Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/117

 with your grievous weeping? Are you envious of my honour and success, that you thus wail and lament? or hath any one offended you? Let me know, if your wrong can be repaired: likewise the reason of your being clad in this woful black.'

The eldest lady of the party, whom it was ruth and pity to see and hear, then spake: 'We do not grieve, my lord, at the success of your victory, your glory, and your honour; but we beseech of your mercy help and succour: have compassion upon our woe and our distress! In thy gentle nature let fall one drop of pity upon us wretched women; for of a truth, my lord, there is not one of us all but she has been either a Duchess or a Queen; now, thanks to the falsehood of fortune, with whom no lot is steadfast, we are both miserable and desolate. For fifteen days past have we waited your home-coming, here in the temple of the Goddess Clemency: let not our errand fail, but aid us since you have the power.

'I, miserable creature, was formerly wife to King Capaneus who perished at Thebes; and