d a hollow murmur' (Bartholini de Causis Contemptae a
Danis adhuc Gentilibus Mortis, Libri Tres. Hafniae, 1689, 4to, p. 574).

"To the history of this sentient and prescient weapon, I beg leave to
add, from memory, the following legend, for which I cannot produce any
better authority. A young nobleman, of high hopes and fortune, chanced
to lose his way in the town which he inhabited, the capital, if I
mistake not, of a German province. He had accidentally involved himself
among the narrow and winding streets of a suburb, inhabited by the
lowest order of the people, and an approaching thunder-shower determined
him to ask a short refuge in the most decent habitation that was near
him. He knocked at the door, which was opened by a tall man, of a grisly
and ferocious aspect, and sordid dress. The stranger was readily ushered
to a chamber, where swords, scourges, and machines, which seemed to be
implements of torture, were suspended on the wall. One of these swords
dropped from its scabbard, as the nobleman, after a moment's hesitation,
crossed the threshold. His host immediately stared at him with such a
marked expression, that the young man could not help demanding his name
and business, and the meaning of his looking at him so fixedly. 'I am,'
answered the man, 'the public executioner of this city; and the incident
you have observed is a sure augury that I shall, in discharge of my
duty, one day cut off your head with the weapon which has just now
spontaneously unsheathed itself.' The nobleman lost no time in leaving
his place of refuge; but, engaging in some of the plots of the period,
was shortly after decapitated by that very man and instrument.

"Lord Lovat is said, by the author of the Letters from Scotland (vol.
ii. p. 214), to have affirmed that a number of swords that hung up in
the hall of the mansion-house, leaped of themselves out of the scabbard
at the instant he was born. The story passed current among his clan,
but, like that of the story I have just quoted, proved an unfortunate
omen."

311. If courtly spy hath, etc. The 1st ed. has "If courtly spy, and
harbored," etc. The ed. of 1821 reads "had harbored."

319. Beltane. The first of May, when there was a Celtic festival in
honor of the sun. Beltane = Beal-tein, or the fire of Beal, a Gaelic
name for the sun. It was celebrated by kindling fires on the hill-tops
at night, and other ceremonies, followed by dances, and merry-making.
Cf. 410 below. See a