(Old, as they say, some hundred years or more)
Her court, where horrid spells bind to her rule
Spirits of earth and air.
Ethw. Ay, so they tell thee,
But who is he that has held converse with her?
Boy. Crannock, the bloody prince, did visit her,
And she did shew to him the bloody end
Whereto he soon should come; for all she knows
That is, or has been, or shall come to pass.
Ethw. Yes, in times past such intercourse might be,
But who has seen them now?
Boy. Thane Ethelbert.
Ethw. (starting.) What, said'st thou Ethelbert?
Boy. Yes, truly; oft he goes to visit them,
What time the moon rides in her middle course.
Ethw. Art thou assured of this?
Boy. A youth who saw him issue from the cave,
'Twas him who told it me.
Ethw. Mysterious man!
(after a pause.) Where sleeps the Thane?
Boy. If walls and doors may hold him,
He sleeps, not distant, in the Southern Tower.
Ethw. Take thou that lamp and go before me, then.
their great predecessors. In Henry's History of Britain, vol, i. p.181 it will be found that the superstitious practices of the Druids continued long after their religion was abolished, and resisted for a long time the light of christianity; and that even so late as the reign of Canute, it was necessary to make laws against it.
