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Rh

EHOLD you now neath what pretence

False-Seeming came with Abstinence

’Gainst Evil-Tongue. The wily twain

Held counsel how they best might gain

Their ends—in open guise to go,

Or hid beneath some cozening show;

And after much debate agreed,

That better ’twould their errand speed

If they began the war to wage

Disguised as folk on pilgrimage,

With air of holy innocence.

Forthwith Constrainèd-Abstinence

Appeared as a demure Beguine,

Attired in robe of cameline,

With fair white kerchief round her head,

The while with saintly look she read

Her psalter. At her waist was hung

A paternoster, thereto strung

By girdle-cord of purest white.

She had not bought it, but was dight

Therewith most kindly by a friar,

Her spiritual guide and sire,

And she from him gat more behoof

Than any neath the convent’s roof,

While he too loved to visit her

As holy guide and sermoner.