bowl:' Richard II. was starved to death; the
story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon is of much
later date.]

[Footnote 12: 'Battle bray:' ruinous civil wars of York and
Lancaster.]

[Footnote 13: 'Towers of Julius:' Henry VI., George Duke of Clarence,
Edward V., Richard Duke of York, &c., believed to be murdered secretly
in the Tower of London; the oldest part of that structure is vulgarly
attributed to Julius Caesar.]

[Footnote 14: 'Consort:' Margaret of Anjou.]

[Footnote 15: 'Father:' Henry V.]

[Footnote 16: 'Usurper:' Henry VI., very near being canonised; the
line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown.]

[Footnote 17: 'Rose of snow:' the White and Red Roses, devices of York
and Lancaster.]

[Footnote 18: 'Boar:' the silver Boar was the badge of Richard III.,
whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of The Boar.]

[Footnote 19: 'Half of thy heart:' Eleanor of Castile, Edward's wife,
died a few years after the conquest of Wales.]

[Footnote 20: 'Long-lost Arthur:' it was the common belief of the
Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and
should return again to reign over Britain.]

[Footnote 21: 'Genuine kings:' both Merlin and Taliessin had
prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this
island, which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor.]

[Footnote 22; 'Awe-commanding face:' Queen Elizabeth.]

[Footnote 23: 'Taliessin:' chief of the Bards, flourished in the sixth
century; his works are still preserved, and his memory held in high
veneration, among his countrymen.]

[Footnote 24: 'A voice:' Milton.]

[Footnote 25: 'Warblings:' the succession of poets after Milton's
time.]

       *       *       *       *       *


  VII.--THE FATAL SISTERS.

  FROM THE NORSE TONGUE.[1]

  'Vitt er orpit
  Fyrir valfalli.'

ADVERTISEMENT.--The author once had thoughts (in concert with a friend)
of giving a history of English poetry. In the introduction to it he
meant to have produced some specimens of the style that reigned in
ancie