joys. By the fault of deficient spirit and
manliness, Mr. Placid was a hen-pecked husband. By the fault of
marrying without the consent of his wife's friends, Mr. Irwin was
reduced to poverty and even crime. Harmony healed these faults; Lord
Norland received his daughter into favor; Sir Robert Ramble took back
his wife; Solus married Miss Spinster; Mr. Placid assumed the rights
of the head of the family; and Mr. Irwin, being accepted as the
son-in-law of Lord Norland, was raised from indigence to domestic
comfort.

EVIOT, page to Sir John Ramorny (master of the horse to Prince Robert
of Scotland).--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

EVIR-ALLEN, the white-armed daughter of Branno, an Irishman. "A
thousand heroes sought the maid; she refused her love to a thousand.
The sons of the sword were despised, for graceful in her eyes was
Ossian." This Evir-Allen was the mother of Oscar, Fingal's grandson,
but she was not alive when Fingal went to Ireland to assist Cormac
against the invading Norsemen, which forms the subject of the poem
called _Fingal_, in six books.--Ossian, _Fingal_, iv.

EW'AIN _(Sir)_, son of King Vrience and Morgan le Fay (Arthur's
half-sister).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 72
(1470).

EWAN OF BRIGGLANDS, a horse soldier in the army of Montrose.--Sir W.
Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

EWART (_Nanty i.e._ Anthony), captain of the smuggler's brig. Sir W.
Scott _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

EXCAL'IBUR, King Arthur's famous swords. There seems to have been two
of his swords so called. One was the sword sheathed in stone, which no
one could draw thence, save he who was to be king of the land. Above
200 knights tried to release it, but failed; Arthur alone could draw
it with ease, and thus proved his right of succession (pt. i. 3). In
ch. 7 this sword is called Excalibur, and is said to have been so
bright "that it gave light like thirty torches." After his fight with
Pellinore, the king said to Merlin he had no sword, and Merlin took
him to a lake, and Arthur saw an arm "clothed in white samite, that
held a fair sword in the hand." Presently the Lady of the Lake
appeared, and Arthur begged that he might have the sword, and the lady
told him to go and fetch it. When he came to it he took it, "and the
arm and hand went under the water again." This is the sword generally
called Excalibur. When about to die, King Arthur sent an attendant to
cast the sword back