KING ALFRED'S SONGS.-II.

HE wolf and the wild dog

Are under the hill,

The hart's in the upland,
The fox in the ghyll;

There's game for the hunter
On mountain and moor,

But mine be the forest,

And mine the wild boar.

His crash through the covert,
From boar-hound to flee,
His roar like the thunder
Is music to me;

The trace of his black blood,
And foam track afar,
More glads me than wine-cup
Fill'd high after war;

His warm lair abandon'd,

When madden'd, half-blind,
He comes swift as storm-bolt,
My staunch dogs behind;

I, right in his pathway,

With bowstring at strain,
And dart drawn to stone-head,
One moment remain;

The next through that red eye
The arrow hath flown,

The short sword finds scabbard,

The death-mort is blown.

JAMES PAYN.

[See note to preceding song.]

ESTY'S SONG.

NCE in my youth I loved a sailor lad,-
Loved him so dearly;

His curling locks were black, his eyes were glad,
Shining so clearly.

Always he thought of me, and I for him.

Watched the dark billow,

And when the winds were wild, and stars were dim,

Wet was my pillow.

Fresh as the curling foam that washed the shore

His bright-eyed beauty;

As later rolled the tides our love grew more,
Though against duty;

For father bid me cease to watch his boat;

So did my brother;

They might as well have bade the waves to float
One from another.

At last, when winds were high one bitter night,

And mad the foam,

His skiff returned not when the dawning light
Brought others home.

And now, great as dead emperors or kings,

He who did love me,

The lad my father scorned, bears angels' wings,

And dwells above me!

ANNA C. STEELE.

[From Gardenhurst, chap. xxxii., where it is sung by Esty Cadogan:-" She sang a little song of her own composition 'Really, that's very pretty,' the Countess said."]

[From The Love that Kills, chap. ix. :-"Come, now, Miss Lizzie,' said he, 'I'll sing ye your ain waesome song, to please ye.'"]

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NOTES.

1. DORUS sings another song, for which space may be found here. It occurs in book ii. :—

"Since so mine eyes are subject to your sight,

That in your sight they fixèd have my brain;
Since so my heart is filled with that light,

That only light doth all my life maintain :

"Since in sweet you all goods so richly reign,

That where you are no wished good can want:
Since so your living image lives in me,

That in myself your self true love doth plant:

"How can you him unworthy then decree,

In whose chief part your worths implanted be?"

2. This song is given in Palgrave's Golden Treasury, minus the concluding

verse.

5. This Ode opens in somewhat the same strain as the Horatian "Sunt quos curriculo."

8. "In time I loath'd that now I love." So Lord Vaux :

"I loathe that I did love,

In youth that I thought sweet."

12. The last two verses of the song are omitted.

25. This, of course, is not really a "rondeau," in the strict meaning of that word; but it is so styled by its writer, and hence the title here given to it.