You might there view the Saint, who in sable array'd is, Coercing the Monarch away from the Ladies; His right hand has hold of his Majesty's jerkin, His left shows the door, and he seems to say, "Sir King, Your most faithful Commons won't hear of your shirking! Quit your tea, and return to your Barclai and Perkyn, Or, by Jingo,[9] ere morning, no longer alive, a Sad victim you'll lie to your love for Elgiva!" No farther to treat Of this ungallant feat, What I mean to do now is succinctly to paint One particular fact in the life of the Saint, Which somehow, for want of due care, I presume, Has escaped the researches of Rapin and Hume, In recounting a miracle, both of them men, who a Great deal fall short of Jaques Bishop of Genoa, An Historian who likes deeds like these to record-- See his _Aurea Legenda_, by ~Wynkyn de Worde~. St. Dunstan stood again in his tower, Alembic, crucible, all complete; He had been standing a good half hour, And now he utter'd the words of power, And call'd to his Broomstick to bring him a seat. The words of power!--and what be they To which e'en Broomsticks bow and obey?-- Why,--'twere uncommonly hard to say, As the prelate I named has recorded none of them, What they may be, But I know they are three, And ABRACADABRA, I take it, is one of them: For I'm told that most Cabalists use that identical Word, written thus in what they call "a Pentacle." [Illustration: Pentacle] However that be, You'll doubtless agree It signifies little to you or to me, As not being dabblers in Grammarye; Still, it must be confess'd, for a Saint to repeat Such language aloud is scarcely discreet; For, as Solomon hints to folks given to chatter, "A bird of the air may carry the matter;" And in sooth, From my youth I remember a truth Insisted on much in my earlier years, To wit, "Little Pitchers have very long ears!" Now, just such a "Pitcher" as those I allude to Was outside the door, which his "ears" appeared glued to. Peter, the Lay-brother, meagre and thin, Five feet one in his sandal-shoon, While the saint thought him sleeping, Was listening and peeping, And watching his master the whole afternoon.