A soul in life's salt ocean guarding sure
The freshness of youth's fountain sweet and pure,
And to all natural impulse crystal-clear:
To service or command, to low and high
Equal at once in magnanimity,
The Great by right divine thou only art!
Fair star, that crowns the front of England's morn,
Royal with Nature's royalty inborn,
And English to the very heart of heart!

_The fair-hair'd boy_: There is a singular unanimity among historians in
regard to this 'darling of the English,' whose life has been vividly
sketched by Freeman (_Conquest_, ch. ii); by Green (_English People_, B.
I: ch. iii); and, earlier, by my Father in his short _History of the
Anglo-Saxons_, ch. vi-viii.

_Changing at the font_: Alfred was godfather to Guthrun the Dane, when
baptized after his defeat at Ethandune in 878.



A DANISH BARROW


_ON THE EAST DEVON COAST_

Lie still, old Dane, below thy heap!
--A sturdy-back and sturdy-limb,
Whoe'er he was, I warrant him
Upon whose mound the single sheep