said Morvan; "I will follow your saintly
wish."

When the seven years of the penance had passed the robe had flayed
Morvan's skin severely, and his beard, which had become grey, and the
hair of his head, fell almost to his waist. Those who saw him did not
recognize him; but a lady dressed in white, who passed through the
greenwood, stopped and gazed earnestly at him and her eyes filled with
tears.

"Morvan, my dear son, it is indeed you," she said. "Come here, my
beloved child, that I may free you of your burden," and she cut the
chain which bound the shirt of lead to the shoulders of the penitent
with a pair of golden scissors, saying:

"I am your patron, Saint Anne of Armor."

Now for seven years had the squire of Morvan sought his master, and
one day he was riding through the greenwood of Hellean.

"Alas!" he said, "what profits it that I have slain his murderer when
I have lost my dear lord?"

Then he heard at the other end of the wood the plaintive whinnying of
a horse. His own steed sniffed the air and replied, and then he saw
between the parted branches a great black charger, which he recognized
as that of Lez-Breiz. Once more the beast whinnied mournfully. It
almost seemed as if he wept. He was standing upon his master's grave!

But, like Arthur and Barbarossa, Morvan Lez-Breiz will yet return.
Yes, one day he will return to fight the Franks and drive them from
the Breton land!

We have sundry intimations here of the sources from which Villemarque
drew a part at least of his matter. There are resemblances to
Arthurian and kindred romances. For example, the incident which
describes the flight of young Morvan is identical with that in the
Arthurian saga of _Percival le Gallois_, where the child Percival
quits his mother's care in precisely the same fashion. The Frankish
monarch and his Court, too, are distinctly drawn in the style of the
_chansons de gestes_, which celebrated the deeds of Charlemagne and
his peers. There are also hints that the paganism against which
Charlemagne fought, that of the Moors of Spain, had attracted the
attention of the author, and this is especially seen in his
introduction of the Moorish giant, so common a figure in the
Carlovingian stories.

_The Ballad of Bran_

A sorrowful and touching ballad, claimed by Villemarque as being sung
in the Breton dialect of Leon, tells of the warrior Bran, who was
wounded in the great fight of Kerlouan, a village situated on the
coas