3 'If well you love me, Rodingham,
I'm sure so do I thee;
I love you well as any man,
Save the king's fair bodye.'
4 'I love you well, my queen, my dame,
'T is truth that I do tell;
And for to lye a night with you,
The salt seas I would sail.'
5 'Away, away, O Rodingham!
You are both stark and stoor;
Would you defile the king's own bed,
And make his queen a whore?
6 'To-morrow you'd be taken sure,
And like a traitor slain,
And I'd be burned at a stake,
Altho I be the queen.'
7 He then steppd out at her room-door,
All in an angry mood,
Untill he met a leper-man,
Just by the hard way-side.
8 He intoxicate the leper-man,
With liquors very sweet,
And gave him more and more to drink,
Until he fell asleep.
9 He took him in his arms two,
And carried him along,
Till he came to the queen's own bed,
And there he laid him down.
10 He then steppd out of the queen's bower,
As swift as any roe,
Till he came to the very place
Where the king himself did go.
11 The king said unto Rodingham,
What news have you to me?
He said, Your queen's a false woman,
As I did plainly see.
12 He hastend to the queen's chamber,
So costly and so fine,
Until he came to the queen's own bed,
Where the leper-man was lain.