s 'stead of little Queen's heads.
When the contents of the scroll met his view,
Sir Ingoldsby Bray in a passion grew,
Backward he drew His mailed shoe,
And he kicked that naughty Foot-page, that he flew
Like a cloth-yard shaft from a bended yew,
I may not say whither--I never knew.
"Now count the slain Upon Ascalon plain--
Go count them, my Squire, go count them again!"
"Twenty and three! There they be,
Stiff and stark on that crimson'd lea!--
Twenty and three?--Stay--let me see!
Stretched in his gore There lieth one more!
By the Pope's triple crown there are twenty and _four_!
Twenty-four trunks I ween are there
But their heads and their limbs are no-body knows where!
Ay, twenty-four corpses, I rede there be,
Though one got away, and ran up a tree!"
"Look nigher, look nigher, My trusty Squire!"
"One is the corse of a bare-footed Friar!"
Out and spake Sir Ingoldsby Bray,
"A boon, a boon, King Richard," quoth he,
"Now Heav'n thee save, A boon I crave,
A boon, Sir King, on my bended knee;
A year and a day Have I been away,
King Richard, from Ingoldsby Hall so free;
Dame Alice she sits there in lonely guise,
And she makes her moan, and she sobs and she sighs,
And tears like rain-drops fall from her eyes,
And she darneth her hose, and she crieth 'Alack!
Oh, when will Sir Ingoldsby Bray come back?'
A boon, a boon, my liege," quoth he,
"Fair Ingoldsby Hall I fain would see!"
"Rise up, rise up, Sir Ingoldsby Bray,"
King Richard said right graciously,
"Of all in my host That I love the most,
I love none better, Sir Bray, than thee!
Rise up, rise up, thou hast my boon;
But mind you make haste, and come back again soon!"
FYTTE II
Pope Gregory sits in St. Peter's chair,
Pontiff proud, I ween, is he,
And a belted Knight, In armour dight,
Is begging a boon on his bended knee,
With sighs of grief and sounds of woe,
Featly he kisseth his Holiness' toe.
"Now pardon, Holy Father, I crave,
O Holy Father, pardon and grace!
In my fury and rage A little Foot-page
I have left, I fear me, in evil case:
A scroll of shame From a faithless dame
Did that naughty Foot-page to a paramour bear:
I gave him a 'lick' With a stick, And a kick,
That sent him--I can't tell your Holiness where!
Had he as many necks as hairs,
He had broken them all down those perilous stairs!"
"Rise up, rise up, Sir Ingoldsby Bray,
Rise up, rise up, I say to thee;
A soldier,
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