Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 3.pdf/24

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From thence the hag betook her straight,

And I ran towards the postern gate

She’d told of, putting up a prayer

To God for safe arrival where

I fain would be. I spake no word,

But joy supreme within me stirred

To find the door ajar, and in

I sprang, then fixed again the pin,

Breathing more freely, since I knew

That Evil-Tongue his guerdon due

Had gained, and in the moat lay dead;

Then erst was death to joyance wed.

There I espied the broken door,

And, passing through, beheld before

Mine eyes the God of Love and all

The host that had obeyed his call

For my behoof; what thanks I owe

To those who brake that doorway through!

God and Saint Benet help and speed

The men who did that worthy deed.

They hight: False-Seeming, traitor vile,

Son of Hypocrisy by Guile

Or Lying, who with Virtue wars.

And oft-times deals her ugly scars.

Next stood Constrainèd-Abstinence,

Friend of False-Seeming, and who thence

By him with Antichrist is great,

E’en as the holy books relate.

In any case I raised a prayer,

For them since they so friendly were.

Would one his soul to treachery trim,

False-Seeming master is for him;