e knyght,
'To pray of a lenger daye.'

106.
'Thy daye is broke,' sayd the justyce,
'Londe getest thou none.'
'Now, good syr justyce, be my frende
And fende me of my fone!'

107.
'I am holde with the abbot,' sayd the justyce,
'Both with cloth and fee.'
'Now, good syr sheryf, be my frende!'
'Nay, for God,' sayd he.

108.
'Now, good syr abbot, be my frende,
For thy curteyse,
And holde my londes in thy honde
Tyll I have made the gree!

109.
'And I wyll be thy true servaunte,
And trewely serve the,
Tyll ye have foure hondred pounde
Of money good and free.'

110.
The abbot sware a full grete othe,
'By God that dyed on a tree,
Get the londe where thou may,
For thou getest none of me.'

111.
'By dere worthy God,' then sayd the knyght,
'That all this worlde wrought,
But I have my londe agayne,
Full dere it shall be bought.

112.
'God, that was of a mayden borne,
Leve us well to spede!
For it is good to assay a frende
Or that a man have nede.'

113.
The abbot lothely on hym gan loke,
And vylaynesly hym gan call;
'Out,' he sayd, 'thou false knyght,
Spede thee out of my hall!'

114.
'Thou lyest,' then sayd the gentyll knyght,
'Abbot, in thy hal;
False knyght was I never,
By God that made us all.'

115.
Up then stode that gentyll knyght,
To the abbot sayd he,
'To suffre a knyght to knele so longe,
Thou canst no curteysye.

116.
'In joustes and in tournement
Full ferre than have I be,
And put myself as ferre in prees
As ony that ever I se.'

117.
'What wyll ye gyve more,' sayd the justyce,
'And the knyght shall make a releyse?
And elles dare I safly swere
Ye holde never your londe in pees.'

118.
'An hondred pounde,' sayd the abbot;
The justice sayd, 'Gyve hym two';
'Nay, be God,' sayd the knyght,
'Yit gete ye it not so.

119.
'Though ye wolde gyve a thousand more,
Yet were ye never the nere;
Shal there never be myn heyre
Abbot, justice, ne frere.'

120.
He stert hym to a borde anone,
Tyll a table rounde,
And there he shoke oute of a bagge
Even four hundred pound.

121.
'Have here thi golde, sir abbot,' saide the knight,
'Which that thou lentest me;
Had thou ben curtes at my comynge,
Rewarded shuldest thou have be.'

122.
The abbot sat styll, a