“I love you well, my queen, my dame;
   “’Tis truth that I do tell: 
  “And for to lye a night with you,
   “The salt seas I would sail.”

  “Away, away, O Rodingham! 
   “You are both stark and stoor;
  “Would you defile the king’s own bed,
   “And make his queen a whore?

  “To-morrow you’d be taken sure,
   “And like a traitor slain;
  “And I’d be burned at a stake,
   “Altho’ I be the queen.”

  He then stepp’d out at her room-door,
   All in an angry mood;
  Until he met a leper-man,
   Just by the hard way-side.

  He intoxicate the leper-man
   With liquors very sweet;
  And gave him more and more to drink,
   Until he fell asleep.

  He took him in his arms two,
   And carried him along,
  Till he came to the queen’s own bed,
   And there he laid him down.

  He then stepp’d out of the queen’s bower,
   As switt as any roe,
  Till he came to the very place
   Where the king himself did go.

  The king said unto Rodingham,
   “What news have you to me?”
  He said, “Your queen’s a false woman,
   “As I did plainly see.”

  He hasten’d to the queen’s chamber,
   So costly and so fine,
  Untill he came to the queen’s own bed,
   Where the leper-man was lain.

  He looked on the leper-man,
   Who lay on his queen’s bed;
  He lifted up the snaw-white sheets,
   And thus he to him said: 

  “Plooky, plooky,[A] are your cheeks,
   “And plooky is your chin,
  “And plooky are your arms two
   “My bonny queen’s layne in.

  “Since she has lain into your arms,
   “She shall not lye in mine;
  “Since she has kiss’d your ugsome mouth,
   “She never shall kiss mine.”

  In anger he went to the queen,
   Who fell upon her knee;
  He said, “You false, unchaste woman,
   “What’s this you’ve done to me?”

  The queen then turn’d herself about,
   The tear blinded her e’e—­
  There’s not a knight in all your court
   “Dare give that name to me.”

  He said, “’Tis true that I do say;
   “For I a proof did make: 
  “You shall be taken from my bower,
   “And burned at a stake.

  “Perhaps I’ll take my word again,
   “And may repent the same,
  “If that you’ll get a Christian man
   “To fight that Rodingham.”

  “Alas! alas!” then cried our queen,
   “Alas, and woe to me! 
  “There’s not a man in all Scotland
   “Will fight with him for me.”

  She breathed unto her messengers,
   Sent them south, east, and west;
  They could find none to fight with him,
   Nor enter the contest.

  She breathed on her messengers,
   She sent them to the north;
  And there they found Sir Hugh le Blond,
   To fight him he came forth.

  When unto him they did unfold
   The circumstance all right,
  He bade them go and tell the queen,
   That for her he would fight.