year he actually informed his people that the happy hour was
approaching when, by means of the _stone_, he should _be able to pay off
his debts_[55]

With regard to the prophecy or denunciation made by him against the
Talbots, recorded in our legend, Dr Whitaker observes,--"Something like
these hereditary alternations of sense and folly might have happened,
and have given rise to a prophecy fabricated after the event; a real
prediction to this effect would have negatived the words of
Solomon,--'Yea, I have hated all my labour which I had taken under the
sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; and
who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?'

"This, however, is not the only instance in which Henry is reported to
have displayed that singular faculty, the _Vaticinium Stultorum_."[56]

In 798, this place was noted for the defeat of Wada, the Saxon chief, by
Aldred, king of Northumberland. He was one of the petty princes who
joined the murderers of King Ethelred. After this overthrow he fled to
his castle, on a hill near Whitby, and dying, was interred not far from
the place. Two great pillars, about twelve feet asunder, mark the spot,
and still bear the name of "Wada's Grave."

It was on a bright and glorious summer evening, in the year 1464, while
the red glare of sunset was still in the west, and a wide blush of
purple passed rapidly over the distant fell and the blue and heath-clad
mountain, that a group of labourers were returning from their daily toil
through the forest glades that skirt the broad and beautiful Ribble
below Waddow. Some of them were of that class called hinds, paying the
rents of their little homesteads by stated periods of service allotted
to each; in this respect differing but little from the serfs and
villains of a more remote era, their toil not a whit less irksome,
though their liberty, in name at least, was less under the control and
caprice of their lord.

Two of the peasants loitered considerably behind the rest, seemingly
engrossed by a conversation too interesting or too important for the
ears of their companions. The elder of the speakers was clad in a coarse
woollen doublet; a belt of untanned leather girt his form; and on his
head was a cap of grey felt, without either rim or band. His gait was
heavy and slouching. Strong, tall, and muscular, he stooped
considerably; but less through age and infirmity than from the laborious
nature of his occupat