In silver frocks
Do flout the sonsy clover;
The humble bee
Consorts wi' me
And hails me for a rover.

"Then trip, then trip,
And if ye slip
Your lad will lend a hand O;
The lass in green
With black, black een,
Is the fairest in the land O."

And as the earl listened methought he would have fallen, grasping my
shoulder, old man as I was, and bending down his head upon it. And I did
stay him with my arm, as though he had been my very son--for old age is
father to all men.

So my lady comes in, with her gold hair blowing, and her white kirtle
full of red roses, and seeing her lord goes to meet him. But when she
noted the soldierly fashioning of his dress, and the sword girt at his
thigh, she opened her lips as though to cry out, but no sound escaped
them. And her kirtle slipped from her hold, and the red roses lay
between them like a pool of blood.

Then she saith unto him, "Tell me. Quick, quick!"

And he lifts her to him, and saith, "Sweetheart, my Queen hath bidden me
come fight for her and for my country."

And she saith naught, only clasps him.

But by-and-by she cries out, saying, "Go not! Go not! Else wilt thou
kill me." And so speaking, falls like one dead at her lord's feet.

Then I, running like one distraught to fetch Marian, do tilt pell-mell
into Lord Robert, who hath come down to Amhurste for a week or so of
rest.

"Heydey!" quoth he. "What Jack-a-lent hath frighted thee?" And I told
him all. Never a word said he, but went straightway and got upon his
horse, and clapped spurs to its sides, and so out of sight.

And all that night my lady lay nigh to death, so that there was ne'er a
thought in the breast of any for another soul. Therefore Lord Robert was
not missed.

Ere two days were past came a man with despatches, and we found out how
that Lord Robert had substituted himself for the earl (having acquainted
the Queen with the circumstances--and he being, moreover, so great a
favorite), and how the Queen had granted Lord Denbeigh leave to remain
in England a while longer.

And so his lordship was with his lady when their child was born, but
Lord Robert was killed in the wars.

They grieved sore for him, and for many weeks would not be comforted.
And even it was said that the Queen mourned for him, and did banish all
festivities from court for the space of several