shipped off for Ireland. Now, as all men know, those parts of Cornwall, flat and open furze-downs aloft, are cut, for many miles inland, by long branches of tide river, walled in by woods and rocks, which rivers join at last in the great basin of Falmouth harbour; and by crossing one or more of these, the bridal party would save many a mile on their road towards the west. So they had timed their journey by the tides; lest, finding low water in the rivers, they should have to wade to the ferry-boats waist deep in mud; and going down the steep hill-side, through oak, and ash, and hazel copse, they entered, as many as could, a great flat-bottomed barge, and were rowed across some quarter of a mile, to land under a jutting crag, and go up again by a similar path into the woods. So the first boat-load went up, the minstrels in front, harping and piping till the greenwood rang, King Hannibal next, with his bride, and behind him spear-men and axe-men, with a Dane between every two. When they had risen some two hundred feet, and were in the heart of the forest, Hannibal turned, and made a sign to the men behind him. Then each pair of them seized the Dane between them, and began to bind his hands behind his back. "What will you do with us?" "Send you back to Ireland,-a king never breaks his word, but pick out your right eyes first, to show your master how much I care for him. Lucky for you that I leave you an eye apiece, to find your friend the harper, whom if I catch, I flay alive." "You promised!" cried the Princess. "And so did you, traitress!" and he griped her arm, which was round his waist, till she screamed. "So did you promise: but not to me. And you Hannibal, still a common name in Cornwall, is held -and not unlikely-to have been introduced there by the ancient Phoenician colonists. youth, beauty, nor the sacred ties of matrimony, could protect women from the most horrible outrages, at the hands of those who should have been their protectors. It was reserved for monks and inquisitors, in the name of religion and the gospel, to continue, through after centuries, those brutalities toward women of which gentlemen and knights had grown ashamed, save when (as in the case of the Albigense crusaders) monks and inquisitors bade them torture, mutilate, and burn, in the name of Him who died on the cross. But the words had hardly passed the lips of Hannibal, ere he reeled in the saddle, and fell to the ground, a javelin through his heart. A strong arm caught the Princess. A voice which she knew bade her have no fear. "Bind your horse to a tree, for we shall want him; and wait!" Three well-armed men rushed on the nearest Cornishmen, and hewed them down. A fourth unbound the Dane, and bade him catch up a weapon, and fight for his life. A second pair were dispatched, a second Dane freed, ere a minute was over; the Cornishmen, struggling up the narrow path toward the shouts above, were overpowered in detail by continually increasing numbers; and ere half an hour was over, the whole party were freed, mounted on the ponies, and making their way over the downs toward the west. "Noble, noble Hereward!" said the Princess, as she sat behind him on Hannibal's horse. "I knew you from the first moment; and my nurse knew you too. Is she here? Is she safe?" "I have taken care of that. She has done us too good service to be left here, and be hanged." "I knew you, in spite of your hair, by your eyes." "Yes," said Hereward. "It is not every man who carries one grey eye and one blue. The more difficult for me to go mumming when I need.” "But how came you hither, of all places in the world?" "When you sent your nurse to me last night, to warn me that treason was abroad, it was easy for me to ask your road to Marazion; and easier too, when I found that you would go home the very way we came, to know that I must make my stand here or nowhere." "The way you came? Then where are we going now?" "Beyond Marazion, to a little cove-I cannot tell its name. There lies Sigtryg your betrothed, and three good ships of war." "There? Why did he not come for me himself?". "Why? Because we knew nothing of what was toward. We meant to have sailed straight up your river to your father's town, and taken you out with a high hand. We had sworn an oath--which, as you saw, I kept neither to eat nor drink in your house, save out of your own hands. But the easterly wind would not let us round the Lizard; so we put into that cove, and there I and these two lads, my nephews, offered to go forward as spies, while Sigtryg threw up an earthwork, and made a stand against the Cornish. We meant merely to go back to him, and give him news. But when I found you 23 good as wedded, I had to do what I could, while I could; and I have done it." "You have, my noble and true champion," said the, kissing him. "Humph!" quoth Hereward laughing. "Do not tempt me by being too grateful. It is hard enough to gather honey, like the bees, for other "Oh, there is no fear, pretty lady. I have other things to think of than making love to you-and one is, how we are to get to our ships, and moreover, past Marazion town." And hard work they had to get thither. The county was soon roused and up in arms; and it was only by wandering a three days' circuit, through bogs and moors, till the ponies were utterly tired out, and left behind (the bulkier part of the dowry being left behind with them), that they made their appearance on the shore of Mount's Bay, Hereward leading the Princess in triumph upon Hannibal's horse. After which they all sailed away for Ireland, and there, like young Beichan "Prepared another wedding, With all their hearts so full of glee." And this is the episode of the Cornish Princess, as told by Leofric of Bourne, the cunning minstrel and warlike priest. TO MY GRANDCHILDREN. My blessing on you, little babes, By whom I think it good, To find in these my fading days, Oh! bless you, bless you, little babes, Who mix this twilight of my life Oh! bless your little helpless ways, Your curious crows and screeches, From which my deaf old ears can shape Oh bless, and bless, and dearly bless In which these old eyes love to watch Oh! bless, and bless, and dearly bless In which my daughter daily grows O gracious little lives, in which We bless your coming, and we bless The love that leads us in its hand, And bids, to light our downward road, |