And yn the name of the holi gooft
He dryveth ynto the hethen hoot,
And as fone as he was come,
Afonder he brake the fheltron °,
And al that ever afore hym ftode,
Hors and man to the grounde yode,

Twenti fote on either fyde, &c.

Whan the kyng of Fraunce and hys men wyste
That the maftry had the Cryften,

They waxed bold, and gode herte toke

Stedes beftrode, and fhaftes fhoke ".

Richard arming himself is a curious Gothic picture. It is certainly a genuine picture, and drawn with some spirit; as is the fhock of the two necromantic fteeds, and other parts of this defcription. The combat of Richard and the Soldan, on the event of which the chriftian army got poffeffion of the city of Babylon, is probably the DUEL OF KING RICHARD, painted on the wall of a chamber in the royal palace of Clarendon. The Soldan is represented as meeting Richard with a hawk on his fift, to fhew indifference, or a contempt of his adverfary; and that he came rather prepared for the chace, than the combat. Indeed in the feudal times, and long afterwards, no gentleman appeared on horseback, unless going to battle, without a hawk on his fift. In the Tapestry of the Norman conqueft, Harold is exhibited on horfeback, with a hawk on his fift, and his dogs running before him, going on an embaffy from king Edward the Confeffor to William Duke of Normandy '.

• Schiltron. I believe foldiers drawn up in a circle. Rob. de Brunne ufes it in defcribing the battle of Fowkirke, Chron. p. 305.

Thar SCHELTRON fone was fhad with
Inglis that wer gode.

Shad is feparated.

P Signat. M. ii. See fupr. p. 114.

The hawk on the fift was a mark of

great nobility. We frequently find it, upon antique feals and miniatures, attributed to perfons of both fexes. So facred was this bird efteemed, that it was forbidden in a code of Charlemagne's laws, for any one to give his hawk or his fword as part

Tabour, a drum, a common accompaniment of war, is mentioned as one of the inftruments of martial mufic in this battle with characteristical propriety. It was imported ́into the European armies from the Saracens in the holy war. The word is constantly written tabour, not tambour, in Joinville's HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS, and all the elder French romances. Joinville defcribes a fuperb bark or galley belonging to a Saracen chief, which he fays was filled with cymbals, tabours, and Saracen horns'. Jean d'Orronville, an old French chronicler of the life of Louis duke of Bourbon, relates, that the king of France, the king of Thrafimere, and the king of Bugie landed in Africa, according to their cuftom, with cymbals, kettle drums, tabours', and whistles ". Babylon, here faid to be befieged by king Richard, and fo frequently mentioned by the romance writers and the chroniclers of the crufades, is Cairo or Bagdat. Cairo and Bagdat, cities of recent foundation, were perpetually confounded with Babylon, which had been destroyed many centuries before, and was fituated at a confiderable diftance from either. Not the leaft enquiry was made in the dark ages concerning the true fituation of places, or the difpofition of the country in Palestine, although the theatre of fo im

part of his ran fom. "In compofitionem "Wirigildi volumus ut ea denter que in lege "continentur excepto accipitre et fpatha.' Lindebrog. Cod. Leg. Antiq. p. 895. In the year 1337, the bishop of Ely excommunicated certain perfons for stealing a hawk, fitting on her perch, in the cloisters of the abbey of Bermondfey in Southwark. This piece of facrilege, indeed, was committed during fervice-time in the choir: and the hawk was the property of the bishop. Regiftr. Adami Orleton, Epifc. Winton. fol. 56. b. In Archiv. Winton. In DOMESDEI-BOOK, a Hawk's Airy, Aira Accipitris, is fometimes returned among the most valuable articles of property.

portant a war; and to this neglect were owing, in a great measure, the fignal defeats and calamitous diftreffes of the christian adventurers, whofe numerous armies, deftitute of information, and cut off from every refource, perished amidst unknown mountains, and impracticable waftes. Geography at this time had been but little cultivated. It had been studied only from the antients: as if the face of the earth, and the political state of nations, had not, fince the time of those writers, undergone any changes or revolutions.

So formidable a champion was king Richard against the infidels, and fo terrible the remembrance of his valour in the holy war, that the Saracens and Turks used to quiet their froward children only by repeating his name. Joinville is the only writer who records this anecdote. He adds another of the fame fort. When the Saracens were riding, and their horfes ftarted at any unusual object, "ils "difoient a leurs chevaulx en les picquent de l'efperon, et "cuides tu que ce foit le Roy RICHART "?" It is extraordinary, that these circumstances should have escaped Malmefbury, Matthew Paris, Benedict, Langtoft, and the rest of our old hiftorians, who have exaggerated the character of this redoubted hero, by relating many particulars more. likely to be fabulous, and certainly lefs expreffive of his prowess.

w Hift. de S. Loyis, p. 16. 104. Who had it from a French manuscript chronicle

of the holy war. See Du Cange's Notes, P. 45.

SECT.

SECT. V.

HE romance of SIR GUY, which is enumerated by the "Romances of Pris," affords the following fiction, not uncommon indeed in pieces of this fort, concerning the redemption of a knight from a long captivity, whose prifon was inacceffible, unknown, and enchanted. His name is Amis of the Mountain.

Here befyde an Elfish knyhte

Has taken my lorde in fyghte,

And hath him ledde with him away

In the Fayry, Syr, permafay.

Was Amis, quoth Heraude, your husbond?
A doughtyer knygte was none in londe.
Then tolde Heraude to Raynborne,
How he loved his father Guyon:
Then fayd Raynburne, for thy fake,
To morrow I fhall the way take,
And nevermore come agayne,

Tyll I bring Amys of the Mountayne.

a The Romance of Sir Guy is a confiderable volume in quarto. My edition is without date, " Imprinted at London in "Lothburye by Wyllyam Copland." with rude wooden cuts. It runs to Sign. S. ii. It seems to be older than the Squyr of lowe degree, in which it is quoted. Sign. a. iii. Or els fo bolde in chivalrie

As was fyr Gawayne or fyr GIE. The two beft manufcripts of this romance are at Cambridge, MSS. Bibl. Publ. Mor. 690. 33. And MSS. Coll. Caii, A. 8.

In Chaucer's Tale of the Chanon Ye

Raynborne

Raynborne rose on the morrow erly,
And armed hym full richely.---
Raynborne rode tyll it was noone,
Tyll he came to a rocke of stone;
Ther he founde a strong gate,
He bliffed hym, and rode in thereat.
He rode half a myle the waie,
He saw no light that came of daie,
Then cam he to a watir brode,
Never man ovir fuche a one rode.
Within he fawe a place greene
Suche one had he never erst seene.
Within that place there was a pallaice,
Closed with walles of heathenesse":
The walles thereof were of criftall,
And the fommers of corall.
Raynborne had grete dout to paffe,
The watir fo depe and brode was:
And at the laste his steede leepe
Into the brode watir deepe.
Thyrty fadom he fanke adowne,
Then cleped he to god Raynborne.
God hym help, his fteede was goode,
And bure hym ovir that hydious floode.
To the pallaice he yode anone,

And lyghted downe of his steede full foone.

Walls built by the Pagans or Saracens. Walls built by magic." Chaucer, in a verfe taken from Syr Bevys, [Sign. a. ii.] fays that his knight had travelled,

As well in Christendom as in HETHNESS.

Prol. p. 2. v. 49. And in Syr Eglamour of
Artoys, Sign. E. ii.

Eglamour fayd to hym yeys,

I am come out of HETHENES.

Syr Bewys of Hamptoun. Sign. b. iii.

They found fhippes more and leffe
Of panimes and of bethenesse.
Alfo, Sign. C. i.

The firft dede withouten leffe
That Bevys dyd in bethenee.
• Called.

f Went.

Through