History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest: Second Edition
John Stuart Mill · en
doubtless, many a time parted her silken ringlets, as he stooped down
and imprinted a father's kiss upon her lips. Perhaps a tear stole down
the deep furrows which time and care had ploughed in the weather-beaten
countenance of Hengist, as he embraced her when she first landed on
our island shore, as in her pure countenance he traced the image of
her mother, whom he had once so fondly loved. Poor Rowena! she might
have moved like a ministering angel, through all the terrors of those
stormy times, her mild blue eyes beaming comfort on every woe-begone
countenance on which they glanced--now soothing the restless slumber of
her father, as he started up, dreaming of some new revenge, and by her
falling tears, and low-breathed whispers, chasing away the dark demon
from his couch; for even through the past, those gentle eyes seem to
beam upon us, and the tears by which they are dimmed quench the cruel
light, that when in anger, flashed from beneath her fringed eye-lids.
Oh, Mercy! thou wouldst not leave that beautiful Saxon mother to perish
shrieking amidst the surrounding flames! What crimes she had, sprang
from her faith; she was nursed in a cruel creed; when the grim shadow
of Odin fell not over and darkened her gentle heart, she was a fond
woman, even as our mothers have ever been. But she is dead and gone.
Hengist is now no more, and Eric, his son, reigns sole king over the
white-cliffs, and green hills, and pastoral valleys of Kent, and the
keels of other chiules are grating upon our chalky headlands. The grey
curtain of Time again drops down over the dead which in fancy stood
before us, and after the night of death is past, a new morning breaks,
that
"Laughs aside the clouds with playful scorn."
CHAPTER X.
ELLA, CERDRIC, AND KING ARTHUR.
"He was a shield to his country:
The courteous leader of the army;
His course was a wheel in battle,
He was a city to old age;
The head, the noblest pillar of Britain;
An eagle to his foe in his thrust,
Brave as generous;
In the angry warfare, certain of victory."
LLYWARCH HEN., SIXTH CENTURY.