With a view to seizing the Abbot’s wealth, the King put three questions to him, the penalty for failing to answer them being beheading. The Abbot received three weeks’ grace in which to discover the replies, but the wisest doctors could not assist him:
Away rode the Abbot all sad at that word;
And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenforde;
But never a doctor there was so wise,
That could with his learning an answer devise.
However, as in the Kandian version, the shepherd came to his assistance, and took his place on the appointed day, robed as the Abbot, whose features resembled his, and accompanied by the usual train of servants and monks.
Now welcome, sire abbot, the king he did say,
’Tis well thou’rt come back to keepe thy day;
For and if thou canst answer my questions three,
Thy life and thy living both saved shall bee.