eat churches in North Wales, was partly performed in Welch and partly
in English. The singing, which was fine and supported by an organ of
prodigious power, was chiefly of a triumphant and (as it appeared to
Bertram) almost martial character. Just before the sermon however an
ancient ceremony showed that, if the religion of the day clothed itself
in the attire of earthly pride and exultation, the martial patriotism
of Wales could sometimes soar into a religious expression. The people
divided to the right and the left, leaving a lane from the great door:
a trumpet sounded; and in rode Golden-spear, lance in rest, the whole
length of the nave--passed into the choir--and halted before a monument
of black marble. He paused for a few moments: then cried with a loud
voice in Welch, English, and Latin, "Bastard of Walladmor!" to which
summons the choir sang a penitential antiphony. Then he raised his
spear and struck the outside of the tomb: to which again the organ
muttered and the choir sang a response. Then a second time he raised
the golden spear, and plunged it through an iron grating which occupied
the place of heart in the stony figure of a knight recumbent on the
tomb: the spear sank within a foot of the head: and again the organ
muttered some sad tones; after which he pronounced these words:

"God, who in six days and seven nights created heaven--and earth--the
sea and all that in them is, send up thy guilty soul into this grave,
so long as the sea and the earth endure, on St. David's day;--annually
to hear the message which I bring from Walladmor and Harlech:--The
death, which thou gavest to the Pagan dogs, was given in vain: the
treason, which should have trampled on the cross, was confounded by
God's weak instruments a falcon and a dove: the crescent was dimmed at
Walladmor, and the golden spear prevailed at Harlech: and the banner of
Walladmor is flying to this day: So let it fly until Arthur shall come
again in power and great beauty: on which day thy treason be forgiven
thee!"

Thus having delivered his message to the grave,--the herald drew forth
his spear, ported it, bowed to the altar, and turning his horse rode
back: and, as Golden-spear issued from the choir, the organ and the
choristers commenced one of the chorusses in Judas Maccabaeus.

Then followed the sermon which was in Welch--but, as Bertram could
distinguish, full of allusions to the great names of Wales; and in fact
as martial as any part of the