Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 3.pdf/32

10

My body set they to torment

And vex; God grant they may repent

One day the outrage on me done.

Alas! my death I well-nigh won

Thereby, though offered I to yield,

But ’gainst all ruth their hearts seemed steeled.

At last, their fierceness to assuage,

Proposed I that they should encage

Me with Fair-Welcome in his cell.

Danger, quoth I, whom all know well

To be a frank and generous knight,

With every gracious virtue dight,

And you, dear Shame, and kind-heart Fear,

Sweet virgins, of all blemish clear,

Who deed or word unfit would scorn,

Of Reason’s noble lineage born,

Permit me to become your slave,

And shut me close, as ’twere my grave,

Beside Fair-Welcome in the tower,

For ever helpless ’neath your power;

And loyal promise will I give

Therein contentedly to live,

And such good service render you,

As must your hearts with joy imbue.

Good Lord! if caitiff wretch I were,

A traitor, thief, or ravisher,

Or if I feared a murderer’s fate,

I scarce need ask that prison gate

Might close on one who could not fail

To find him lodged within a gaol,

For whether I would or not, pardee,

The law’s long arm would stretch to me.

And if it were adjudged that I

Should be dismembered by-and-by,