"Yea. Wherefore?"

"Hem! Matilda of Flanders is in direct descent from Alfred: it is a
name and a line the Saxons yet honour!"

"Surely, yes; Alfred was a great man, and reformed the Psalmster,"
replied Edward.

The dirge ceased, but so benumbing had been its effect, that the
torpor it created did not subside with the cause. There was a dead
and funereal silence throughout the spacious hall, when suddenly,
loudly, mightily, as the blast of the trumpet upon the hush of the
grave, rose a single voice. All started--all turned--all looked to
one direction; and they saw that the great voice pealed from the
farthest end of the hall. From under his gown the gigantic stranger
had drawn a small three-stringed instrument--somewhat resembling the
modern lute--and thus he sang,--

THE BALLAD OF ROU. [60]

I.

From Blois to Senlis, wave by wave, roll'd on the Norman flood,
And Frank on Frank went drifting down the weltering tide of blood;
There was not left in all the land a castle wall to fire,
And not a wife but wailed a lord, a child but mourned a sire.
To Charles the king, the mitred monks, the mailed barons flew,
While, shaking earth, behind them strode the thunder march of Rou.