And lo with little puppies
The merry maiden play'd.

Up and down he sported,
To the green wood he sped;
Behind the Damsel hasting
In a leash the puppies led.

He sported up, he sported down,
Towards the mead he hied;
The Damsel speeding after
With hand to lure him tried.

The Damsel speeding after
With hand to lure him strove:
"That yonder lovely hart were tame
O would to God above!

"O would to God in heaven,
That yonder hart were mine!
Nothing should he ever drink
Except the rosy wine.

"Nothing should he ever drink
Except the rosy wine,
And nowhere should he slumber
Save in these arms of mine."

The knight he off has shaken
The deer shape from his frame;
In verity fair damsel,
The hart he now is tame!

Long stood she, the Damsel,
So deep reflected she:
"O for some cunning artifice
To rid me quick of thee!"

"Sir Peter, if what now I know
I had but known before,
The children I shall bear thee
They ne'er should have been poor.

"Within my father's castle
A little girl I strayed,
When in the earth a treasure
Of ruddy gold they laid.

"Down by the strand 'tis buried,
Beneath a mighty stone."
Thither to fetch the treasure
In haste Sir Peter's gone.

He has broken up the flinty rock,
So deep a hole he's made--
But none shall ever gold dig up
Where gold was never laid!

One shall never gold dig up
Where gold was never laid;
Never came together more
The knight and lovely maid.

THE STALWART MONK

Above the wood a cloister towers,
Gilt window it displays;
There lie before it Kempions twelve,
The cloister they will raze.

There lie before it Kempions twelve,
The cloister down will tear;
The oxen and the cows they slew
The monks should have for fare.

The monk he out of the window looked,
Then shook both beam and wall:
"And be the Kemps no more than twelve,
I'll easily tame them all."

The monk he called to his serving lad:
"My club go fetch me in,
For I will out to the forest straight
And make them cease their din."

It took fifteen to bring the club,
And they strain'd all their might;
The monk took it up with fingers two
And swung it round so light.

He tak