up, higher and higher, the hangman drawing the rope all too tight the while, till the king says, Now. At the last moment the Bastard calls out to Corsabrin that he is a knight of high birth, and ought not to die like a rogue, but as a man of mark dies among the Franks. And how is that? asks the Saracen. They give him a horn, and he blows four or five times to summon the angels to come for his soul. Then he says a prayer. Then they strangle him or behead him. A horn is sent up to the Bastard, and he blows lustily. Hugh hears, and rides in hot haste to the call. The Bastard makes the most of his grace; his prayer is very long. He sees that a fight is going on below, and knocks the hangman dead from the tree with his fist, then comes down from the tree and joins in the fray. Hugh runs Corsabrin through with a lance, Ludie is taken captive, and every other living being in the castle is slain. Hugh begs as a reward for his services that he may have the disposal of Ludie. The Bastard accords the boon, with a recommendation to mercy: ‘arse fu li royne c’on appella Ludie.’ The escaping to a lover by taking a drug which causes apparent death, and the test of molten lead or gold, in the German poems, and in Cligès, 6000 ff., are found in ‘The Gay Goshawk,’ No 96, II, 355 ff. The test is also employed in one form of the Russian prose narratives: Vesselofsky, in the Slavic Archiv, VI, 409. A portion of the story is preserved in Scandinavian ballads, with very distinct marks of Russian origin. =Swedish.= ‘Jungfru Solfager,’ Arwidsson, I, 177, No 25: =A= from a MS. of the sixteenth century, =B= from recitation. =A.= Solfager is a handsome woman, so handsome as to endanger her husband Sir David’s life. Fearing that she may be carried off, David in some way marks or stamps her hand with a gold cross, that she may be known thereby. As Solfager is standing at the castle gate, Novgorod’s (Nougård’s) king comes riding up. He asks if her husband is at home; Sir David went away the day before, and will not come back for a year. The king tells her that if she will plight herself to him she shall always wear gold shoes; Solfager answers that she loves David dearly. The king gives her a drink, two drinks; she swoons, and falls to the ground; she is laid on a bier, taken to the kirk-yard, and buried. The king (David in the text, absurdly) has kept his eye on their doings; he digs her up, and carries her out of the land. David, disguised as a pilgrim, goes to the king of Novgorod’s palace, and asks to be housed as a poor pilgrim. The king invites him in. David takes his place with other pilgrims; Solfager breaks bread for them. [Her hand is gloved.] David asks why she does not break bread with a bare hand; she calls him an old fool, and bids him eat or go. The king, from his bed, inquires what the pilgrim is saying. ‘Lie down, my lord,’ answers Solfager; ‘what a fool says is no matter.’ They all fall asleep in their places; Solfager follows Sir David home.