[2] The name of Antwerp, says
an ingenious correspondent, at p. 287,
vol.
xiv. of The Mirror, is derived from Hand-werpen,
or
Hand-thrown:
so called from a legend, which informs us that on
the
site of the present city once stood the castle of a
giant,
who
was accustomed to amuse himself by cutting off and
casting
into
the river the right hands of the unfortunate wights
that
fell
into his power; but that being at last conquered himself,
his
own immense hand was disposed off, with poetical justice,
in
the
same way. We quote this passage in a note, as
it is only
worthy
of place beneath facts of sober history.
[3] See Antwerp described
from a Tour in South Holland in the
Family
Library, at p. 109. vol. xviii of The Mirror.
[4] See Antwerp Cathedral, Mirror, vol. xiv, p. 286.
* * * * *
A MALTESE LEGEND.
Hark, in the bower of yonder tower,
What maiden so sweetly sings,
As the eagle flies through the sunny skies
He stayeth his golden wings;
And swiftly descends, and his proud neck
bends,
And his eyes they stream with
glare,
And gaze with delight, on her looks so
bright,
As he motionless treads the
air.
But his powerful wings, as she sweetly
sings,
They droop to the briny wave,
And slowly he falls near the castle walls,
And sinks to his ocean grave.
Was it arrow unseen with glancing sheen,
The twang of the string unheard,
Sped from hunter’s bow, that has
laid him low,
And has pierced that kingly
bird?
That has brought his flight, from the
realms of light,
Where his hues in ether glow,
To float for awhile in the sun’s
last smile,
Then dim to the depths below?
No! the pow’rful spell, that had
wrought too well,
Was sung by a maiden true,
And it breath’d and flow’d,
to her love who row’d,
His path through the seas
of blue.
As she saw his sail, by the gentle gale,
Slow borne to her lofty bower,
Her heart it beat, in her high retreat,
She sang by a spell-bound
power:
“Zephyr
winds, with gentlest motion
Urge his bark
the blue waves o’er;
Cease your wild
and deep commotion
Waft him safely
to the shore.
“Lovely
art thou crested billow,
On thy whiteness
rests his eye,
Thou art to his
bark a pillow,
Thou dost hear
his ev’ry sigh.
“Would I
were yon dolphin dancing
Round his fragile
vessel’s stern;
Ev’ry gaze
my soul entrancing,
I would woo him
though he spurn.”