And wist not how for to rise
Whereof in many a sundry wise
He cast his wit-es here and there,
He looketh nigh, he looketh far.
Fell on a tim-e that he come
Into the temple, and heed nome[1]
Where that the god Apollo stood;
He saw the riches, and the good;[2]
And thought he wold-e by some way,
The treasure pick and steal away.
And thereupon so slily wrought,
That his purpóse about he brought.
And went away unaperceived:
Thus hath the man his god deceived—
His ring, his mantle, and his beard,
As he which nothing was afeard,
All privily with him he bare;
And when the wardens were aware
Of that, their god despoiled was.
They thought it was a wondrous case,
How that a man for any weal,
Durst in so holy plac-e steal,
And nam-e-ly, so great a thing!—
This tale cam-e unto the king,
And was through spoken over-all.
But for to know in special,
What manner man hath done the deed,
They soughten help upon the need,
And maden calculatión,
Whereof by demonstratión
The man was found-e with the good.
In judgment, and when he stood,
The king hath asked of him thus—
"Say, thou unsely[3] Lucius,
Why hast thou done this sacrilege?"
"My lord, if I the cause allege,"
(Quoth he again,) "me-thinketh this.
That I have done nothíng amiss.
Three points there be, which I have do,
Whereof the first-e point stands so,
That I the ring have ta'en away—
Unto this point this will I say."
When I the god beheld about,
I saw how he his hand stretched out,
And proffered me the ring to yeve;[4]
And I, which wold-e gladly live
Out of povérte thro' his largéss,
It underfang,[5] so that I guess;
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Notes.
