THE BOY OF EGREMONT.


The founders of Embsay were now dead, and left a daughter, who adopted
the mother's name of Romille, and was married to William FitzDuncan.
They had issue a son, commonly called the Boy of Egremont, who
surviving an elder brother, became the last hope of the family.

In the deep solitude of the woods, betwixt Bolton and Barden the river
suddenly contracts itself into a rocky channel, little more than four
feet wide, and pours through the tremendous fissure, with a rapidity
equal to its confinement. This place was then, as it now is, called
the Strid, from a feat often exercised by persons of more agility than
prudence, who stride from brink to brink, regardless of the destruction
which awaits a faltering step. Such, according to tradition, was the
fate of young Romille, who, inconsiderately, bounding over the chasm
with a greyhound in his leash, the animal hung back, and drew his
unfortunate master into the torrent. The Forester, who accompanied
Romille and beheld his fate, returned to the Lady Aaliza, and with
despair in his countenance, enquired, "what is good for bootless
Bene," to which the mother, apprehending some great misfortune, had
befallen her son, instantly replied, "endless sorrow."

The language of this question is almost unintelligible at present. But
bootless bene, is unavailing prayer; and the meaning, though
imperfectly expressed, seems to have been, what remains when prayer
avails not?