Before parting with "Lord Ronald" it should be noticed that the song clearly travelled in song-shape, not simply as a popular tradition; and that its different adaptators have been still more faithful to the shape than to the substance. It is not so easy to decide whether the victim was originally a child or a lover, whether the north or the south has preserved the more correct version. Some crime of the middle ages may have been the foundation of the ballad; on the other hand it is conceivable that it formed part of the enormous accumulation of literary odds and ends brought to Europe from the east, by pilgrims and crusaders. Stories that, as we know them, seem distinctly mediaeval, such as Boccaccio's "Falcon," have been traced to India. If a collection were made of the ballads now sung by no more widely extended class than the three thousand ballad singers inscribed in the last census of the North-Western Provinces and Oude, what a priceless boon would not be conferred upon the student of comparative folk-lore! We cannot arrive at a certainty even in regard to the minor question of whether Lord Ronald made his appearance first in England or in Italy. The English and Italian songs bear a closer affinity to each other than is possessed by either towards the Swedish variant. Supposing the one to be directly derived from the other--a supposition which in this case does not seem improbable--the Italian was most likely the original. There was a steady migration into England of Italian literature, literate and probably also illiterate, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The English ballad-singers may have been as much on the look-out for a new, orally communicated song from foreign parts, as Chaucer was for a poem of Petrarch's or a tale of Boccaccio's. II.--THE THEFT OF A SHROUD. The ballad with which we have now to deal has had probably as wide a currency as that of "Lord Ronald." The student of folk-lore recognises at once, in its evident fitness for local adaptation, its simple yet terrifying motive, and the logical march of its events, the elements that give a popular song a free pass among the peoples. M. Allegre took down from word of mouth and communicated to the late Damase Arbaud a Provencal version, which runs as follows: His scarlet cape the Prior donned, Ding dong, dong ding dong! His scarlet cape the Prior donned, And all the souls in Paradise With joy and triumph fill the skies. His sable cape the Prior donned, Ding dong, dong ding dong! His sable cape the Prior donned, And all the spirits of the dead Fast tears within the graveyard shed. Now, Ringer, to the belfry speed, Ding dong, dong ding dong! Now, Ringer, to the belfry speed, Ring loud, to-night thy ringing tolls An office for the dead men's souls.