III.

The miscreant clerk once more he came,
As she wept in her bower, to the peerless dame.

"O lady, with weeping night and day,
Your beauty is fading fast away."

"And what care I though it fading be,
When my own dear lord comes not to me!"

"Thy own dear lord has, I fancy, wed
Another ere this, or else he's dead.

"The Moorish maidens though dark are fair,
And gold in plenty have got to spare;

"The Moorish chiefs on the battle plain
Thousands as valiant as he have slain.

"If he's wed another—Oh curse, not fret;
Or, if he's dead—why straight forget!"

"If he's wed another I'll die," she said;
"And I'll die likewise, if he be dead!"

"In case one chances to lose the key,
No need for burning the box, I see.

"'Twere wiser, if I might speak my mind
A new and a better key to find."

"Now hold, thou wretched clerk, thy tongue,
'Tis foul with lewdness—more rotten than dung."

As soon as the clerk thus answered she,
He stole to the stable secretly.

He looked at his lord's own favourite steed,
Unmatched for beauty, for strength and speed;

"White as an egg, and more smooth to touch,
Light as a bird, and for fire none such;

On nought had she fed since she was born,
Save fine chopped heath and the best of corn.

Awhile the bonny white mare he eyed,
Then struck his dirk in her velvet side;

And when the bonny white mare lay dead,
Again to the Count he wrote and said:

"Of a fresh mischance I now send word,
But let it not vex thee much, dear lord;

"Hasting back from a revel last night,
My lady rode on thy favourite white—

"So hotly rode, it stumbled and fell,
And broke both legs as I grieve to tell."

The Count then answered, "Ah! woe is me
My bonny white mare no more to see?

"My mare she has killed; my hound killed too;
Good cousin now give her council true.

"Yet scold her not either; but say from me,
To no more revels at night must she.

"Not horses' legs alone, I fear,
But wively vows may be broken there!"

IV.

The clerk a few days let pass and then
Back to the charge returned agen.

"Lady, now yield, or you die!" said he:
"Choose which you will—choose speedily!"

"Ten thousand deaths would I rather die,
Than shame upon me my God should cry!"

The clerk when he saw he nought might gain,
No more could his smothered wrath contain;

So soon as those words had left her tongue,
His dagger right at her head he flung.

But swift her white angel, hovering nigh,
Turned it aside as it flashed her by.

The lady straight to her chamber flew,
And bolt and bar behind her drew.

The clerk his dagger snatched up and shook,
And grinned with an angry ban-dog's look.

Down the broad stairs in his rage came he,
Two steps at a time, two steps and three.

Then on to the nurse's room he crept,
Where softly the winsome baby slept—

Softly, and sweetly, and all alone:
One arm from the silken cradle thrown—

One little round arm just o'er it laid,
Folded the other beneath his head;

His little white breast—ah! hush! be still!
Poor mother, go now and weep your fill!

Away to his room the clerk then sped,
And wrote a letter in black and red;

In haste, post haste, to the Count wrote he:
"There is need, dear lord, sore need of thee!

"Oh speed now, speed, to thy castle back,
For all runs riot, and runs to wrack.

"Thy hound is killed, and thy mare is killed,
But not for these with grief I'm filled.

"Nor is it for these thou wilt care;
Thy darling is dead! thy son, thy heir!

"The sow she seized and devoured him all,
While thy wife was dancing at the ball;

"Dancing there with the miller gay,
Her young gallant, as the people say."

V.

That letter came to the valiant knight,
Hastening home from the Paynim fight;

With trumpet sound, from the Eastern strand,
Hastening home to his own dear land.

So soon as he read the missive through,
Fearful to see his anger grew.

The scroll in his mailed hand he took,
And crumpled it up with a furious look;

To bits with his teeth he tore the sheet,
And spat them out at his horse's feet.

"Now quick to Brittany, quick, my men,
The homes that you love to see again!

"Thou loitering squire! ride yet more quick,
Or my lance shall teach thee how to prick!"

But when he stood at his castle gate,
Three lordly blows he struck it straight;

Three angry blows he struck thereon,
Which made them tremble every one.

The clerk he heard, and down he hied,
And opened at once the portal wide.

"Oh cursed cousin, that this should be!
Did I not trust my wife to thee?"