A portion of one of Canute's once popular ballads has been preserved, and if the other verses resembled the one that has come down to us, there is no reason to regret that the rest is out of print and that nobody has kept the manuscript. The following is the queer quatrain which remains as the sole specimen of his majesty's poetical abilities:-- "Merrily sing the monks within Ely, When C'nute King rowed there by; Row, my knights, row near the land, And hear we these monks sing." This dismal distich is said to have been suggested by his hearing the solemn monastic music of the choir as he rowed near the Minster of Ely; but we suspect the song must have been rather of a secular kind, or the term merrily would have been exceedingly inappropriate. * * Some writers have endeavoured to justify the royal author or vindicate the characters of the monks of Ely, by saying, that in those days "merry" meant "sad." These gentlemen might just as well argue that black meant white--a proposition some people would not hesitate to put forth as a plea for the errors of royalty. [Illustration: 071] About the year 1017, Edric, the royal favourite, evinced some disposition to strike for an advance of salary, when Canute resisting the demand, the king and the courtier came to high words. Eric of Northumbria, who happened to be sitting in the room with his battle-axe,--which was in those days as common a companion as an umbrella or a walking-stick in the present age,--got up, on a hint from the king, and axed the miserable Edric to death. Canute, who was also king of the Danes, the Swedes,--whose sovereign was his vassal--and of the Northmen, had many turbulent subjects abroad as well as at home, but he was in the habit of employing one against the other, so that it was utterly immaterial to him which of them were slain, so that he got rid of some of them. He kept a strong hand over his Danish earls, and even his nephew, "the doughty Haco,"--though why he should have been called "doughty," is a matter of much doubt--was exiled for disregard of the royal authority.