othes and shelter of no kind,
Except the linden green alone;
And, save the gentle forest hind,
Had nurse and foster-mother none.
But forth on courser reeking hot
There rushed a knight of bearing bold,
And he my foster-mother shot
With arrow on the verdant wold.
He pierced the hind with mortal wound,
And all our fond connection cut;
Then wrapped his cloak my frame around,
And me within his buckler put.
That self-same knight, so bold and strong,
Within his bower the foundling bred;
He tended me both well and long,
And finally his bride he made.
He had by long inquiry found
My father was a noble count
In Vendel's land, who castles own'd,
And rul'd o'er many a plain and mount.
The first night we together slept
Was fraught with woe of darkest hue;
Foes, whom he long at bay had kept,
Broke in on us, and him they slew.
The night we lay together first
A deed of horror was fulfill'd;
The bride-house door his foemen burst,
And in my arms my husband kill'd.
Soon, soon, my friends to counsel go,
A husband new they chose for me;
The cloister's prior of mitred brow--
The good Sir Nilaus styl'd was he.
But soon as I the threshold cross'd,
The nuns could not their fury smother;
They vow'd by God and all His Host,
The Prior Nilaus was my brother.
Forth from the cloister him they drew,
They pelted him to death with stones;
I stood close by, and all could view,
I scarce could hear his piteous moans.
Once more my friends to counsel hied,
For me another spouse they get--
Son of the King of England wide
Was he, and hight Sir Engelbret.
Nine winters with that princely youth
I lived; of joy we had no dearth,
I tell to ye, for sooth and truth,
To ten fair sons that I gave birth.
But pirate crews the land beset,
No one, no one, my grief could tell;
They slew with sword Sir Engelbret,
And nine of my fair sons as well.
My husband and my sons with brand
They slew. How I bewail their case!
My tenth son here they from the land--
I never more shall see his face.
Now is my care as complicate
As golden threads which maidens spin;
God crown with bliss Sir Engelbret,
He ever was so free from sin.
But now I'll take the holy vows,
Within the cloister under Ey;
I'll ne'er become another's spouse,
But in religion I will die.
But first to all the country side
I will declare my bosom's grief;
I find, th
|