120 SELECT POETRY.

Unpleased, Llewellyn homeward hied,
When near the portal seat,!

His truant Gelert he espied,
Bounding his lord to greet.

But when he gained his castle door,
Aghast the chieftain stood ;

The hound was smeared with drops of gore,
His lips and fangs? ran blood !

Llewellyn gazed with wild surprise,
Unused such looks to meet ;

His favourite checked his joyful guise,*
And crouched and licked his feet.

Onward in haste Llewellen past,
And on went Gelert too;

And still where’er his eyes he cast
Fresh blood-drops shocked his view !

O’ert his infant’s bed he found,
The bfbod-stained covert‘ rent;
And all around the walls and ground

With recent blood besprent.®

He called his child, no voice replied—
He searched with terror wild ;

Blood! blood he found on every side,
But nowhere found his chlid !

“ Blood-hound! by thee my child’s devoured !’
The frantic father cried;

1 Portal seat—seat.at the door of his castle.

+ Fangs—long tusks or teeth.

3 Guise—manner, appearance.

* Covert—for coverlet, the outermost of the bed-clothes.
5 Besprent—sprinkled.