Page:The booke of thenseygnementes and techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his doughters - 1902.pdf/78



NOTHER Ensample I shalle telle yow of them that lose their masse and also to make other to lese it. I haue herd told of a knyght and of a lady that fro theyr youth took grete plaisire to slepe to fore none. And this they vsed in such manere that oftymes they lost theyr masse, and causid alle the parysshe to lose it also in whiche they dwellyd, for he was lord and patron of the parysshe, and the parson durst not withsaye hym. So it happed on a sonday that they sente to the parson that he shold tarye for them. And whan they cam, it was passed mydday. And they of the parysshe told the preest that it was past none, and therfor he durst not synge mass. And so they hadde no masse that daye, wherfore the peple of the parysshe were moche angry, but they must nedes suffre. And it happed in the same nyght that the preest had a vysyon, that hym semed that he kept a grete flock of sheep in a felde where as was no grasse. And he wold haue brought them in a pasture for to haue fedde them, where to was but one path, and in that path was a black swyn and a sowe, whiche lay ouerthwert the way; and these hogges were horned. And he had soo grete drede and fere, bothe he and his shepe, that he durst not entre in to his pasture, and anon they torned back to their feld withoute pasture. And soo they had no mete. And thenne hym thought one saide to hym, "Leuest thou to gyue pasture to thy sheep for fere of these horned beestes?" And there with al he awoke. And in lyke wyse this vysion happed the same nyght to the knyght and to the lady his wyfe, for them semed that they become a bore and a sowe, and were also horned, and that they wold not suffre the sheep to passe and goo to their pasture. And sith them semed ther cam a grete chace of black hunters, syttyng vpon grete black horses, which had with them grete quātyte of 68