“This we further bid you, my good and well-born knights:
E’en though, with toil the hardest, every warrior fights,
Let not those homeless maidens be by you forsaken;
Until the strife is settled, let not their hope and trust in you be shaken.”
[1162]
Their faith then freely pledging, each gave to the king his hand;
And all the best among them swore that home and land
They nevermore would look on, but still afar would tarry,
Until again to their homesteads they from the Norman land the maids should carry.
[1163]