University of Virginia Library

The following scene is chiefly taken from the popular ballad of the same name in Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Some anachronisms will, I fear, be found, besides those contained in the beautiful legend which forms the groundwork of my story; but at an age so remote, and with a subject, to say the best of it, apocryphal, a strict adherence to the old tradition will hardly be demanded.