This even to win home again if it be too late, For the days be now full short the while, And ’tis hither to Nimmegen two great mile, And now ten o’ the clock, or well more, Heark, child, and if ye may not give o’er Ere by broad day, as it seemeth you, Ye may win home as ye would fain do, Bide there the night, I would be the more at ease, And go sleep at thine aunt’s, my sister, if it please; She will not deny you for a night but one. I had liefer that, than ye should over stile and stone Come homewards darkling and alone all wholly; For the road is of stout knaves none too free. And ye be a maid, but young and fair thereto, And like to be accosted. MARY Eme, as it pleaseth you, I will nought other do than as ye tell. UNCLE Greet me your aunt, my sister, and farewell. Buy what we lack by weight and measure true. MARY I will, good eme; adieu. UNCLE Dear niece, adieu. God’s grace be ever thy company.— Lord God, why doth my heart so heavy lie? Is it that the land so sorely is distraught? Or that my niece may in some snare be caught? Stay, whence this heaviness? ’Tis strange to think upon. Scarce had the maiden from me gone It came o’er my spirits, how I cannot tell. I fear with her or me ’twill not go well. Would I had kept her with me at home. ’Tis madness at their will to let roam Young maids or women through the countryside. The knavery of this world is deep and wide. ¶ How Mary was shamefully bespoken of her aunt. Thus is Mary departed from her uncle and come unto Nimmegen, where she did buy all that was needful for her or her uncle. And on the selfsame day that she was come to Nimmegen her aunt had fallen out with four or five of her gossips concerning the Duke Adolf who had done into prison the old Duke his father. So that she was the rather mad or a raging she-devil than a Christian wight; for she held of the side of the young Duke, and after did destroy herself whenas she learned that the old Duke was made quit of prison by the hand of the chastelain of Grave, as ye will hereafter learn. Mary, seeing that it grew to evening when she had done all those things for the which she had come to Nimmegen, said unto herself thus: