female and their stature diminutive"
(xvii.).--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

AL'DINGAR _(Sir)_, steward of queen Eleanor, wife of Henry II. He
impeached the queen's fidelity, and agreed to prove his charge
by single combat; but an angel (in the shape of a little child)
established the queen's innocence. This is probably a blundering
version of the story of Gunhilda and the emperor Henry.--Percy,
_Reliques_, ii. 9.

ALDO, a Caledonian, was not invited by Fingal to his banquet on his
return to Morven, after the overthrow of Swaran. To resent this
affront, he went over to Fingal's avowed enemy, Erragon king of Sora
(in Scandinavia), and here Lorma, the king's wife, fell in love
with him. The guilty pair fled to Morven, which Erragon immediately
invaded. Aldo fell in single combat with Erragon, Lorma died of grief,
and Erragon was slain in battle by Graul, son of Morni.--_Ossian_
("The Battle of Lora").

ALDRICK the Jesuit, confessor of Charlotte countess of Derby.--Sir W.
Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

ALDROVAND _(Father)_, chaplain of sir Raymond Berenger, the old Norman
warrior.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

ALDUS, father of Al'adine (3 _syl_), the "lusty knight."--Spenser,
_Faery Queen_, vi. 3 (1596).

ALEA, a warrior who invented dice at the siege of Troy; at least so
Isidore of Seville says. Suidas ascribes the invention to Palamedes.

Alea est ludus tabulae inventa a Graecis, in otio Trojani belli, a
quodam milite, nomine ALEA, a quo et ars nomen accepit.--Isidorus,
_Orig_. xviii. 57.

ALEC'TRYON, a youth set by Mars to guard against surprises, but he
fell asleep, and Apollo thus surprised Mars and Venus in each others'
embrace. Mars in anger changed the boy into a cock.

And from out the neighboring farmyard
Loud the cock Alectryon crowed.
Longfellow, _Pegasus in Pound_.

ALEC YEATON, the Gloucester skipper in T. B. Aldrich's ballad, _Alec
Yeaton's Son_.

The wind it wailed, the wind it moaned,
And the white caps flecked the sea;
"An' I would to God," the skipper groaned,
"I had not my boy with me!"

* * * * *

Long did they marvel in the town
At God His strange decree;
That let the stalwart skipper drown,
And the little child go free. (1890.)

ALE'RIA, one of the Amazons, and the best beloved of the ten wives of
Guido the Savage.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

ALESSANDRO, husband of t