To grace his sports a courtly train
Of gallant peers attend;
And with their loud and cheerful cries
The hills and valleys rend.
Through the deep forest swift they pass,
Through woods and thickets wild;
When down within a lonely dell
They found a new-born child;
All in a scarlet kercher laid
Of silk so fine and thin:
A golden mantle wrapt him round
Pinn'd with a silver pin.
The sudden sight surpris'd them all;
The courtiers gather'd round;
They look, they call, the mother seek;
No mother could be found.
At length the king himself drew near,
And as he gazing stands,
The pretty babe look'd up and smil'd,
And stretch'd his little hands.
Now, by the rood, king Pepin says,
This child is passing fair:
I wot he is of gentle blood;
Perhaps some prince's heir.
Go bear him home unto my court
With all the care ye may:
Let him be christen'd Valentine,
In honour of this day:
And look me out some cunning nurse;
Well nurtur'd let him be:
Nor aught be wanting that becomes
A bairn of high degree.
They look'd him out a cunning nurse,
And nurtur'd well was he;
Nor aught was wanting that became
A bairn of high degree.
Thus grew the little Valentine,
Belov'd of king and peers;
And show'd in all he spake or did
A wit beyond his years.