s he would have thought
himself the basest of men to follow!

"Now, by my halidame, I honour and love thee, Edward," cried the Duke,
with a heartiness more frank than was usual to him: "and were I thy
subject, woe to man or woman that wagged tongue to wound thee by a
breath. But who and what is this same Hilda? one of thy kith and
kin?--surely not less than kingly blood runs so bold?"

"William, bien aime," [15] said the King, "it is true that Hilda, whom
the saints assoil, is of kingly blood, though not of our kingly line. It
is feared," added Edward, in a timid whisper, as he cast a hurried glance
around him, "that this unhappy woman has ever been more addicted to the
rites of her pagan ancestors than to those of Holy Church; and men do say
that she hath thus acquired from fiend or charm secrets devoutly to be
eschewed by the righteous. Nathless, let us rather hope that her mind is
somewhat distraught with her misfortunes."

The King sighed, and the Duke sighed too, but the Duke's sigh spoke
impatience. He swept behind him a stern and withering look towards the
proud figure of Hilda, still seen through the glades, and said in a
sinister voice: "Of kingly blood; but this witch of Woden hath no sons or
kinsmen, I trust, who pretend to the throne of the Saxon:"

"She is sibbe to Githa, wife of Godwin," answered the King, "and that is
her most perilous connection; for the banished Earl, as thou knowest, did
not pretend to fill the throne, but he was content with nought less than
governing our people."

The King then proceeded to sketch an outline of the history of Hilda, but
his narrative was so deformed both by his superstitions and prejudices,
and his imperfect information in all the leading events and characters in
his own kingdom, that we will venture to take upon ourselves his task;
and while the train ride on through glade and mead, we will briefly
narrate, from our own special sources of knowledge, the chronicle of
Hilda, the Scandinavian Vala.

CHAPTER II.

A magnificent race of men were those war sons of the old North, whom our
popular histories, so superficial in their accounts of this age, include
in the common name of the "Danes." They replunged into barbarism the
nations over which they swept; but from that barbarism they reproduced
the noblest elements of civilisation. Swede, Norwegian, and Dane,
differing in some minor points, when closely examined, had yet one common
character viewed at