"
HE.
"For an out-law, this is the law,
That men him take and bind;
Without pit-ie, hang-ed to be,
And waver with the wind.
If I had nede (as God forbede!)
What rescues could ye find?
Forsooth, I trow, you and your bow
Should draw for fear behind.
And no mervayle: for little avail
Were in your counsel than:
Wherefore I to the wood will go,
Alone, a banished man."
SHE
"Full well know ye, that women be
Full feeble for to fight;
No womanhede it is indeed
To be bold as a knight;
Yet, in such fear if that ye were
Among enemies day and night,
I would withstand, with bow in hand,
To grieve them as I might,
And you to save; as women have
From death many a one:
For, in my mind, of all mankind
I love but you alone."
HE.
"Yet take good hede; for ever I drede
That ye could not sustain
The thorny ways, the deep vall-eys,
The snow, the frost, the rain,
The cold, the heat: for dry or wet,
We must lodge on the plain;
And, us above, none other roof
But a brake bush or twain:
Which soon should grieve you, I believe:
And ye would gladly than
That I had to the green wood go,
Alone, a banished man.
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