Page:Early poems of William Morris.djvu/85



This weighty matter out; there—we've no stone To mend our walls with,—neither brick nor stone.

There is a quarry, sir, some ten miles off.

We are not strong enough to send ten men Ten miles to fetch us stone enough to build, In three hours' time they would be taken or slain, The cursed Frenchmen ride abroad so thick.

But we can send some villaynes to get stone.

Alas! John, that we cannot bring them back. They would go off to Clisson or Sanxere, And tell them we were weak in walls and men, Then down go we; for, look you, times are changed, And now no longer does the country shake At sound of English names; our captains fade From off our muster-rolls. At Lusac bridge I dare say you may even yet see the hole That Chandos beat in dying; far in Spain Pembroke is prisoner; Phelton prisoner here; Manny lies buried in the Charterhouse; Oliver Clisson turn'd these years agone; The Captal died in prison; and, over all,