Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene IV.] THE VARANGIAN. 357
What did betide
SECOND SERVANT.
Pshaw ! heed not that.
THIRD SERVANT.
O such foul, rugged ways,
Such floods, such bogs, such woods had we to pass !
And then so many leagues of desert land,
Where not a blade of corn or village home
Our weary eye-sight blest,
a wilderness.
So made by Norman swords and Norman fires.
Then, when the Tweed we crossed, such hostelries !
Nothing but oaten cakes, with Saxon slaves
In every hovel !
36
( ) O, I wept to see them !
I wept too for myself, for I was famished.
How did I
joy, on my return, to view
The chantry-tapers gleaming through the windows
Of our brave abbey.
SECOND SERVANT.
Joy me with some news,
Not of thy worthless self, but of the state.
Whom have you hither brought ?
THIRD SERVANT.
O, some great man.
SECOND SERVANT.
But who, good Herbert ? tell me, tell me who ?
What name, what noble title doth he tear ?
THIRD SERVANT.
Faith ! know I not. Our abbey knights were all
So silent, and so chary of his name,
That one might think he came here to be christened ;
Yet such observance paid.
SECOND SERVANT.
That smacks, I vow,