"Ah, Sir Launcelot!
thou wert head of all Christian knights; now there thou liest: thou
wert never matched of none earthly knights-hands. And thou wert the
curtiest knight that ever bare shield. And thou wert the truest friend
to thy lover that ever bestrood horse; and thou wert the truest lover
of a sinfull man that ever loved woman. And thou wert the kindest man
that ever strook with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that
ever came among the presse of knights. And thou wert the meekest man
and the gentlest that ever eate in hall among ladies. And thou wert
the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put speare in the
rest."
FORTUNE-TELLING.
Each city, each town, and every village,
Affords us either an alms or pillage.
And if the weather be cold and raw.
Then in a barn we tumble on straw.
If warm and fair, by yea-cock and nay-cock,
The fields will afford us a hedge or a hay-cock.
--_Merry Beggars_.
As I was walking one evening with the Oxonian, Master Simon, and the
general, in a meadow not far from the village, we heard the sound of a
fiddle, rudely played, and looking in the direction from whence it
came, we saw a thread of smoke curling up from among the trees.
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