And seven times o’er was it whetted keen, till it shone with a deadly glance,
For its steel was wrought in the finest forge, in the realm of mighty France.
[115]Its shaft was made of the Aragon wood, as straight as the straightest stalk,
And he polished the steel, as he galloped along, on the wings of his hunting hawk;
‘Don Quadros, thou traitor vile, beware! I’ll slay thee where thou dost stand,
At the judgment seat, by the Emperor’s side, with the rod of power in his hand.’
This is more faithful, and consequently more vivid; and the retention of the Emperor, whom Lockhart (for metrical purposes) reduces to a King, gives the English reader a useful hint that the ballad belongs to the Charlemagne series. But its source is obscure, and its symbolism is as perplexing as symbolism is apt to be.
All who have read Birds of Passage—that is to say, everybody who reads anything—will
remember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free;