The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 576, November 17, 1832

Sits with the bridal throng—
She looks and looks—then heaves a sigh—
"Why tarries he so long?"

He comes!—'tis he!—and by his side
Attend a noble band—
He comes to claim his royal bride—
His lov'd Elfrida's hand.

The wish'd-for hour is gone and past;—
Slow chimes the marriage-bell;
May Heav'n forbid it prove his last—
The bridegroom's fun'ral knell!

The priest before the altar stands—
The bride bends on her knee,
And lifts to God her heart and hands
In pious fervency!

But where is he, who should have knelt
Before his Maker, low?
And where are they, who might have felt
What none but parents know!

In vain she waits, and looks around,
Still vainer are her cries;
With shrieks the sacred aisles resound;—
Save echo, naught replies:

Fell grief her throbbing heart enthrals,—
Her lips grow ghastly pale;
She weeps—she faints—and senseless falls
Before the altar-rail!

But where is he, by whom the vows
Of love were pledg'd so late?
Demand of Offa's artful spouse,
Whose fiat seal'd his fate?

The blush of guilt upon her cheek
Spreads forth its purple hues,—
And agitation seems to speak
What conscience dares refuse!

To Him who gives life's fleeting breath
His soul has ta'en its flight!—
He sleeps the last long sleep of death
Upon his bridal night.

His guards were gone;—no friends were near
To bless him ere he died!
None, none to dry the falling tear,
Or bid his pains subside.

Oh! where is she whom fate hath made
Dejected and forlorn?
She goes to Croyland's hallow'd shade,
To live—alas!—to mourn!

Weep, Anglia, weep!—thy monarch's dead!
To heav'n his spirit's flown;
And he whose hands his blood have shed
Will mount thy vacant throne.

He reigns!—but mark! how self-reproach
Pervades his inmost breast;—
And pangs of sad remorse encroach
Upon his fever'd rest.

He lives—but life has little left,
If aught, his love to claim;
Of all, save grief, 'tis now bereft;
To him 'tis but a name!

    J.H.I.
The event which the foregoing stanzas have attempted to describe laid the foundation of the future importance and prosperity of the Cathedral church of Hereford.

"The restless ambition of Offa prompted him to attack the neighbouring kingdom of the East Angles, with a view of adding it to his dominions; but in this attempt he was defeated by the successful valour of Ethelbert. Peace being subsequently concluded, Offa acceded to proposals of marriage between Ethelbert and his daughter Elfrida;—and the young and unsuspecting prince attended, invited, at the palace of Offa (at South Town, now Sutton, near Hereford), with a splendid retinue, to treat of the intended spousals. The queen of Offa, Quendreda, is recorded to have prevailed upon her husband to violate the ties of hospitality and humanity; and Ethelbert was treacherously murdered, A.D. 793. His guards and retinue were dispersed; his kingdom, taken by surprise, was annexed to the state of Mercia. The faithful Elfrida retired to Croyland Abbey; and Offa, seized with remorse, sought to appease his wounded conscience by actions which, at that time, were thought to atone for the deepest delinquency. He caused the body of Ethelbert to be removed from Marden, where it had been previously interred, to the cathedral of St. Mary, at Hereford, erecting over him a magnificent tomb, and endowing the church with valuable gifts, chiefly situated in the immediate vicinity of his own palace. The known virtues of the murdered prince caused his shrine to be visited as that of a martyr; and such was the fame of his miracles, that the city and cathedral attained a degree of opulence from the pious contributions of devoted pilgrims."

Wright's History of Hereford.

It is not asserted that Ethelbert was murdered on the day appointed for his marriage; but poetical license will, it is hoped, be pardoned for the variation, whilst the principal facts are strictly adhered to.

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS

PARLIAMENTS

(Concluded from vol. xvii.)

In 833, a parliament was held at London, in the presence of King Egbert, with his son Ethelwolf, and Withlaf, the tributary King of Mercia, and most of the prelates and great men of the realm, to deliberate on the best means they could adopt to prevent the Danes from invading England.

In 1210, King John summoned a parliament to meet him at his palace in St. Bride's parish, London; where he exacted of the clergy and religious persons the sum of 100,000l., and 40,000l. in particular from the white monks. The present hospital of Bridewell stands on a part of that palace.

In 1294, Edward I., in order to raise funds for the invasion of Scotland, addressed writs to the sheriffs, directing them to send "representatives for every city and borough in their bailiwicks." Many of the boroughs at this time, on account of the expense of paying their representatives, declined to send members; but the King took care for his own purposes that the Royal and other boroughs where his influence extended, should send members: hence in Cornwall and the other counties on the same coast, where the King's power and property chiefly lay, on account of the mines and tallages, almost every village sent representatives.

In 1414, the fifth year of the reign of Henry IV., the Commons proceeded in their design of regulating the King's household, with whom the Lords accorded; and they required that four persons should be removed out of the King's house,—namely, the Abbot of Dore, the King's confessor, with Durham and Crosbie, gentlemen of his chamber. On February 9, 1414, the confessor, Durham and Crosbie, came into the parliament before the King and the Lords, when his Majesty took occasion to excuse those officers himself, saying, that he knew no cause why they should be removed, but only because they were hated by the people: yet he charged them to depart from his house, according to the desire of his Commons, and would have proceeded in the same manner against the Abbot of Dore, had he been present. The printed roll of Parliamentary proceedings adds these remarkable expressions:—"And our Lord the King moreover said that he would see that the Same measures were taken with regard to any one about his Royal person, who might incur the hatred or indignation of his people." A proceeding similar to this took place in 1451, when Henry VI., at the request of the House of Commons, removed from his court and presence several individuals of either sex, against whom there was universal noise and clamour.

On November 27, 1621, the House of Lords sentenced John Blount to pillory, imprisonment, and labour for life, for counterfeiting a Lord's protection. This was the first case of imprisonment beyond the session, by the House of Lords. The first precedent for their infliction of fines appears about two years afterwards, when they sentenced one Morley to pay 1,000l., and condemned him to the pillory for a libel on the Lord Keeper.

The number of Bishops having seats in the House of Lords is thirty; namely, the two English archbishops, twenty-four English bishops, and four Irish bishops; and they all sit in the house, not as churchmen, or peers representing the clergy, in their various grades, (for these are all represented with the commonalty in the lower House,) but as soldiers, that is, as barons holding certain land by military tenure—tenants in capite per baroniam; and therefore compelled, under the feudal system, by which they were created, to furnish their quota of knights, or men-at-arms, and do other military service to the crown.