114 THE RAVEN IN POETRY AND FOLK-LORE 



bird of the Ravenswood race, was struck down by a 

 bolt from the crossbow of Henry Ashton, and, 

 falling at their feet, stained the dress of Lucy 

 with some drops of his life-blood. " Do you 

 know," cries Edgar to the murderer, " that the 

 ravens are all under the protection of the Lords 

 of Ravenswood, and that to kill one of them in 

 their presence is such bad luck that it deserves 

 the stab?" 



A bird so resourceful and so ubiquitous as the 

 raven, which had played so conspicuous a part in 

 two episodes of the Old Testament, and had been 

 so pointedly referred to by our Lord in the New 

 the only bird, it should be remarked, except the 

 sparrow, from which He draws a moral would be 

 sure to be heard of in the record of the trials and 

 the temptations, the failures and the triumphs, of 

 the early Christian saints and martyrs. And, what 

 is especially to be noted here, the view taken of him 

 in these histories or legends is always favourable. 

 The raven may almost be said to have a hagiology 

 of his own ; so great were the services he rendered 

 to St Athanasius, for instance, and St Paul the 

 Hermit, to St Benedict and St Vincent, to our 

 own St Oswald and St Hugh of Lincoln, or to 

 St Meinrad of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. To some 



