Silvestik rested in the shade of an English wood, and as he did so a familiar note fell upon his ear.
“That sound resembles the voice of my mother’s little white dove,” he said. The sound grew louder; it seemed to say, “Good luck to you, Silvestik, good luck to you. I have here a letter for you.”
Silvestik in high happiness read the letter, and resolved to return home to his sorrowing parent.
Two years passed, three years passed, and the dove did not return to delight the heart of the longing mother, who day by day walked the dismal seashore waiting for the vessel that never came. One day of storm she was wandering on the beach as usual when she saw a vessel being driven with great force upon the iron coast. Even as she watched it it dashed upon the rocks. Soon there were cast upon the shore the forms of many dead, and when the gale abated and the heart-sick mother was able to search among them she found Silvestik!
Several competent judges are of opinion that this ballad is contemporary with the events which it relates. Many of the Breton lords who sailed with William the Conqueror did not return for several years after the expedition had accomplished its object, and some not at all. Nothing is known regarding the hero. The bird is frequently the messenger between lovers in ballad literature, but it is seldom that it is found 234 carrying letters between a mother and her son—indeed, this is perhaps the only instance known.
The Marriage-Girdle
This ballad has reference to the Breton expedition which sailed for Wales in 1405 to assist the Welsh under Owen Glendower to free their principality from the English yoke. The Bretons rendered material assistance to their Welsh brothers, and had the satisfaction on their return of knowing that they had accomplished that which no French king had ever been able to achieve—the invasion of English territory. The expedition was commanded by Jean de Rieux, Marshal of France, and numbered ten thousand men.
The ballad tells how a young man on the morning after his betrothal received orders to join the standard of de Rieux “to help the Bretons oversea.” It was with bitterness in his heart, says the lover, that he entered the house of his betrothed with the object of bidding her farewell. He told her that duty called him, and that he must go to serve in England. At this her tears gushed forth, and she begged him not to go, reminding him how changeful was the wind and how perfidious the sea.
“Alas!” said she, “if you die what shall I do? In my impatience to have news of you my heart will break. I shall wander by the seashore, from one cottage to another, asking the sailors if they have heard tell of you.”
“Be comforted, Aloïda,” said her lover, “and do not weep on my account. I will send you a girdle from over the sea, a girdle of purple set with rubies.”