The Babes in the Wood

187

God never prosper me nor mine,
Nor aught else that I have,
If I do wrong your children dear,
When you are laid in grave."

The parents being dead and gone,
The children home he takes,

And brings them straight into his house,
Where much of them he makes.

He had not kept these pretty babes
A twelvemonth and a day,

But, for their wealth, he did devise
To make them both away.

He bargained with two ruffians strong,
Which were of furious mood,

That they should take these children young,

And slay them in a wood.

He told his wife an artful tale,

He would the children send

To be brought up in fair London,
With one that was his friend.

Away then went these pretty babes,
Rejoicing at that tide,
Rejoicing with a merry mind,

They should on cock-horse ride.
They prate and prattle pleasantly,
As they rode on the way,

To those that should their butchers be,:
And work their lives' decay:

So that the pretty speech they had,
Made Murder's heart relent;
And they that undertook the deed,

Full sore did now repent.

Yet one of them more hard of heart,
Did vow to do his charge,

Because the wretch that hired him,
Had paid him very large.

The other won't agree thereto,
So here they fall to strife;
With one another they did fight,
About the children's life:
And he that was of mildest mood,
Did slay the other there,
Within an unfrequented wood;

The babes did quake for fear!

He took the children by the hand,
Tears standing in their eye,
And bade them straightway follow him,

And look they did not cry:

And two long miles he led them on,

While they for food complain:

"Stay here," quoth he, "I'll bring you bread, When I come back again."

These pretty babes, with hand in hand,

Went wandering up and down,
But never more could see the man

Approaching from the town;
Their pretty lips with black-berries
Were all besmeared and dyed,
And, when they saw the darksome night,
They sat them down and cried.

Thus wandered these poor innocents,
Till death did end their grief;
In one another's arms they died,
As wanting due relief:

No burial this pretty pair

Of any man receives,

Till Robin-red-breast piously

Did cover them with leaves.

And now the heavy wrath of God

Upon their uncle fell;

Yea, fearful fiends did haunt his house,

His conscience felt an hell:

God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop 189

His barns were fired, his goods consumed,
His lands were barren made,

His cattle died within the field,

And nothing with him stayed.

And in a voyage to Portugal
Two of his sons did die;

And, to conclude, himself was brought
To want and misery:

He pawned and mortgaged all his land
Ere seven years came about,

And now at length his wicked act
Did by this means come out:

The fellow, that did take in hand
These children for to kill,
Was for a robbery judged to die,
Such was God's blessed will:
Who did confess the very truth
As here hath been displayed:
Their uncle having died in jail,
Where he for debt was laid.

You that executors be made,
And overseers eke

Of children that be fatherless,
And infants mild and meek;
Take you example by this thing,
And yield to each his right,
Lest God with such like misery

Your wicked minds requite.

Unknown

GOD'S JUDGMENT ON A WICKED BISHOP

THE summer and autumn had been so wet,
That in winter the corn was growing yet:
'Twas a piteous sight to see,

all around,

The grain lie rotting on the ground.

Every day the starving poor

Crowded around Bishop Hatto's door;
For he had a plentiful last-year's store,
And all the neighborhood could tell
His granaries were furnished well.

At last Bishop Hatto appointed a day

To quiet the poor without delay;

He bade them to his great barn repair,

And they should have food for the winter there.

Rejoiced such tidings good to hear,

The poor folk flocked from far and near;
The great barn was full as it could hold

Of women and children, and young and old.

Then, when he saw it could hold no more, /.
Bishop Hatto he made fast the door;
And, while for mercy on Christ they call,
He set fire to the barn, and burnt them all.

"I' faith, 'tis an excellent bonfire!" quoth he;
"And the country is greatly obliged to me
For ridding it, in these times forlorn,
Of rats that only consume the corn."

So then to his palace returnèd he,
And he sat down to supper merrily,
And he slept that night like an innocent man;
But Bishop Hatto never slept again.

In the morning, as he entered the hall,
Where his picture hung against the wall,
A sweat like death all over him came,

For the rats had eaten it out of the frame.

As he looked, there came a man from his farm,

He had a countenance white with alarm:

"My Lord, I opened your granaries this morn,

And the rats had eaten all your corn."

God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop 191.

Another came running presently,
And he was pale as pale could be.
"Fly! my Lord Bishop, fly!" quoth he,
"Ten thousand rats are coming this way,-
The Lord forgive you for yesterday!"

"I'll go to my tower in the Rhine," replied he;
"Tis the safest place in Germany,-

The walls are high, and the shores are steep,
And the tide is strong, and the water deep."

Bishop Hatto fearfully hastened away,
And he crossed the Rhine without delay,
And reached his tower, and barred with care
All the windows, and doors, and loop-holes there.

He laid him down and closed his eyes,
But soon a scream made him arise;
He started, and saw two eyes of flame

On his pillow, from whence the screaming came.

He listened and looked,-it was only the cat;
But the Bishop he grew more fearful for that,
For she sat screaming, mad with fear,
At the army of rats that were drawing near.

For they have swum over the river so deep,
And they have climbed the shores so steep,
And now by thousands up they crawl

To the holes and the windows in the wall.

Down on his knees the Bishop fell,

And faster and faster his beads did he tell,
As louder and louder, drawing near,

The saw of their teeth without he could hear.

And in at the windows, and in at the door,
And through the walls by thousands they pour;
And down from the ceiling and up through the floor,

From the right and the left, from behind and before,
From within and without, from above and below,-
And all at once to the Bishop they go.