The Whole Prophecies of Scotland, England, Ireland, France & Denmark/Chapter 3
The Prophecie of Merling.
IT is to fall when they it find,
That fell on face is fain to flee;
That commedore of ſtordlings striendie,
Waving through the work of wind:
The bear his muſſel ſhall upbind,
And never after bound ſhall be,
Away the other ſhall wave with wind,
And as they come ſo ſhall they flee.
Syce ſhall up, and ſink ſhall under;
The dead ſhall riſe and work great wonder;
And joy ſhall riſe to man and wife;
The sorrowful shall ſtill of ſtrife;
All men shall joy of his reſurrection,
And in ſpecial men of religion,
The morter is ready, the peſtle alſo,
The ſauce ſhall be bitter, and that to his foe;
And the devils alſo ſhall helpen to.
Then the banks of Beil ſhall bloom all about;
Then hie the Hurcheon to Hales, and cloſe thee therein,
Thou ſhalt be werped with a wind, and plucked ilk pen,
Shall never down on thy ſkin nor birs be thee left.
The thunder ſhall work thy hold to the cold earth,
Shall never ſtone upon ſtone nor ground be thee left,
And ſo that wretched work is deſtroyed for ever.
There ſhall a galyart goat with a golden horn,
A pilledow with a toad, ſuch a prime hold,
With their peers in place by a ſtream ſide;
To ſtrive with the ſtream, but they no ſtrength have,
For their moving they meet in the mid-way,
All the grooms ſhall grunch by the way-ſide,
And many bairn ſhall have his byth on the back-ſide,
And that marvell ſhall fall by a fyrth-ſide,
Where the leader of the land ſhall his life loſe;
But that bargain ſhall brew in a bare brough,
That ſhall banish from bliſs many bright helm,
When it is bireved of his back, and his brief known,
Of dum organs dight, then may thou well deem.
Of all the weil and the wealth before them was wrought
With hunger and hireſhip on every hill:
Yet this wicked world ſhall laſt but a while;
While a chiftain unchoſen chooſe forth himſelf,
And ride over the region, and for Roy holden:
Then his ſcutifiers ſhall ſkail all the fair ſouth,
From Dumbarton to Dover and deal all the lands:
He ſhall be kid conqueror, for he is kind Lord,
Of all Britain that bounds to the broad sea.
The conqueſſing ſhall be keeped, and never conqueſt after.
By the coſt ye ſhall know when the knight comes,
He has a mark in the middle, where no man may know;
When he is in the eaſt when the ſun riſeth,
He has a ſign ſhall ſhew on the ſouth-ſide.
Signum venenaſi ſanguinus de ventre matris ſue,
All Wales I wiſh ſhall wend with that Roy,
For to work his will, where he think would,
Guaine Gaſkonigne, and Britain the blyth,
Shall buſk to his bidding on their beſt wise:
The whole men will help in his moſt height,
Then ſhall he turn into tuſkane but treaty or true,
And busk him over the mountains on midwinter even,
And then go to Rome, and rug down the walls,
And over all the region Roy ſhall be holden.
Oft this book have I ſeen, and better thereafter,
Of marvellous Merling, but is waſted away,
With a wicked woman woe might ſhe be.