ELIS’SA, step-sister of Medi’na and Perissa.  They could never agree upon any subject.—­Spenser, Faery Queen, ii. 2 (1590).

“Medina” (the golden mean), “Elissa” and “Perissa” (the two extremes).

ELIZABETH (Le Marchant.) Nice girl whose life is, darkened by a frustrated elopement, by which she is apparently compromised.  All comes well in the end.—­Rhoda Broughton, Alas! (1890).

Elizabeth (The Queen), haughty, imperious, but devoted to her people.  She loved the earl of Essex, and, when she heard that he was married to the countess of Rutland, exclaimed that she never “knew sorrow before.”  The queen gave Essex a ring after his rebellion, saying, “Here, from my finger take this ring, a pledge of mercy; and whensoe’er you send it back, I swear that I will grant whatever boon you ask.”  After his condemnation, Essex sent the ring to the queen by the countess of Nottingham, craving that her most gracious majesty would spare the life of Lord Southampton; but the countess, from jealousy, did not give it to the queen.  The queen sent a reprieve for Essex, but Burleigh took care that it came too late, and the earl was beheaded as a traitor.—­Henry Jones, The Earl of Essex (1745).

Elizabeth (Queen), introduced by Sir W. Scott in his novel called Kenilworth.

ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY (St.), patron saint of queens, being herself a queen.  Her day is July 9 (1207-1231).

ELLEN (Montgomery).  The orphaned heroine of Susan Warner’s story, The Wide, Wide World (1851.)

Ellen (Wade).  Girl of eighteen who travels and camps with the family of Ishmael Bush, although many grades above them in education and refinement.  Betrothed to Paul Hover, the bee-hunter.—­James Fennimore Cooper, The Prairie, (1827).

ELLESMERE (Mistress), the head domestic of Lady Peveril.—­Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

ELLIOTT, (Hobbie, i.e. Halbert), farmer at the Heugh-foot.  His bride-elect is Grace Armstrong.

Mrs. Elliott, Hobbie’s grandmother. John and Harry, Hobbie’s brothers.

Lilias, Jean, and Arnot, Hobbie’s sisters.—­Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

ELMO (St.). The fire of St. Elmo (Feu de Saint Elme), a comazant.  If only one appears on a ship-mast, foul weather is at hand; but if two or more, they indicate that stormy weather is about to cease.  By the Italians these comazants are called the “fires of St. Peter and St. Nicholas.”  In Latin the single fire is called “Helen,” but the two “Castor and Pollux.”  Horace says (Odes, I. xiii. 27): 

  Quorum simul alba nautis stella refulsit,
  Defluit saxis agitatus humor,
  Concident venti, fugiuntque nubes, etc.

But Longfellow makes the stella indicative of foul weather: