THE OAK. 43 



the powerful Welch Chieftain, and the firm adhe- 

 rent of the English Insurgents, ascended this tree, 

 and from its lofty branches, then most probably in 

 the full pride of their vigour, reconnoitred the state 

 of the field : when finding that the King was in 

 great force, and that the Earl of Northumberland 

 had not joined his son Henry, he descended from his 

 leafy observatory, with the prudent resolution of 

 declining the combat, and retreated with his fol- 

 lowers to Oswestry. This caution seems scarcely in 

 character with the fierce and heedless courage of 



" The irregular and wild Glendower," 

 whose martial daring is well pourtrayed by our 

 great dramatic poet, in Hotspur's account of his 

 combat with " the noble Mortimer;" of whom he 

 says : 



" To prove that true, 



Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, 



Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took, 



When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank, 



In single opposition, hand to hand, 



He did confound the best part of an hour 



In changing hardiment with great Glendower. 



Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink, 



Upon agreement, of swift's Severn's flood ; 



Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, 



Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, 



And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, 



Blood-stained with the valiant combatants." 



KING HENRY IV, 1st Part, Act 1. sc. 3. 



