Then backe he came unto the kinge,

Who sayd, Sir Lukyn, what did yee see? Nothing, my liege, save that the winde Blewe oer the waters faire and free.

O goe againe, then said the kinge,
O good sir Lukyn, goe againe :
Into the rivere throwe my sworde,
Nor keepe me lingering here in paine.

The duke then to the river went,

And the kings scabberd in threwe hee;
But hee kept backe Excalibar,
And hid it undernethe a tree.

Then backe he came to tell the kinge,
Who sayde, Sir Lukyn, sawe ye oughte?
Nothinge, my liege, save that the winde
Now with the angrye waters fought.

O Lukyn, Lukyn, said the kinge,

Twice haste thou dealt deceytfullye:

Alacke, whom may wee ever truste,

When suche a knighte soe false can bee?

Saye, wouldst thou have thy master dead ;
All for a sword, that wins thine eye:
Nowe goe againe, and throwe it in,
Or here the one of us shall dye.

The duke, all shent with this rebuke,
No aunswere made unto the kinge:
But to the rivere tooke the sworde,

And threwe it far as he coulde flinge.

A hande and an arme did meete the sworde,
And flourishd three times in the air;
Then sunke benethe the renninge streme,
And of the duke was seene noe mair.

All sore astonied stood the duke;

He stood as still, as still mote bee: Then hastened backe to telle the kinge; But he was gone from under the tree

But to what place he cold not tell,

For never after hee did him spye:
But hee sawe a barge goe from the land,
And hee heard ladyes howle and crye.

And whether the kinge were there, or not,
Hee never knewe, nor ever colde:
For from that sad and direfulle daye,
Hee never more was seene on molde.

IR Walter Scott (Border Minstrelsy, vol. iii.) supposes the Scottish ballad of Sir Hugh le Blond to have been the original of Sir Aldingar; however this may be, the English version of the story is unquestionably the finer. In Sir Hugh le Blond, a mortal champion combats for the queen instead of the "tiny boye, ycladd in mantle of gold," concerning whom it is diffi cult to say whether he is an Angelic Being, or Oberon, the king of Elf-Land; the description of "le nain faée" in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, agrees perfectly with the ballad:-" vestu

estoit dune robe si tres riche que merueilles seroit de le racompter pour la grande et merveilleuse richesse que dessus estoit, car tant y avoit de pierres precieuses que la grande clarte quelles gettoient estoit pareille au soleil quand il fust bien cler." Huon de Bordeaux, ch. xx.

This ballad was first printed by Bishop Percy "with conjectural emendations, and the insertion of some additional stanzas to supply and complete the story."

0°

SIR ALDINGAR.

UR king he kept a false stewárde,
Sir Aldingar they him call;

A falser steward than he was one,

Servde not in bower nor hall.

He wolde have layne by our comelye queene,

Her deere worshippe to betraye:

Our queene she was a good womán
And evermore said him naye.

Sir Aldingar was wrothe in his mind,
With her hee was never content,
Till traiterous meanes he colde devyse,
In a fyer to have her brent.
There came a lazar to the kings gate
A lazar both blinde and lame:
He tooke the lazar upon his backe,
Him on the queenes bed has layne.

"Lye still, Lazar, whereas thou lyest,

66

Looke thou goe not hence away;

"I'le make thee a whole man and a sound

"In two howers of the day."

He probably insinuates that the king should heal him by his power of touching for the king's evil. Percy.