sandra in old age, stood at the door.
"Where is my Ben?" she said.
"Mother!" cried Ben.
He rose and caught her in his mighty arms.
Her labour-reddened, long-boned hands entwined
Behind his neck.
"She brought this to the gaol,"
Said Chapman quietly, tossing a phial across
To Camden. "And he meant to take it, too,
Before the hangman touched him. Half an hour
And you'd have been too late to save big Ben.
He has lived too much in ancient Rome to love
A slit nose and the pillory. He'd have wrapped
His purple round him like an emperor.
I think she had another for herself."
"There's Roman blood in both of them," said Dekker,
"Don't look. She is weeping now," And, while Ben held
That gaunt old body sobbing against his heart,
Dekker, to make her think they paid no heed,
Began to sing; and very softly now.
Full forty voices echoed the refrain:--

_The Cardinal's Hat_ is a very good inn,
And so is _The Puritan's Head_;
But I know a sign of a Wine, a Wine
That is better when all is said.
It is whiter than Venus, redder than Mars,
It was old when the world begun;
For all good inns are moons or stars
But _The Mermaid_ is their Sun.

_Chorus:_ They are all alight like moons in the night,
But _The Mermaid_ is their Sun.

Therefore, when priest or parson cries
That inns like flowers increase,
I say that mine inn is a church likewise,
And I say to them "Be at peace!"
An host may gather in dark St. Paul's
To salve their souls from sin;
But the Light may be where "two or three"
Drink Wine in _The Mermaid Inn_.

_Chorus:_ The Light may be where "two or three"
Drink Wine in _The Mermaid Inn_.

VII

THE BURIAL OF A QUEEN

'Twas on an All Souls' Eve that our good Inn
--Whereof, for ten years now, myself was host--
Heard and took part in its most eerie tale.
It was a bitter night, and master Ben,
--His hair now flecked with grey, though youth still fired
His deep and ageless eyes,--in the old oak-chair,
Over the roaring hearth, puffed at his pipe;
A little sad, as often I found him now
Remembering vanished faces. Yet the years
Brought others round hi