Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/460



Every day the starving poor Crowded around Bishop Hatto’s door, For he had a plentiful last year’s store; And all the neighbourhood could tell His granaries were furnish’d well.”

Wearied by the cries of the famishing people, the Bishop appointed a day, whereon he undertook to quiet them. He bade all who were without bread, and the means to purchase it at its then high rate repair to his great barn. From all quarters, far and near, the poor hungry folk flocked into Kaub, and were admitted into the barn, till it was as full of people as it could be made to contain.

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 returned 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 enter’d 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.”

Then there came a man to him from his farm,