And when this master, that this magic wrought, Saw it was time, he clapp’d his handes two, And farewell, all the revel is y-go.* *gone, removed And yet remov’d they never out of the house, While they saw all the sightes marvellous; But in his study, where his bookes be, They satte still, and no wight but they three. To him this master called his squier, And said him thus, “May we go to supper? Almost an hour it is, I undertake, Since I you bade our supper for to make, When that these worthy men wente with me Into my study, where my bookes be.” “Sir,” quoth this squier, “when it liketh you. It is all ready, though ye will right now.” “Go we then sup,” quoth he, “as for the best; These amorous folk some time must have rest.” At after supper fell they in treaty What summe should this master’s guerdon* be, *reward To remove all the rockes of Bretagne, And eke from Gironde <16> to the mouth of Seine. He made it strange,* and swore, so God him save, *a matter of Less than a thousand pound he would not have, difficulty* *Nor gladly for that sum he would not gon.* *see note <17>* Aurelius with blissful heart anon Answered thus; “Fie on a thousand pound! This wide world, which that men say is round, I would it give, if I were lord of it. This bargain is full-driv’n, for we be knit;* *agreed Ye shall be payed truly by my troth. But looke, for no negligence or sloth, Ye tarry us here no longer than to-morrow.” “Nay,” quoth the clerk, *“have here my faith to borrow.”* *I pledge my To bed is gone Aurelius when him lest, faith on it* And well-nigh all that night he had his rest, What for his labour, and his hope of bliss, His woeful heart *of penance had a liss.* *had a respite from suffering* Upon the morrow, when that it was day, Unto Bretagne they took the righte way, Aurelius and this magician beside, And be descended where they would abide: And this was, as the bookes me remember, The colde frosty season of December. Phoebus wax’d old, and hued like latoun,* *brass That in his hote declinatioun Shone as the burned gold, with streames* bright; *beams But now in Capricorn adown he light, Where as he shone full pale, I dare well sayn. The bitter frostes, with the sleet and rain, Destroyed have the green in every yard. *courtyard, garden Janus sits by the fire with double beard, And drinketh of his bugle horn the wine: Before him stands the brawn of tusked swine And “nowel”* crieth every lusty man *Noel <18> Aurelius, in all that ev’r he can, Did to his master cheer and reverence, And prayed him to do his diligence To bringe him out of his paines smart, Or with a sword that he would slit his heart. This subtle clerk such ruth* had on this man, *pity