II.

The book is completed,

And closed, like the day;

And the hand that has written it Lays it away.

Dim grow its fancies;

Forgotten they lie;

Like coals in the ashes,
They darken and die.

Song sinks into silence;
The story is told,

The windows are darkened,

The hearth-stone is cold.

Darker and darker

The black shadows fall; Sleep and oblivion Reign over all.

NOTES.

NOTES.

PAGE 19. All the Foresters of Flanders.

The title of Foresters was given to the early governors of Flanders, appointed by the kings of France. Lyderick du Bocq, in the days of Clotaire the Second, was the first of them; and Beaudoin Bras-de-Fer, who stole away the fair Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, from the French court, and married her in Bruges, was the last. After him the title of Forester was changed to that of Count. Philippe d'Alsace, Guy de Dampiere, and Louis de Crécy, coming later in the order of time, were rather Counts than Foresters. Philippe went twice

K