is new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact,
and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part,
Loegria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now
Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a
fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back
into Loegria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now
marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to
this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were
found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair,
the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting
the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before
contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being
forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared,
Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other;
and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages
made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a
daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was
off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment,
divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in
rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine,
was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an
army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by
the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But
not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra
she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims
that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by
length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of
Britain_ (1670).

827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwilum_,
instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time.

830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The
prefix _step_ (A.S. _steop-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to
a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words
'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of
mother in the form _dam_.

832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96.

834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet,
as pearls were said to exi