Old Ballad.
XVIII.—VALENTINE AND URSINE.
1. When Flora 'gins to deck the fields
With colors fresh and fine,
Then holy clerks their matins sing
To good St. Valentine.
2. The King of France, that morning fair,
He would a-hunting ride,
To Artois Forest prancing forth
In all his princely pride.
3. To grace his sports a courtly train
Of gallant peers attend,
And with their loud and cheerful cries
The hills and valleys rend.
4. Through the deep forest swift they pass,
Through woods and thickets wild,
When down within a lonely dell
They found a new-born child.
5. All in a scarlet kerchief laid,
Of silk so fine and thin,
A golden mantle wrapt him round,
Pinned with a silver pin.
6. The sudden sight surprised them all,
The courtiers gathered round;
They look, they call, the mother seek—
No mother could be found.