Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene I.] THE DEVOTED ONE. 201
CANUTE.
Sent by whom ?
OFFICER.
The insurgent chiefs
And nobles of the land, inviting thee
To claim that Northern crown. Olave they hate,
And are resolved, if thou their cause wilt aid,
To drive him from the kingdom.
CANUTE.
They shall have
The strength of Denmark, and the bravest men
That England holds. Prepare, my worthy Earls.
Here 's news to set a warrior's heart on fire !
To Norway's coast three hundred ships shall waft us.
ELGITHA.
O lend to me, my lord, a gracious ear.
Have pity on the son of Zandagast.
Save one so worthy of thy princely care
From that dread condemnation which awaits him.
CANUTE.
He shall be saved. But certes he will not
Madly perform
his mother's hell-bound oath ?
ELGITHA.
Alas ! my lord, by her hath he been taught
From reason's dawn that death-vow to revere,
Which on his morn of life in darkness hung,
Like storms that rest upon the mountain's brow.
O, he hath been as one who in a land
Of night and shadows wandereth, and his mind
Hath not been of this world ; yet through the gloom
His virtues shine, as on the evening clouds
The rainbow sheds its beauty. But, dread sire.
Such reverence doth he to his mother pay,