His tangled Hebrew beard
Which to his waist came down,
Was now a pair of whiskers fair-
His name ADOLPHUS BROWN!

He wedded in a year,

That prelate's daughter JANE,

He's grown quite fair-has auburn hair-His wife is far from plain.

Bab

THE TROUBADOUR.

A

TROUBADOUR he played
Without a castle wall,
Within, a hapless maid
Responded to his call.

“Oh, willow, woe is me!
Alack and well-a-day!
If I were only free

I'd hie me far away!"

Unknown her face and name,
But this he knew right well,
The maiden's wailing came
From out a dungeon cell.

A hapless woman lay

Within that dungeon grimThat fact, I've heard him say, Was quite enough for him.

"I will not sit or lie,

Or eat or drink, I vow,
Till thou art free as I,
Or I as pent as thou!"

Her tears then ceased to flow,
Her wails no longer rang,
And tuneful in her woe

The prisoned maiden sang:

"Oh, stranger, as you play I recognise your touch; And all that I can say,

Is thank you very much!"

He seized his clarion straight,
And blew thereat, until

A warden oped the gate,

66

Oh, what might be your will ?”

"I've come, sir knave, to see

The master of these halls:

A maid unwillingly

Lies prisoned in their walls."

With barely stifled sigh

That porter drooped his head,

With teardrops in his eye, "A many, sir," he said.

He stayed to hear no more,
But pushed that porter by,
And shortly stood before

SIR HUGH DE PECKHAM RYE.

SIR HUGH he darkly frowned,
"What would you, sir, with me?"
The troubadour he downed
Upon his bended knee.

"I've come, DE PECKHAM RYE,
To do a Christian task,
You ask me what would I?
It is not much I ask.

"Release these maidens, sir,
Whom you dominion o'er-
Particularly her

Upon the second floor!

"And if you don't my lord".

He here stood bolt upright, And tapped a tailor's sword"Come out, you cad, and fight!"

SIR HUGH he called--and ran The warden from the gate; "Go, show this gentleman The maid in forty-eight."

By many a cell they past

And stopped at length before A portal, bolted fast:

The man unlocked the door.

He called inside the gate

With coarse and brutal shout, "Come, step it, forty-eight!" And forty-eight stepped out.