"--
"To Drayton Basset wouldst thou go,
Fro the place where thou dost stand?
The next pair of gallows thou comest unto
Turn in upon thy right hand."--
"That is an unready way," said our king,
"Thou doest but jest, I see;
Now show me out the nearest way,
And I pray thee wend with me."--
"Away with a vengeance!" quoth the tanner:
"I hold thee out of thy wit:
All day have I ridden on Brock my mare,
And I am fasting yet."--
"Go with me down to Drayton Basset,
No dainties we will spare;
All day shalt thou eat and drink of the best,
And I will pay thy fare."--
"Gram-ercy for nothing," the tanner replied,
"Thou payest no fare of mine:
I trow I've more nobles in my purse,
Than thou hast pence in thine."--
"God give thee joy of them," said the king,
"And send them well to prief."--
The tanner would fain have been away,
For he weened he had been a thief.
"What art thou," he said, "thou fine fell-ow?
Of thee I am in great fear,
For the clothes thou wearest upon thy back
Might beseem a lord to wear."--
"I never stole them," quoth our king,
"I tell you, sir, by the rood.
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