t may be enquired after one day, and may make our fortunes;
take care of it,' said he, 'and bring it up as if it was your own.' The
poor infant was cold, and it cried, and looked up at me so pitifully,
that I loved it; beside, my milk was troublesome to me, and I was glad
to be eased of it; so I gave it the breast, and from that hour I loved
the child as if it were my own, and so I do still if I dared to own it."

"And this is all you know of Edmund's birth?" said Oswald.

"No, not all," said Margery; "but pray look out and see whether Andrew
is coming, for I am all over in a twitter."

"He is not," said Oswald; "go on, I beseech you!"

"This happened," said she, "as I told you, on the 21st. On the morrow,
my Andrew went out early to work, along with one Robin Rouse, our
neighbour; they had not been gone above an hour, when they both came
back seemingly very much frightened. Says Andrew, 'Go you, Robin, and
borrow a pickaxe at neighbour Styles's.' What is the matter now?' said
I. 'Matter enough!' quoth Andrew; 'we may come to be hanged, perhaps, as
many an innocent man has before us.' 'Tell me what is the matter,' said
I. 'I will,' said he; 'but if ever you open your mouth about it, woe be
to you!' 'I never will,' said I; but he made me swear by all the blessed
saints in the Calendar; and then he told me, that, as Robin and he were
going over the foot-bridge, where he found the child the evening before,
they saw something floating upon the water; so they followed it, till it
stuck against a stake, and found it to be the dead body of a woman;
'as sure as you are alive, Madge,' said he, 'this was the mother of the
child I brought home.'"

"Merciful God!" said Edmund; "am I the child of that hapless mother?"

"Be composed," said Oswald; "proceed, good woman, the time is precious."

"And so," continued she, "Andrew told me they dragged the body out
of the river, and it was richly dressed, and must be somebody of
consequence. 'I suppose,' said he, 'when the poor Lady had taken care
of her child, she went to find some help; and, the night being dark, her
foot slipped, and she fell into the river, and was drowned.'

"'Lord have mercy!' said Robin, 'what shall we do with the dead body?
we may be taken up for the murder; what had we to do to meddle with it?'
'Ay, but,' says Andrew, 'we must have something to do with it now; and
our wisest way is to bury it.' Robin was sadly frightened, but at last
they agreed to carry it