University of Virginia Library

VI.

About thine age, my son, and quite as tall,
But built more strongly, and yet light withal;
Of eye quick, sparkling, keen, and glossy blue;
Of cheek that bore of health the freshest hue;
Of hair that over all his shoulders broad
In fair and yellow clusters waved and flowed
Profusely; Hengist was, in very truth,
A gay, a gallant, and a graceful Youth!
—Disposing on the Cavern's rugged floor
Of rural food an unexpected store,
Which he had purveyed, for the morn's regale,
From some lone cot in lovely Malhamdale,
He, while we sat at meat, to Eric old
His night-adventure with blunt humour told:
On missing me, th' indignant Chief, he said,
Had given command that instant search be made;
That he, the Youth—to each suspected spot
The first to lead where I, he knew, was not—
Had managed to detach—unseen, unguessed—
The horses we had ridden, from the rest,
And stable them amid the greenwood glade;
That he had couched him, till the cavalcade,
Diminished thus, he saw resume their march,
As the first dawn-rays streaked the sky's blue arch;
That he had followed, with his eye, their way;
And only left them when, in brightening day,
They crossed the vale of Aire, and, gleaming on,
Began to vanish in the line of Colne.