Page:Fisherman's garland, or, The cruel knight (2).pdf/4

 And being well pleased with what We had done,

He leap'd on hi horse and quickly went home.

But mark how kind Fortune did further provide.

The child she was driven on her hack by the tides,

There was a man sitting as Fortune would have.

Which saw the child floating upon the salt waves.

He soon took her out and was in amaze

He kiss’d her and bless her and on her did gaze,

And seeing he ne’er had a child in his life,

He presently carry’d her home to his wife,

His wife was well pleased the child for to see,

And said, my dear huband, be ruled by me,

Since we’ve ne’er bad a child if you’ll let me alone,

We’ll keep the sweet babe and tall it our own.

The goodman consented as I have been told,

And spared neither bright silver nor gold,

Until she was aged eleven full years,

And then her sweet beauty began to appear,

HE fisherman was one time at an inn,

And several gentlemen drinking with him

His wife sent the girl to call her man home,

Set when she'did into the drinking room come,

The gentlemen all were amazed to see,

The Fisherman’s Daughter so full of Beauty,

They asked him quickly if she was his own:

Who told the whole story before he went home

As I was a bathing within my own bound,

On a monday morning this sweet Babe I found;

’Tis eleven years past since her life I did save,

Or else she had lain in a watery grave

The cruel knight was in the same company,

And seeing the fisherman tell the story,

He was vex’d to the heart to see her alive.

And how to destroy her again did contrive.