Page:The Ingoldsby Legends (Frowde, 1905).pdf/193

 There's a cry and a shout,

And a deuce of a rout,

And nobody seems to know what they're about,

But the Monks have their pockets all turn'd inside out.

The Friars are kneeling,

And hunting, and feeling

The carpet, the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling.

The Cardinal drew

Off each plum-colour'd shoe,

And left his red stockings exposed to the view;

He peeps, and he feels

In the toes and the heels;

They turn up the dishes,—they turn up the plates,—

They take up the poker and poke out the grates,

—They turn up the rugs,

They examine the mugs:—

But, no!—no such thing;—

They can't find !

And the Abbott declared that, 'when nobody twigg'd it,

Some rascal or other had popp'd in, and prigg'd it!'

The Cardinal rose with a dignified look,

He call'd for his candle, his bell, and his book!

In holy anger, and pious grief,

He solemnly cursed that rascally thief!

He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed;

From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head;

He cursed him in sleeping, that every night

He should dream of the devil, and wake in a fright;

He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking,

He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking;

He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying;

He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying,

He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying!—

Never was heard such a terrible curse!!

But what gave rise

To no little surprise,

Nobody seem'd one penny the worse!

The day was gone,

The night came on,

The Monks and the Friars they search'd till dawn;

When the Sacristan saw,

On crumpled claw,

Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw!

No longer gay,

As on yesterday;

His feathers all seem'd to be turn'd the wrong way;—

His pinions droop'd—he could hardly stand,—