_pel_,[48] as it was, _byfold_[49]
And blessed it with all her might.
With that it gan to dowe light.
The fowles up, and sung on bough,
And acre-men yede to the plough,
The maiden turned again anon,
And took the way she had ere gon.
The porter of the abbey arose,
And did his office in the close;
Rung the bells and tapers light,
Laid forth books, and all ready dight.
The church door be undid,
And seigh anon, in the _stede_,[50]
The pel liggen in the tree,
And thought well that it might be,
That thieves had y-robbed somewhere,
And gone there forth, and let it there.
Therto he yede, and it unwound,
And the maiden child therin he found.
He took it up between his honde,
And thanked Jesu Christes sonde,
And home to his house he it brought,
And took it to his daughter, and her besought
That she should keep it as she con,
For she was _melche, and couthe thon._[51]
She bade it suck, and it wold,
For it was nigh dead for cold.
Anon, fire she a-light,
And warmed it well _aplight_,[52]
She gave it suck upon her _barm_,[53]
And siththen, laid it to sleep warm.
And when the mass was y-done,
The porter to the abbesse com full soon.
"Madame, what rede ye of this thinge?
To-day, right in the morning,
Soon after the first _stound_,[54]
A little maiden child ich found
In hollow ash thin out
And a pel her about;
A ring of gold also was there;
How it came thither I wot ne'er."
The abbesse was a-wondered of this thing.
"Go," she said, "on _hying_[55]
And fetch it hither, I pray thee;
It is welcome to God and me.
Ich will it helpen as I can,
And segge it to my kinswoman."
The porter anon it gan forth bring,
With the pel, and with the ring.
The abbesse let clepe a priest anon,
And let it christen in function.
And for it was in an ash y-found,
She cleped it _Frain_ in that stound.
The name[56] of the ash is a frain,
After the language of Bretayn;
_Forthy_[57] Le Frain men clepeth this lay,
More than ash, in each country.
This Frain thriv'd from year to year;
The abbess niece men ween'd it were.
The abbess her gan teach, and _beld._[58]
By that she was twelve winter eld,
In all England there was none
A fairer maiden than she was one.
And when she couthe ought of _