Then (sad relief!) from the bleak coast that hears The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, And yellow hair’d, the blue-eyed Saxon came.

THOMSON’S LIBERTY

In a hall, the height of which was greatly disproportioned to its extreme length and width, a long oaken table, formed of planks rough-hewn from the forest, and which had scarcely received any polish, stood ready prepared for the evening meal of Cedric the Saxon. The roof, composed of beams and rafters, had nothing to divide the apartment from the sky excepting the planking and thatch; there was a huge fireplace at either end of the hall, but