The words of Mr Petrie, in his remarks upon the lay in Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i., may be quoted here. “Although both [French versions] have the same story in substance, and often contain lines exactly alike, yet, besides the different order in which the incidents are narrated, each has occasionally circumstances wanting in the other, and such too, it should seem, as would leave the story incomplete unless supplied from the other copy. Thus, the visit to the hermit, which is omitted in Gaimar, was probably in the original romance; for without it Argentille’s dream tells for nothing; and in the Arundel copy there is a particular account of Haveloc’s defence of a tower by hurling stones on his assailants, which in Gaimar is so obscurely alluded to as to be hardly intelligible. On the other hand, instead of the description of the extraordinary virtues of Sygar’s ring in Gaimar, it is merely said in the Arundel copy that Sygar would give his _anel d’or_ to whoever could sound the horn; and, to omit other instances, a festival is described in Gaimar on the authority of _l’Estorie_, of which no notice whatever occurs in the Arundel MS.” § 22. SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH POEM. The “Lay of Havelok” has been admirably paraphrased by Professor Morley, in his “English Writers,” vol. i. pp. 459-467, a book which should be in every reader’s hands, and which should by all means be consulted. I only intend here to give a briefer outline, for the sake of comparing the main features of our poem with those of the French _Lai_.