“Word went east, and word went west,
  And word is gone over the sea,
  That a laidly worm in Spindleston Heugh
  Would ruin the North Countree.”

The news in due course comes to the ears of Princess Margaret’s only brother, the Childe Wynde, who is away seeking fame and fortune abroad.  In fear for his lovely sister, he calls together his “merry men all,” and they set to work to build a ship

  “With masts of the rowan-tree,”

a sure defence against the spells of witchcraft; and hoisting their silken sails they hasten homeward.

“... ...  The wind with speed Blew them along the deep.  The sea was calm, the weather clear, When they approached nigher; King Ida’s castle well they knew, And the banks of Bamburghshire.”

The wicked queen saw the little bark coming near, and knew that her guilt was about to meet its reward.  In haste she tried to wreck the vessel, but the rowan-tree masts made her spells of no avail.  Then she bade her servants go to the beach and oppose the landing of the Childe and his crew; but the servants were beaten back, and the young knight and his men landed in Budle Bay.  The worm came fiercely to the attack, as the Childe Wynde advanced against it; but on meeting him, and feeling the touch of his “berry-brown sword,” it besought him to do it no harm.

  “’O quit thy sword, unbend thy brow,
  And give me kisses three;
  For though I be a laidly worm
  No harm I’ll do to thee.

  O quit thy sword, unbend thy brow,
  And give me kisses three;
  If I’m not won ere the sun goes down
  Won shall I never be.’

  He quitted his sword, and smoothed his brow,
  And gave her kisses three;
  She crept intill the hole a worm,
  And came out a fayre ladie.”

The knight clasped his lovely sister in his arms, and, casting around her his crimson cloak, led her back to her home, where the trembling queen awaited them.  Her doom was spoken by the Childe Wynde—­

  “Woe be to thee, thou wicked witch;
  An ill death mayst thou dee! 
  As thou hast likened my sister dear,
  So likened shalt thou be”

and he turned her into the likeness of an ugly toad, in which hateful shape she remained to her dying day, wandering around the castle and the green fields, an object of hatred to all who saw her.  The “Spindlestone,” a tall crag on which the young knight hung his bridle, when he went further on to seek the worm in the “heugh,” is still to be seen, but the huge trough from which the worm was said to drink has been destroyed.

There are two legends somewhat similar to each other which are told of a company held in the spell of a magic sleep, to be awakened by certain devices, in which the blowing of a horn and the drawing of a sword are prominent.  One is the story of “Sir Guy the Seeker,” and is told of Dunstanborough Castle.  Sir Guy sought refuge in the Castle from a storm; and while within the walls a spectre form with flaming hair addressed him,