EVIOT, page to Sir John Ramorny (master of the horse to Prince Robert of Scotland).—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

EVIR-ALLEN, the white-armed daughter of Branno, an Irishman.  “A thousand heroes sought the maid; she refused her love to a thousand.  The sons of the sword were despised, for graceful in her eyes was Ossian.”  This Evir-Allen was the mother of Oscar, Fingal’s grandson, but she was not alive when Fingal went to Ireland to assist Cormac against the invading Norsemen, which forms the subject of the poem called Fingal, in six books.—­Ossian, Fingal, iv.

EW’AIN (Sir), son of King Vrience and Morgan le Fay (Arthur’s half-sister).—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 72 (1470).

EWAN OF BRIGGLANDS, a horse soldier in the army of Montrose.—­Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

EWART (Nanty i.e. Anthony), captain of the smuggler’s brig.  Sir W. Scott Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

EXCAL’IBUR, King Arthur’s famous swords.  There seems to have been two of his swords so called.  One was the sword sheathed in stone, which no one could draw thence, save he who was to be king of the land.  Above 200 knights tried to release it, but failed; Arthur alone could draw it with ease, and thus proved his right of succession (pt. i. 3).  In ch. 7 this sword is called Excalibur, and is said to have been so bright “that it gave light like thirty torches.”  After his fight with Pellinore, the king said to Merlin he had no sword, and Merlin took him to a lake, and Arthur saw an arm “clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in the hand.”  Presently the Lady of the Lake appeared, and Arthur begged that he might have the sword, and the lady told him to go and fetch it.  When he came to it he took it, “and the arm and hand went under the water again.”  This is the sword generally called Excalibur.  When about to die, King Arthur sent an attendant to cast the sword back again into the lake, and again the hand “clothed in white samite” appeared, caught it, and disappeared (ch. 23).—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 3, 23 (1470).

  King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur,
  Wrought by the lonely maiden of the lake;
  Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps,
  Upon the hidden bases of the hills.

Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur.

Excalibur’s Sheath.  “Sir,” said Merlin, “look that ye keep well the scabbard of Excalibur, for ye shall lose no blood as long as ye have the scabbard upon you, though ye have never so many wounds.”—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 36 (1470).

EXECUTIONER (No).  When Francis, viscount d’Aspremont, governor of Bayonne, was commanded by Charles IX. of France to massacre the Huguenots, he replied, “Sire, there are many under my government devoted to your majesty, but not a single executioner.”