“Keepë this child, all be it foul or fair, And eke my wife, unto mine homecoming: Christ when him list may send to me an heir, More agreeáble than this to my liking.” This letter he sealed, privily weeping. Which to the messenger was taken soon, And forth he went, there is no more to do’n.
O messenger full fill’d of drunkenness, Strong is thy breath, thy limbës falter aye, And thou betrayest allë secretness; Thy mind is lorn, thou janglest as a jay; Thy face is turned in a new array; Where drunkenness reigneth in any rout, There is no counsel hid, withoutë doubt.
O Donegild, I have no English dign Unto thy malice, and thy tyranny: And therefore to the fiend I thee resign, Let him indite of all thy treachery. Fy, mannish, fy! O nay, by God I lie; Fy, fiendlike spirit! for I dare well tell, Though thou here walk, thy spirit is in hell.
This messenger came from the king again, And at the kingë’s mother’s court he light, And she was of this messenger full fain, And pleased him in all that e’er she might. He drank, and well his girdle underpight; He slept, and eke he snored in his guise All night, until the sun began to rise.
Eft were his letters stolen every one, And counterfeited letters in this wise: The king commanded his Constable anon, On pain of hanging and of high jewíse, That he should suffer in no manner wise Constance within his regne for to abide Three dayës, and a quarter of a tide;
But in the samë ship as he her fand, Her and her youngë son, and all her gear, He shouldë put, and crowd her from the land, And charge her, that she never eft come there. O my Constance, well may thy ghost have fear, And sleeping in thy dream be in penánce, When Donegild cast all this ordinance.