Long afterwards, when Harold the Dauntless entered the castle, the seven
shields still hung where Adolf had placed them, each blazoned with its
coat of arms:
"A wolf North Wales had on his armour coat,
And Rhys of Powis-land a couchant stag;
Strath Clwyd's strange emblem was a stranded boat;
Donald of Galloway's a trotting nag;
A corn-sheaf gilt was fertile Lodon's brag;
A dudgeon-dagger was by Dunmail worn;
Northumbrian Adolf gave a sea-beat crag;
Surmounted by a cross,--such signs were borne
Upon these antique shields, all wasted now and worn."
And within the castle, in that chamber where Adolf repelled the
embarrassing advances of that most unmaidenly band of sisters, and did
"a slaughter grim and great":
"There of the witch brides lay each skeleton,
Still in the posture as to death when dight;
For this lay prone, by one blow slain outright;
And that, as one who struggles long in dying;
One bony hand held knife, as if to smite;
One bent on fleshless knees, as mercy crying;
One lay across the floor, as kill'd in act of flying."
Perhaps it is part of the wealth of those "seven monarchs" that now lies
sunken in Broomlee Lough. Did some one, greatly daring, "adventure that
treasure to win," and succeed in his attempt? Tradition tells that a
dweller in Sewingshields Castle, long ago, being compelled to flee the
country, and unable to bear away with him his hoard of gold, resolved
to sink it in the lough. Rowing, therefore, far out into deep water, he
hove overboard a chest containing all his treasure, putting on it a
spell that never should it be again seen till brought to land by aid of
"Twa twin yauds, twa twin oxen, twa twin lads, and a chain forged by a
smith of kind."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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