Ne shall he yet his wrath so mitigate, Till both the sons of Edwin he have slain, Offrick and Osrick, twins unfortunate, Both slain in battle upon Layburn plain, Together with the king of Lothian, Hight1 Adin, and the king of Orkeney, Both joint partakers of their fatal pain: But Penda, fearful of like destiny,
Shall yield himself his liegeman, and swear fëalty:
'Him shall he make his fatal instrument
Tafflict the other Saxons unsubdu'd:
He marching forth with fury insolent
Against the good king Oswald, who endu'd
With heavenly pow'r, and by angels rescu'd,
All holding crosses in their hands on high,
Shall him defeat withouten blood imbru'd:
Of which that field for endless memory
Shall Heavenfield be call'd to all posterity.
'Whereat Cadwallin wroth shall forth issue,
And an huge host into Northumber lead,
With which he godly Oswald shall subdue,
And crown with martyrdom his sacred head:
Whose brother Oswin, daunted with like dread,
With price of silver shall his kingdom buy;
And Penda, seeking him adown to tread,
Shall tread adown, and do2 him foully die;
But shall with gifts his lord Cadwallin pacify.
Then shall Cadwallin die; and then the reign
Of Britons eke3 with him at once shall die;
Ne shall the good Cadwallader, with pain
Or power, be able it to remedy,
When the full time, prefixt by destiny,
Shall be expir'd of Britons' regiment:1
For Heaven itself shall their success envý,
And them with plagues and murrains pestilent
Consume, till all their warlike puissance be spent.
"Yet after all these sorrows, and huge hills
Of dying people, during eight years' space,
Cadwallader, not yielding to his ills,
From Armoric,2 where long in wretched case
He liv'd, returning to his native place,
Shall be by vision stay'd from his intent:
For th' Heavens have decreed to displace
The Britons for their sins' due punishment,
And to the Saxons over-give their government.
'Then woe, and woe, and everlasting woe,
Be to the Briton babe that shall be born
To live in thraldom of his father's foe!
Late king, now captive; late lord, now forlorn;4
The world's reproach; the cruel victor's scorn;
Banish'd from princely bower to wasteful wood!
O! who shall help me to lament and mourn
The royal seed, the antique Trojan blood,
Whose empire longer here then ever any stood!'
The Damsel was full deep impassioned
Both for his grief, and for her people's sake,
Whose future woes so plain he fashioned;
And, sighing sore, at length him thus bespake;
'Ah! but will Heaven's fury never slake,
Nor vengeance huge relent itself at last?
Will not long misery late mercy make,
But shali their name for ever be defac'd,
And quite from off the earth their memory be ras'd?" Erased.
'Nay but the term,' said he, 'is limited, That in this thraldom Britons shall abide; And the just revolution measuréd
That they as strangers shall be notified:
For twice four hundred years shall be supplied,
Ere they to former rule restor❜d shall be,
And their impórtune2 fates all satisfied:
Yet, during this their most obscurity,
Their beams shall oft break forth, that men them
fair may see.
'For Roderick, whose surname shall be Great,
Shall of himself a brave ensample shew,
That Saxon kings his friendship shall intreat;
And Howell Dha shall goodly well indue
The savage minds with skill of just and true:
Then Griffith Conan also shall uprear
His dreaded head, and the old sparks renew
Of native courage, that his foes shall fear [bear.
Lest back again the kingdom he from them should
Ne shall the Saxons selves all peaceably
Enjoy the crown, which they from Britons won
First ill, and after ruléd wickedly:
For, ere two hundred years be full outrun,
There shall a Raven,* far from rising sun,
With his wide wings upon them fiercely fly,
And bid his faithless chickens overrun
The fruitful plains, and with fell cruelty
In their avenge tread down the victors' surquedry. Insolence.
'Yet shall a third both these and thine subdue:
There shall a Lion* from the sea-board wood
Of Neustria come roaring, with a crew
Of hungry whelps, his battailous bold brood,
Whose claws were newly dipt in cruddy1 blood.
That from the Danisk tyrant's head shall rend
Th' usurped crown, as if that he were wood,2
And the spoil of the country conqueréd
Amongst his young ones shall divide with bountyhed.
"Tho, when the term is full accomplished,
There shall a spark of fire, which hath long while
Been in his ashes rakéd up and hid,
Be freshly kindled in the fruitful Isle
Of Mona, where it lurked in exile;
Which shall break forth into bright burning flame,
And reach into the house that bears the style
Of royal majesty and sovereign name:
So shall the Briton blood their crown again reclaim.†
"Thenceforth eternal union shall be made
Between the nations different afore,
And sacred Peace shall lovingly persuade
The warlike minds to learn her goodly lore,
And civil arms to exercise no more:
Then shall a Royal Virgin‡ reign, which shall
Stretch her white rod over the Belgic shore,
And the great Castle smite so sore withal, [fall:
That it shall make him shake, and shortly learn to
'Lion :' William of Normandy.-+ Llewellyn, the last of the native Welsh princes, after an unsuccessful resistance, was defeated and slain by Edward I., who soon after created his own infant son Prince of Wales.
'Royal Virgin :' Queen Elizabeth, who aided the Belgian provinces, and defeated the Armada.
'But yet the end is not'-There Merlin stay'd,
As overcomen of the spirit's pow'r,
Or other ghastly spectacle dismay'd,
That secretly he saw, yet note1 discoure:2
Which sudden fit and half ecstatic stoure 3
When the two fearful women saw, they grew
Greatly confuséd in behaviour:
At last, the fury past, to former hue
1 Could
not.
& Dis-
cover.
* Parox
He turn'd again, and cheerful looks as erst did shew. Before.
Then, when themselves they well instructed had
Of all that needed them to be inquir'd,
They both, conceiving hope of comfort glad,
With lighter hearts unto their home retir'd;
Where they in secret counsel close conspir'd,
How to effect so hard an enterprise,
And to possess the purpose they desir'd:
Now this, now that, twixt them they did devise, And diverse plots did frame to mask in strange disguise.
At last the nurse in her fool-hardy wit
Conceiv'd a bold device, and thus bespake;
'Daughter, I deem that counsel aye most fit,
That of the time doth due advantage take:
Ye see that good king Uther now doth make
Strong war upon the Paynim brethren, hight 6
Octa and Oza, whom he lately brake
Beside Cayr Verolam in victorious fight,
That now all Brittany doth burn in armës bright.
That therefore naught our passage may empeach,77 Prevent Let us in feignéd arms ourselves disguise,
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