His body-guard, souls near of kin.
They numbered seven, a slender troop
As are the stars of Charles’s Wain,
At most nine, like the muses’ group,
And hard the honor was to gain.
By sword and fire their claims were tried,
They were a Christian viking-stock,
Not unlike that which once defied
All dangers of the wave and rock.
They never slept upon a bed,