Give to me, in kindness, a little drink and bread.

’Tis long since I have had it, and now three days I’m fasting,

The while the griffin bore me, and full a hundred miles was hither hasting.”

[81]

Then answered one of the maidens: “Our lot it so hath been,

That we our wonted cup-bearers never here have seen;

Neither our lordly steward, who should food to us be giving.”

Still they praised God’s goodness; altho’ their years were few, they were wisely living.

[82]

A search they soon were making for roots and herbage wild,