A LEGENDARY TALE. 43 



dwarfed, and stunted, and distorted yew-tree, or oak 

 pollard. 



As the story went, the lady, bound against her will to so 

 unsightly a yoke-fellow, come of a stock also much inferior to 

 her own, tossed the yoke altogether from off her fair proud neck, 

 and, when Sir Timothy, who, in a little casket carried a bold 

 big jewel of a heart, was away on military service, showed 

 favour to a handsome paramour. The little knight, who loved 

 his lady, and was nothing prone to jealousy, was said to have 

 stolen away from the English army, then engaged in border 

 warfare, riding fast and far one summer's night and day that 

 he might innocently surprise his lovely dame. On the eve 

 of St. John he arrived at home, where his presence was of 

 course something less welcome than he fondly believed. The 

 lady, however (her first confusion past, and entirely overlooked), 

 cheered the heart of her little lord with unwonted smiles. In 

 lover-like guise she walked with him by the midsummer 

 moonlight, beside the winding stream, overlooked, in those 

 days, by the knight's stately halls, as in these by his stately 

 tomb ; and there, in the rnidst of her basilisk fascinations, 

 gave him, with her own fair hands, a treacherous push into 

 the water, from which, encumbered by his armour, he never 

 rose. None but the cruel lady, her paramour, and a single 

 page, intimidated for a time to silence, ever knew of Sir 

 Timothy's stolen, ill-starred visit to his home ; Rumor, with 

 her thousand tongues, assigning as many false causes for his 



