has rejoined, with a noble regard for truth, that _half_ Northumberland is
his, and that he will give it freely to the fair young lady who will
release him from his dungeon. She, being thus assured of his regard and
esteem, rejects all idea of pecuniary reward, and offers to be a party to a
solemn wow--to be kept strong on both sides--that, if for seven years he
will remain a bachelor, she, for the like period, will remain a maid. The
contract is made, and the lovers are solemnly contracted.]

[Footnote 5:

_Now sevin long years is gone and past,
And fourteen days vell known to me._

In this may be recognised, though in a minor degree, the same gifted hand
that portrayed the Mussulman, the pirate, the father, and the bigot, in two
words. The time is gone, the historian knows it, and that is enough for the
reader. This is the dignity of history very strikingly exemplified.]

[Footnote 6:

_Avay and avay vent this proud young porter,
Avay and avay and avay vent he._

Nothing perhaps could be more ingeniously contrived to express the vastness
of Lord Bateman's family mansion than this remarkable passage. The proud
young porter had to thread courts, corridors, galleries, and staircases
innumerable, before he could penetrate to those exquisite apartments in
which Lord Bateman was wont to solace his leisure hours, with the most
refined pleasures of his time. We behold him hastening to the presence of
his lord: the repetition of the word "avay" causes us to feel the speed