When they were come almost to that citý, But if it were a two furlong or three, A young clerk roaming by himself they met, Which that in Latin thriftily them gret. And after that he said a wondrous thing; “I know,” quoth he, “the cause of your comíng;” And ere they farther any footë went, He told them all that was in their intent. The Breton clerk him asked of felláws The which he haddë known in oldë daws, And he answér’d him that they deadë were, For which he wept full often many a tear. Down off his horse Aurelius light anon, And forth with this magician is be gone Home to his house, and made him well at ease; Them lacked no vitáil that might them please. So well-array’d a house as there was one, Aurelius in his life saw never none. He shewed him, ere they went to suppére, Forestës, parkës, full of wildë deer. There saw he hartës with their hornës high, The greatest that were ever seen with eye. He saw of them an hundred slain with hounds, And some with arrows bleed of bitter wounds. He saw, when voided were the wildë deer, These falconers upon a fair rivére, That with their hawkës have the heron slain. Then saw he knightës jousting in a plain. And after this he did him such pleasánce, That he him shew’d his lady on a dance, In which himselfë danced, as him thought. And when this master, that this magic wrought, Saw it was time, he clapp’d his handës two, And farewell, all the revel is y-go. And yet remov’d they never out of the house, While they saw all the sightës marvelloús; But in his study, where his bookës be, They sattë still, and no wight but they three.
To him this master called his squiér, And said him thus, “May we go to suppér? Almost an hour it is, I undertake, Since I you bade our supper for to make, When that these worthy men wentë with me Into my study, where my bookës be.” “Sir,” quoth this squiër, “when it liketh you. It is all ready, though ye will right now.” “Go we then sup,” quoth he, “as for the best; These amorous folk some time must have rest.” At after supper fell they in treatý What summë should this master’s guerdon be, To remove all the rockës of Bretágne, And eke from Gironde to the mouth of Seine. He made it strange, and swore, so God him save, Less than a