XIV “His Schoolfellow, whom he had so besought,
          As they went homeward taught him privily
          And then he sang it well and fearlessly, 95
          From word to word according to the note: 
          Twice in a day it passed through his throat;
          Homeward and schoolward whensoe’er he went,
          On Jesu’s Mother fixed was his intent.

  XV “Through all the Jewry (this before said I) 100
          This little Child, as he came to and fro,
          Full merrily then would he sing and cry,
          O Alma Redemptoris! high and low: 
          The sweetness of Christ’s Mother pierced so
          His heart, that her to praise, to her to pray, 105
          He cannot stop his singing by the way.

  XVI “The Serpent, Satan, our first foe, that hath
          His wasp’s nest in Jew’s heart, upswelled—­’O woe,
          O Hebrew people!’ said he in his wrath,
          ’Is it an honest thing?  Shall this be so? 110
          That such a Boy where’er he lists [1] shall go
          In your despite, and sing his hymns and saws,
          Which is against the reverence of our laws!’

  XVII “From that day forward have the Jews conspired
          Out of the world this Innocent to chase; 115
          And to this end a Homicide they hired,
          That in an alley had a privy place,
          And, as the Child ’gan to the school to pace,
          This cruel Jew him seized, and held him fast
          And cut his throat, and in a pit him cast. 120

  XVIII “I say that him into a pit they threw,
          A loathsome pit, whence noisome scents exhale;
          O cursed folk! away, ye Herods new! 
          What may your ill intentions you avail? 
          Murder will out; certes it will not fail; 125
          Know, that the honour of high God may spread,
          The blood cries out on your accursed deed.

  XIX “O Martyr ’stablished in virginity! 
          Now may’st thou sing for aye before the throne,
          Following the Lamb celestial,” quoth she, 130
          “Of which the great Evangelist, Saint John,
          In Patmos wrote, who saith of them that go
          Before the Lamb singing continually,
          That never fleshly woman they did know.

  XX “Now this poor widow waiteth all that night 135
          After her little Child, and he came not;
          For which, by earliest glimpse of morning light,
          With face all pale with dread and busy thought,
          She at the School and elsewhere him hath sought,
          Until thus far she learned, that he had been 140
          In the Jews’ street, and there he last was seen.